Part of the NYC Cocktails & Curiosities Series

Chumley’s at #86 Bedford Street has an amazing history, from its days as a speakeasy to its extensive literary clientele.  The walls were adorned with dust jackets of works from famous drinkers, including Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, O’Neill, Faulkner, Hemingway, Anais Nin, Kerouac, Salinger, Orson Welles, Edna St. Vincent Millay, James Thurber, Cummings and Ginsberg, just to name a few.

If you’ve worked at a restaurant and are familiar with the term “86 the…” when you run out of something, well, rumor has it the term originated at Chumley’s.  Chumley’s had two entrances, one on Bedford with “86” on the door and one around the corner, on Pamela Court off of Barrow Street. During Prohibition, the police were in cahoots with the owner, Lee Chumley.  The police would call the bartenders before a raid, and the bartender would proclaim “86,” which would tell the customers to get out of Chumley’s through the 86 Bedford door, as the police would come in through the other entrance.  Thus, “out of” became “86.”

Besides the two entrances, Chumley’s has numerous other secret passages.  There is an opening to an alleyway through a bookcase, a trap door in the floor, and a dumbwaiter that went up to the 2nd floor where Lee Chumley was rumored to house a bordello and a gambling parlor.  If only Chumley’s walls could talk ... Let’s hope it reopens for another century of stories.

About the NYC Cocktails & Curiosities Series of mixed media paintings

The debut gallery show of the paintings in this series coincided with the launch of the Cocktails and Curiosities Walking Tour Apps coded by the Artist Christi Scofield.  These tours feature famed spots in NYC with historical or pop-culture panache.  Cocktails & Curiosities is now part of the Carpe City brand.