1930 | Restaurants
Restaurants
Jack & Charlie's "21" Club opens in January at 21 West 52nd Street, New York. Restaurateur John Karl "Jack" Kriendler, 31, and his accountant cousin Charles "Charlie" Berns, 28, have been operating speakeasy saloons and have in effect been subsidized by the Rockefellers, who have purchased their lease at 42 West 49th Street in order to clear the block for construction of Rockefeller Center. Kriendler and Berns store their illicit liquor behind secret walls and devise an arrangement that permits the bartender to push a button at the first sign of a raid by federal Prohibition enforcement agents, tilting the shelves of the bar to send all bottles down a chute to smash in the cellar and thus destroy evidence the agents need for a conviction. They will prosper at the new location and acquire the building at 19 West 52nd Street in 1935 as they attract patrons with a club-like atmosphere.