In Midtown Manhattan, right near Penn Station in the Garment District is a steakhouse called Keens Steakhouse. Also known as Keens Chophouse, it has been in business since 1885. Its low ceilings, dark paneling and cluttered wooden walls suggested to me that it was a traditional small cozy inn. Not so. With seating for more than 300 diners, Keens hums with bustling waitstaff delivering huge plates of meat. Keens leads with its mutton chop -- a huge slab dominating an oversized plate.
In New York City's crowded field of excellent restaurants featuring steak, Keens stands out. Its food is delicious and large, but that's not why. Keens has stuck with its tradition of keeping pipes for its members. Keens began as a private club where members would leave behind, and Keens would keep, their clay pipes. The tradition of checking one's clay pipe, or a "hard clay churchwarden pipe", as Keens' website refers to them, at an inn, derived from the 1700s in England. Keens' membership swelled over the years, and Keens dutifully stored the members' pipes on the ceilings of all of the restaurant's dining rooms.
According to the website:
The membership roster of the Pipe Club contained over ninety thousand names, including those of Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, Billy Rose, Grace Moore, Albert Einstein, George M. Cohan, J.P. Morgan, Stanford White, John Barrymore, David Belasco, Adlai Stevenson, General Douglas MacArthur and “Buffalo Bill” Cody.
"Only" 20,000 are on display now. Just inside the entrance to 36th Street are display cases of newer, whiter additions. Autographed pipes signed by celebrities of all sorts are piled in a glass counter and stuck on the wall, with names like Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, heads of state, athletes and more.
CONFESSION: I never heard of Keens until my son Max requested to go there for his birthday dinner. Thank you Max!
In New York City's crowded field of excellent restaurants featuring steak, Keens stands out. Its food is delicious and large, but that's not why. Keens has stuck with its tradition of keeping pipes for its members. Keens began as a private club where members would leave behind, and Keens would keep, their clay pipes. The tradition of checking one's clay pipe, or a "hard clay churchwarden pipe", as Keens' website refers to them, at an inn, derived from the 1700s in England. Keens' membership swelled over the years, and Keens dutifully stored the members' pipes on the ceilings of all of the restaurant's dining rooms.
According to the website:
The membership roster of the Pipe Club contained over ninety thousand names, including those of Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, Billy Rose, Grace Moore, Albert Einstein, George M. Cohan, J.P. Morgan, Stanford White, John Barrymore, David Belasco, Adlai Stevenson, General Douglas MacArthur and “Buffalo Bill” Cody.
 |
| Pipes a'Plenty on the Ceilings, Everywhere |
"Only" 20,000 are on display now. Just inside the entrance to 36th Street are display cases of newer, whiter additions. Autographed pipes signed by celebrities of all sorts are piled in a glass counter and stuck on the wall, with names like Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, heads of state, athletes and more.
CONFESSION: I never heard of Keens until my son Max requested to go there for his birthday dinner. Thank you Max!