Drink Up at These Repeal Day Bashes
Post-Prohibition drinking photo via Wikimedia Commons
Not that we’ve ever needed an excuse to tie one on, but there’s an especially good reason this weekend. December 5 marks the 82nd anniversary of the end of Prohibition, the day the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1933. Known as Repeal Day, the event was, of course, celebrated with liquor-drenched revelry—and the party’s still going. Didn’t make the RSVP cutoff date for the annual LUPEC party at the Gibson House? No worries; plenty of other options await. Here’s where to get zozzled, ’30s-style, this weekend.
Wink & Nod / Photograph by Mariel Tenney for Best of Boston 2015
Carrie Nation
You can’t have a Repeal Day party without Carrie Nation, the Beacon Hill bar (complete with backroom speakeasy) whose entire existence thumbs its nose at the grande dame of the Temperance Movement, alcohol’s enemy number one. Back in the day, Carrie Nation used to smash up saloons with a hatchet. We suggest you leave your cleavers at home, but get smashed anyway, at Carrie Nation’s Repeal Day Party, where they’re slinging drinks made with Old Forester, America’s oldest bourbon (first bottled and marketed in 1870). If you want to keep the party going, just head next door to the 21st Amendment—the beloved neighborhood bar named after the very legislation that vanquished the booze-banning Volstead Act.
Free to attend, December 5, 6-11 p.m., Carrie Nation Cocktail Club, 11 Beacon St., Boston, 617-227-3100, carrienationcocktailclub.com. RSVP at Eventbrite.
North 26 Restaurant & Bar
This weekend, Cambridge’s Herzog Cocktail School invites you to “channel your inner flapper” at this party—which duals as a cocktail demo. Herzog’s founder Brian Hoefling will be serving up two Prohibition-era drinks: the Scofflaw (a mix of bourbon/whiskey, dry vermouth, lemon juice, grenadine, and bitters) and the Hanky Panky (gin and sweet vermouth with a few dashes of Fernet).
$25, December 5, 6-8 p.m., North 26 Restaurant & Bar, 26 North St., Boston, 617-557-3640, millenniumhotels.com. RSVP at Eventbrite.
Wink & Nod
Our favorite subterranean South End bar tips its hat (and glasses) to the past with music, complimentary apps, and—obviously—thematically appropriate hooch. On December 5, they’ll be pouring Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition, which pays tribute to Captain William McCoy, who smuggled the Scotch whisky into America during the Prohibition. But this is no scene for schlubs: Leave your brunch pajamas at home and spiff it up a little (“top hat and monocle not required but it would be awesome,” Wink & Nod suggest). In true speakeasy fashion, you can’t just show up and expect to get in—you gotta RSVP.
Free to attend, December 5, noon-3 p.m., Wink & Nod, 3 Appleton St., Boston, 617-482-0117, winkandnod.com. RSVP at Eventbrite.
