Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Holiday Inn Midtown, NYC:  Left around noon today and took a cab to “21” on W. 52nd Street.  The famous 21 Club for lunch.  We chose lunch so we could possibly tour the “hidden” wine cellar.  They have private functions there in the evenings, so the only opportunity for the tour would be at lunch.  After lunch the wine cellar attendant took us on a private tour.  This “speakeasy” was really popular during prohibition.  There was a handle at the bar which, when pulled, would collapse all the shelves of liquor behind the bar and they would drop down a chute into the sewers.  Left there and walked down 5th Avenue and stopped at Trump Tower and walked around there for a while.  Then walked up to 57th and took the bus back to 57th and 9th.  Picked up my jacket at the dry cleaners.  Then we looked at a studio apartment at The Geneva which is next door to our hotel.  Really cute and much bigger than we thought.  Back to our hotel and put on some comfortable shoes and then took the 9th Avenue bus down to the West Village.  Bought some cup cakes at the Magnolia Bakery and sat in a park and shared one and took two more back to the hotel with us.  Took the 10th Avenue bus back uptown to our hotel.  Busy day.  Only into the mid-70s today.         

The historic 21 Club

The ceiling of the Bar Room dining area has toys hanging from the ceiling--donated by celebrity patrons.

The wine cellar

Private stock of some patrons--like Liz Taylor

The private dining room in the wine cellar.

This is the secret door to the wine cellar.  It looks like an alcove.  To unlock it, they insert a metal rod into a hole and shove it and it opens.  This opened into the basement of the townhouse next door to 21 back in the day.  They paid the owner for the use of this area.  This is where all the action was.

The pink marble waterfall in the atrium of Trump Tower.


Carrie Bradshaw's "stoop" from "Sex and The City"