21: Every Day Was New Year's Eve
Description
Long before velvet ropes and celebrity chefs defined New York dining, there was 21. In this memoir, Peter Kriendler — younger brother of co-founder Jack Kriendler — pulls back the curtain on the legendary club that started as a Greenwich Village speakeasy during Prohibition and grew into what many called America's most storied restaurant.
Kriendler takes readers from the club's bootlegging-era beginnings through its move to West 52nd Street, where it became the unofficial clubhouse for power brokers in business, politics, and Hollywood. The book is packed with firsthand stories spanning the Great Depression through the Camelot years and beyond, including run-ins with movie stars, political heavyweights, and the occasional literary dispute that only a room full of regulars with something to hide could produce.
Part hospitality history, part New York City time capsule, 21: Every Day Was New Year's Eve is a must-read for anyone interested in Prohibition-era nightlife, classic American restaurant lore, or the inside stories of the people who shaped 20th-century Manhattan society.
Kriendler takes readers from the club's bootlegging-era beginnings through its move to West 52nd Street, where it became the unofficial clubhouse for power brokers in business, politics, and Hollywood. The book is packed with firsthand stories spanning the Great Depression through the Camelot years and beyond, including run-ins with movie stars, political heavyweights, and the occasional literary dispute that only a room full of regulars with something to hide could produce.
Part hospitality history, part New York City time capsule, 21: Every Day Was New Year's Eve is a must-read for anyone interested in Prohibition-era nightlife, classic American restaurant lore, or the inside stories of the people who shaped 20th-century Manhattan society.