21 Club

The story

The 21 Club kept a hidden wine cellar stocked with the private collections of celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. It began in Greenwich Village in 1922 as a small speakeasy called the Red Head, run by cousins Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns. By the time it settled at 21 West 52nd Street, it had become a place that hosted nearly every US president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Out front, 37 jockey statues — many painted in the racing colors of horses owned by patrons — marked ninety years of American life until COVID-19 closed the door in 2020.