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| The exterior of the 21 Club Photo credit: NY Magazine |
To thwart Prohibition agents, Jack & Charlie kept the Club’s liquor in the basement of the adjacent building. Accessible through a brick wall door, the Club’s concealed wine cellar is now one of the most coveted private dining rooms in the world.
Bogie and Bacall had their first date at the “21 Club”, JFK dined there on the evening of his inauguration, and by virtue of the celebrities and captains of industry who frequented the “21 Club”, the place is said to have spurned the concept of “the power lunch”. Celebrities still maintain their favourite tables in the Club's downstairs bar and you can see a map of the room here.
Every inch of the ceiling in the downstairs bar is decorated with sporting and industrial memorabilia donated by politicians and athletes alike, and in 2011, the Club launched Jack & Charlie’s Ale on tap so that everyone can toast the cousins who built a legend.
According to the recipe and photo anthology entitled I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes, the Bloody Mary was invented in the 1930s at the 21 Club by then bartender Henry Zbikiewicz. “Harry” (as he was known to the regulars) amped up the rather pedestrian vodka & tomato juice by covering the bottom of a cocktail shaker with four large dashes of salt, two dashes each of black pepper and cayenne pepper, a layer of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of lemon juice, and some crushed ice. Two ounces each of vodka and tomato juice followed, then the delicious mixture was shaken, strained and poured into a cold glass. At the height of the drink’s popularity, the 21 Club was serving up to 150 Bloody Marys a day.
Over the years, mixologists have played around with the original recipe, adding tabasco sauce, horseradish, celery salt, and any number of edible garnishes. And so beloved is the cocktail to this day, that you can even find restaurants and bars dotted across New York’s five boroughs that offer fussier patrons a “build your own Bloody Mary” option on their brunch menus.
