November Meetup: 21 Club and the Bull and Bear

Before the holidays arrive, we're going to explore a couple of classic Old New York venues. We'll start things off at the 21 Club, a former speakeasy that has been a favorite spot for US presidents, celebrities, sports stars and New York power brokers for decades now.

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21 was opened in its present location in 1930 by Jack Kreindler and Charlie Berns. But Kreindler and Berns had run other speakeasies throughout prohibition in Greenwich Village before opening the Puncheon on West 49th Street. Unlike other speakeasies in New York, the Puncheon served only the finest food, wine and liquor and enforced a strict dress code. Patrons had to be both well-dressed and well-behaved, a tradition that continues to this day.

But the townhouse the Puncheon was in didn't survive the construction of Rockefeller Center. The speakeasy closed after a raucous New Year's Eve party in 1929, but soon reopened a few blocks away at its present location. The original iron gate from the front door of the Puncheon remains at 21 to this day.

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As experienced speakeasy owners, Kreindler and Berns made sure to do things right this time around to avoid raids by police and federal agents. They bought the townhouse for the new club, to avoid the wrecking ball, as well as the one next door, the better to create a hidden wine and liquor warehouse in the basement of that home.

If the club was raided, buttons were pressed in the vestibule that would collapse the bar shelves sending liquor and wine bottles down a chute to the basement. The bottles would break, alcohol would be drained through rocks and sand and the feds would have no evidence.

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After prohibition ended, 21 became perhaps the most elegant and celebrated eatery in New York. Every US president since Harry Truman has eaten here, making 21 known as the New York White House. Chelsea Clinton's 21st birthday party was held here. Humphrey Bogart was a regular at Table 30 in the Bar Room. Richard Nixon, Jimmy Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor all kept bottles of wine in 21's famous wine cellar.

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We'll meet in the Bar 21 and Lounge space (above). This is not the original "Bar Room" which is the main dining room at 21 and the most historic part of the venue. If you would like to explore the Bar Room (below), you'll need to be dressed up: jackets for guys. Otherwise, the dress code for the bar and lounge is just no sneakers. If they have staff available, they will show us the historic wine cellar in small groups.

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After spending most of the afternoon at 21, we'll repair to the bar at the Bull & Bear Steakhouse (http://bullandbearsteakhouse.com/at-the-bar/) in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. This most famous of New York hotels was recently acquired and is scheduled for a complete renovation next year. Who knows if the Bull & Bear will survive that, or what it will look like after that, so we'd best see it now.

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The Bull & Bear dates to 1931, when the Waldorf Astoria opened at its current Park Avenue location. It was then known as the Men's Bar, featuring a bronze statue of a bull and a bear from the men's bar at the hotel's original location, which the Empire State Building currently occupies. In both incarnations, the hotel's Men's Bar was where New York's industrialists, businessmen and stock brokers got deals done. The Men's Bar became known as the Bull & Bear among its patrons. The hotel made it official in 1960 when it opened the Bull & Bear Steakhouse in the space, with the famous statues still prominently displayed behind the famous 4-sided bar.

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From the early 1950s onward, a power broker of a different sort held court here: famous New York organized crime figure Frank Costello, who started coming to the Waldorf Astoria bar daily on the advice of his psychiatrist that he needed to meet and mingle with normal, non-mafia people. Costello set up shop in his own corner of the bar nearly every day for the better part of 20 years.

Today, the Bull & Bear makes most short lists of the best bars in New York. It's been the setting for movies and TV shows as well as the Fox Business News Happy Hour show.

We'll get to the Bull & Bear in time for its 5 p.m. opening. Once again, let's stick to an elegant casual dress code for this meetup. No shorts, T-shirts, ripped jeans, sneakers or athletic shoes, or baseball caps. If you wish to explore the historic Bar Room at 21, then wear a jacket.