The 21 Club

Standing guard on the balcony along its iconic wrought iron gates stands 35 multi coloured ornamental jockeys.

For those of you in the know, this will need no explaining.

I am of course talking about the most famous speakeasy of New York.

The 21 Club.

Founders Jack and Charlie opened their gates on the 1st of January 1930.

Prohibition forced Jack and Charlie to hide their liquor. After an infamous raid in the 1930's they employed Frank Buchanan to design a system of camouflaged doors, invisible chutes, revolving bars and a secret wine cellar. 

The cellar was actually part of No. 19 next door, so staff could honestly say there was no alcohol on the premises. It housed 2,000 cases of wine, including the private collections of Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Aristotle Onassis.

It worked - they were never caught again.

The 21 Club is steeped in fascinating history, a place where you really wished the walls could talk.

Table 30 is Bogie’s Corner, or the Humphrey Bogart–Lauren Bacall table (Where he proposed).

The 21 Club has appeared in many films and the most frequent request is for Table 3, where Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko tells Bud Fox to get the steak tartare (Gekko doesn’t eat anything as, according to him, “Lunch is for wimps”), hands him a fat check and welcomes him to big-time investing. 

This year we mark 100 years since prohibition and raise a glass to our collaboration with WM Brown Magazine for

The 21 Club Special Edition Cloth.

This lightweight Worsted Flannel, is spun from ultra-fine Merino wool, milled in Fox Brothers tradition to achieve a soft hand feel and drape - it is going to be an instant hit.