At the 21 Club, breaking the law became a remarkably civilized affair. Opened on January 1, 1930, at 21 West 52nd Street, Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns’s celebrated speakeasy offered the pleasures of a fine restaurant with the added excitement of forbidden drinks. Behind its iron gate, an evening out carried the delicious possibility of becoming a story worth telling—provided you knew when to keep that story to yourself.
Discretion was supported by ingenious engineering. After a raid in 1930, the owners commissioned camouflaged doors, concealed chutes, quick-release bar shelves, and a secret wine cellar. These arrangements were designed to make incriminating bottles disappear while the evening’s respectable company maintained its composure. Drinking here required more than good liquor; it required good timing. The hospitality depended on an unusual balance: making guests feel entirely at ease while remaining ready for an unwelcome knock.
The celebrated speakeasy offered the pleasures of a fine restaurant with the added excitement of forbidden drinks.
This was the sophisticated, cocktail-fueled New York that Dashiell Hammett evoked in The Thin Man, set in December 1932. Nick Charles begins the story at a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, placing readers in the same neighborhood where “21” turned illicit hospitality into an art. The setting invites us to imagine quick conversation, raised eyebrows, and another round arriving just as the plot thickens.
Small, stemmed coupettes provide the perfect finishing touch to that picture: graceful bowls, chilled cocktails, and just enough room for a drink worth savoring between wisecracks. Their appeal lies partly in their restraint. A modest pour encourages an attentive sip, while the delicate stem and balanced bowl lend ceremony to the simplest cocktail. At home, that same glass can turn an ordinary evening into an occasion, whether the conversation concerns a mystery or merely what to make for dinner.
When repeal arrived in December 1933, “21” could finally serve openly, but its speakeasy beginnings supplied an enduring mystique. The secret cellar became a celebrated relic, and the little cocktail glass remained an elegant invitation to linger.
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