"A beefsteak"

[Alice Faber]

Gregory {Greg} Downing said:
>I figured Barry might mention this, so I didn't bother, but I haven't
>noticed it yet and want to toss the clipping.
>
>Someone gave me an article from the NY Post that seemed amusing. It's from
>p. 22 of the Monday 5 Feb 2001 issue, in the column "Metro Gnome," bylined
>Gersh Kuntzman. The article claims that there was a NYC phenomenon or
>tradition back in the first 1/2 of the 20th cent. called "a beefsteak,"
>supposedly a huge meal where meats were served in huge quantities for a
>fixed price, often by a social or political club. I'd not heard of this (and
>I've lived in NYC from the early 1980s to the present), and I don't see it
>under "beefsteak" in DARE or RHHDAS. The article cites Jospeh Mitchell's
>1939 story "All You Can Hold for Five Bucks." It also gives other details
>which interested parties can look up -- I'm sure the article is in the
>Post's online archive.
>
>What I wonder is: Was this really such a well-known tradition? Or is it
>something that is being hyped by the NYC restaurant that apparently held a
>revival version of a "beefsteak" on Tuesday evening, according to the
>article? Just curious. If no one knows -- carry on, as you were.

Well, a google search on "beefsteak dinner" returns over 4,000 hits. At
least on the first few pages (40-50 items) of actual "beefsteak dinner"
references (there were some dinner menus with beefsteak tomatoes!), the
events were being held in northern New Jersey. There were a few pages that
seemed to refer to early 20th century events in New York City (one with
Mark Twain as an after-dinner speaker, another to an exhibit of caricatures
of cubist paintings). A lot of the NJ events were definitely dinners
sponsored by a fraternal club of some sort (Elks, Knights of Columbus, etc).

I grew up in Westchester County (just north of NYC, in New York State), and
I *never* heard this term. It's amazing that it's such a cultural
institution, not 50 miles away from where I was raised.
--
Alice Faber                                       tel. (203) 865-6163
Haskins Laboratories                              fax  (203) 865-8963
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