![]() The location for our second dinner was quickly decided for us. The hidden, speakeasy-era basement at Bill’s Gay ‘90s. But at least we had given the joint a proper send-off. My heart hurt all the more to know Bill’s contained all these New York artifacts. ![]() ![]() And, in the basement, a false brick wall still opened onto a secret room where liquor was stashed during Prohibition. The walls on that floor featured an old stained-glass, pre-Prohibition Pabst sign and a framed caricature of showman Florenz Ziegfeld. The Hoffman House held up the west side of Madison Square from 1964 to 1915 and was the last word in urbane, Gilded Age luxury.Ī bar on the top floor of Bill’s once stood at the final location of Delmonico’s, the most famous restaurant in New York history. The ornate swinging doors on the first floor, made of intricately carved wood and stained glass, once hung at the entrance of the bar at the old Hoffman House, one of the most famous hotels ever to grace Manhattan. I learned that Bill’s held more secret treasures than I had previously imagined. This was a treat, as I’d never seen anything beyond the ground and second floor. The swinging doors to the first-floor bar at Bill’s Gay ‘90s, which once hung in The Hoffman House.Īt the end of the evening, the owner of Bill’s gave us a tour of the four-story townhouse, which dated from the 1850s and which Bill’s had occupied since the 1920s, when the bar opened as a speakeasy.
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