The famed gossip columnist Walter Winchell once called the Stork Club on 53rd Street near Fifth Avenue, “New York’s New Yorkiest place.” Opened in 1929, the Stork Club became the hub of New York society and attracted movie stars, aristocrats, showgirls, and business moguls. Money, power, and glamour mixed at the Stork Club as in no other place in New York, and its air of exclusivity made it all the more appealing.
“The Stork club’s drinking…has been drinking in the grand manner, guzzling with a panache of chic and elegance, a hoisting of crystal chalices in the secure knowledge that the wit, beauty, chivalry, and weather of the world were doing the identical thing at adjacent tables, each one was a location of distinction and reserved for names that make news,” wrote the noted author, scholar, socialite, fashion plate, and bon vivant Lucius Beebe (dubbed “Luscious Lucius” by Winchell) in the purple prose that characterized his Stork Club Bar Book (1946). Indeed, among the legions of the rich and famous to frequent the Stork Club were Grace Kelly, Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, the Kennedys…and Sterling Cooper’s own Don Draper and his stunning wife, Betty.
When comedian Jimmy Barrett seals a deal for his new television show with ABC, the Stork Club hosts the celebration. Since Don helped Jimmy and his wife, Bobbi, who is also Jimmy’s business manager and Don’s paramour, get this big break, Jimmy invites him to the party. Smitten with Betty, Jimmy finds a private moment with her while their spouses and an ABC executive talk shop. When Jimmy suggests in no uncertain terms that he believes Don and Bobbi are having an affair, Betty walks away in disgust.
For nearly four decades, the Stork Club was the hub of New York's “café society,” a term Beebe coined to describe the elite who frequented the city's popular night spots. To toast Jimmy's future success, we offer the Stork Club Cocktail.
FROM THE STORK CLUB BAR BOOK BY LUCIUS BEEBE (RINEHART AND CO., 1946)
NOTE: This cocktail also makes a wonderful punch. To serve, multiply ingredients and pour into a punch bowl over a block of ice.
Dash of lime juice Juice of half an orange
Dash of triple sec
11⁄2 ounces gin
Dash of Angostura bitters
YIELD: 1 DRINK
