The '21' Cookbook: Recipes & Lore from New York's Fabled Restaurant - Michael Lomonaco - Hardcover

The Speakeasy That Became a Restaurant That Became a Legend The First World War (theGreatWar, as they called it then) changed attitudes and lifestyles in America almost as profoundly as it changed the geography of Europe. Hemlines were up. Inhibitions were down. Within two years of war's end, a new decade was ready to roar. The '20s version of the Moral Majority, however, had other ideas. The Eighteenth Amendment, known then as the Volstead Act, became the law of the land on January 17, 1920. Prohibition, which was supposed to end drunkenness, debauchery, and corruption, promptly made law-breakers of millions of people. Estimates of the number of illegal drinking establishments that sprang up in New York City alone was as high as 32,000--more than twice the number of legal pre-Prohibition drinking places. Overnight fortunes were made by catering to this insatiable thirst, a fact not lost on cousins Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns, two collegians who were struggling to make ends meet. Their first speakeasy, The Red Head, sold dollar flasks that customers hid in their coat pockets or poured into teacups, the source of the speakeasy nickname "cup joint." But the atmosphere at Jack and Charlie's had little in common with either a tearoom or the average gin mill. Instead, it felt like one big fraternity party, with live music, gay blades, and liberated flappers doing the Black Bottom and Charleston. The clubby feeling at each of the "speaks" Jack and Charlie ran before finding their permanent home at 21 West 52nd Street was no fluke. Jack made a conscious effort to "recruit" customers from the Ivy League colleges and to create an environment where the sons of America's first families would feel at home. Prices were stratospheric right from the start. But customers got full measure for what they paid. No rotgut hootch. No bathtub gin. Jack and Charlie went directly to Europe and made arrangements to have the likes of Ballantine's Scotch and Hine Cognac smuggled in. They even hired Kaiser Wilhelm's former chef to run the kitchen. It wasn't only undergraduates who rose to the bait. Writers, artists, movie stars, and adventurers quickly staked claim to the red-and-white-check-clothed tables in Jack and Charlie's barroom. Robert Ruark, Frank Buck, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway swapped tales about the ones that got away. Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, and Myrna Loy commuted from the coast. '21's famous hidden wine cellar--never penetrated by Revenue agents--was one of former New York Mayor James "Gentleman Jim" Walker's favorite spots for clandestine evenings with his mistress. It was at '21's front door that Clare Boothe Luce reportedly offered to step aside for Dorothy Parker, saying "age before beauty," to which Parker responded, over her shoulder, "pearls before swine." Another evening, humorist Robert Benchley, after closing the bar as he often did, hailed a man in uniform out front: "Call me a cab," instructed Benchley. To which the man replied: "Sir, I am an admiral." "Fine, then call me a battleship," Benchley retorted. Michael's '21' Burger (Serves 4) This is a classic open-face bar burger, a carnivore's delight. Allow extra grilling time for this outsize knife-and-fork burger. The combination of two different beef cuts produces a flavorful juicy burger. Chef's Tip: Resist the temptation to press the burgers with a spatula while they are on thLomonaco, Michael is the author of 'The '21' Cookbook: Recipes & Lore from New York's Fabled Restaurant - Michael Lomonaco - Hardcover' with ISBN 9780385475709 and ISBN 0385475705.