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Without question ‘21’ Club is a first class house of communication and is my kind of place. There is always someone at the next table, across the room or among those coming or going that you know or know of. The entire scene echoes images of the great New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno, a ‘21’ regular who drew on the flavor of the diners and imbibers who enriched the scene and who felt so comfortable in the “numbers” ambiance.
Of the many drawings and paintings I’ve done of ‘21’ over the years, I’d like to cite a favorite of mine: an autumn mid-afternoon, a post lunch exterior with a flushed faced President Richard Nixon departing the Club for his purring limo curbside. Due to the alphabetical storage system in the celebrated ’21’ Club wine cellar, my personal selection of wines are reclining in the bin next to Nixon’s.
LeRoy Neiman
The ‘21’ Club has held a special place in Meigher family traditions for several generations. I well remember my first visit to ‘21’, when my dad and my uncle Bill Connor “toasted” (with Manhattans and a Mickey Mouse) my 8th birthday after a Yankee game. We’d only been seated for a few minutes when my boyhood hero, Mickey Mantle, walked in for dinner with Whitey Ford. Wow – even at 8 years old, I knew this was a pretty cool place to be.
Years later, while I was a publisher at the old Time Inc., I became a “regular” at ‘21’. I would purposefully arrive earlier than my luncheon companions, just so I could chew-the-fat with Pete Kriendler and listen carefully to his sound life advice, and his marvelous tales of past generations. Pete was the real deal – a genuine man’s man. He had huge mits, with a smile to match and they immediately enveloped you into his legendary “family saloon”. One day, totally out of the blue, Pete asked me how my mother, Denise Todd, was doing. I reeled as Pete recalled playing tennis in the 1930s with my mom, “Denny”, and Bud Abbott (of Abbott and Costello!), Pete looked me dead in the eye and said, “She had great gams, kid.” I can’t say if I was more embarrassed or shocked, but I sure was thrilled that he’d even remembered. Go Mom!
More recently, both of our daughters, Elizabeth and Amanda, celebrated (and then some!) their 21st birthdays respectively with parties for their friends from school and college. So they, too, are now happily a part of the ever inclusive ‘21’ family. And all of us sing along (sort of) every Christmas Eve with the Salvation Army Bad, embracing yet another slice of ‘21’s rich tradition and heritage. As Pete, or Charlie, or Jack probably said once or twice back in the beginning: “It’s a pretty swell saloon.” Little did they know.
Christopher Meigher
Pete Kriendler was a guest of my wife, Mickie, and me during a ten day trip to Europe in 1984. Several members of the international Coca-Cola system’s leadership were part of the traveling group. After a few days at the Ritz in Paris, we attended the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo.
A few weeks after we returned to the U.S., Pete gave a party for the group in an upstairs dining room at ‘21’. We were all having a good time, and during the course of the meal, Charles Millard, who was the head of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York, said to Pete (who was charging $2.00 for a 6 ½ ounce bottle of Coca-Cola): “That’s an outrageous price, Pete.”
Pete responded: “Charlie, we consider Coca-Cola to be so dear and so special, we did not want to demean the brand by selling it too cheaply.” We applauded Pete … and had a great evening!
As I look back over the last 60 years, Mickie and I, and now our grown children and grandchildren, can count many happy milestones which were celebrated – and continue to be celebrated -- in that special place.
Don Keough
If ‘21’ were open only for dinner-- not lunch, there is a real possibility NFL games (including Giants and Jets) would still be carried only on radio. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration but the late Pete Rozelle negotiated many of our early League-wide TV contracts with sports network heads such as CBS's Bill MacPhail and Roone Arledge of ABC over long (did I stay "long?") lunches at ‘21’ in the 60s and 70s. After they made their handshake deals, Pete would graciously offer to charge those meals (both food AND drink in those days) to his house account which only was appropriate since he had just taken millions in TV fees from the Big Shots at the networks. I know he was not the only one but… Pete often referred to ‘21’ as his "back office" for all the business he did there. Some back office!
Joe Browne, Executive Vice President, NFL
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