Beefsteak (banquet)
Encyclopedia
A beefsteak is a type of banquet
in which sliced beef tenderloin is served to diners as all-you-can-eat finger food
. The dining style originated in 19th-century New York City
as a type of working-class celebration but went into a decline in the mid-20th century. Resurrected by caterers in New Jersey
, the beefsteak banquet style is now popular in Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey, and is enjoying a revival in New York City, where the style originated, due to the reemergence of a biannual beefsteak in Brooklyn
.
regularly threw beefsteaks as political fundraisers, often enough that it was a large portion of beefsteak business in New York and "when Tammany Hall [got] a setback, beefsteaks [got] a setback". Sophie Tucker
and Bill Robinson
had beefsteaks thrown for them in the 1930s.
Early beefsteaks were held in a relaxed, men-only atmosphere, with diners sitting on crates and eating with their fingers off of rough, improvised tables in saloons, rental halls, or residential basement
s. Food and drink were the focus of the evening, and entertainment often consisted simply of those present telling stories and singing amongst themselves. Brass band
s were sometimes hired.
in a 1939 The New Yorker
article as "East Side
" and "West Side
" and roughly corresponding to the geographic separation of New York City into the same-named areas. Each group claimed to Mitchell to have originated beefsteak banquets and to have the most authentic serving and eating styles.
"East Side" beefsteaks were largely patronized by the working-class and immigrants, and the center of the East Side beefsteak world was at First Avenue and Nineteenth Street in Manhattan. East Side beefsteaks were heavily meat-centered, with courses consisting of items like sliced beef short loin
, beef kidneys, and ground beef trimmings (referred to as "hamburgers"). One East Side beefsteak was reported to have consisted of "3000 pounds (1,360.8 kg) of steak, 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) of lamb chops, 425 pounds (192.8 kg) of hamburger and 1300 pounds (589.7 kg) of kidneys wrapped with bacon."
"West Side" beefsteaks, on the other hand, were often thrown at "gentlemen-only" establishments centered around Eleventh Avenue and Twenty-third Street. West Side beefsteaks tended more toward expansive menus, with courses including crab meat, lamb chops, and baked potatoes to go along with the beef loin. Diners at West Side beefsteaks were allowed to use disposable forks for some courses, but were expected to eat the beef course with their fingers.
years.
and 19th
amendments to the U.S. Constitution, in 1919 and 1920, respectively, the traditional men-only, beer-soaked format of the beefsteak began to change. Politicians began including newly enfranchised women voters in their beefsteak banquets after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, and with the attendance of women came corresponding social niceties. Cocktails, popularized by illicit drinkers during Prohibition, replaced pitchers of beer, and "fruit cups[,] and fancy salads" were soon added to beefsteak menus. Orchestras were hired in place of old-fashioned brass bands and storytellers, and the long-forbidden knives and forks began to appear on beefsteak tables. By the 1930s, according to Joseph Mitchell, beefsteaks were no longer the manly, messy affairs they had once been; they were now closer to formal meals in which beef and bread happened to feature heavily. The cheerful gluttony of the past was tempered by female sensibilities; "women," Mitchell reported, "do not esteem a glutton, and at a contemporary beefsteak it is unusual for a man to do away with more than six pounds of meat and thirty glasses of beer."
In 1938, "Hap" Nightingale, a butcher in Clifton, New Jersey
(a suburb of New York City), began catering parties in his area according to the old-time beefsteak formula. He offered a set, all-you-can-eat menu of french fries and sliced beef tenderloin on bread. His business thrived locally, and the company has since been passed down through ensuing generations of Nightingales, all of whom continued to adhere to the tried-and-true formula.
; while residents of Bergen and Passaic counties consider them an ingrained part of regional culture and regularly stage beefsteak fundraisers (caterers interviewed in a New York Times article stated that they "put on about 1,000 of them in the region [in 2007]"), across the county line in Essex County
, for example, they remain nearly unheard of.
Political fundraiser beefsteak banquets are no longer common in New Jersey; beefsteaks now usually raise money for fire departments, policemen's benevolent associations, and other charitable organizations. Nostalgia for beefsteaks among foodie
s continues, and gourmet beefsteaks are sometimes staged by New York-area restaurants.
Since 2009, two Wesleyan University
graduates, Andrew Dermont and Derek Silverman, have thrown a biannual "beefsteak for beefsteak's sake" in Brooklyn, to revive the tradition of the beefsteak banquet in its place of origin, New York City.
Banquet
A banquet is a large meal or feast, complete with main courses and desserts. It usually serves a purpose such as a charitable gathering, a ceremony, or a celebration, and is often preceded or followed by speeches in honour of someone....
in which sliced beef tenderloin is served to diners as all-you-can-eat finger food
Finger food
Finger food is food meant to be eaten directly using the hands, in contrast to food eaten with a knife and fork, chopsticks, or other utensils. In some cultures, food is almost always eaten with the hands; for example, Ethiopian cuisine is eaten by rolling various dishes up in injera bread. In the...
. The dining style originated in 19th-century New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as a type of working-class celebration but went into a decline in the mid-20th century. Resurrected by caterers in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, the beefsteak banquet style is now popular in Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey, and is enjoying a revival in New York City, where the style originated, due to the reemergence of a biannual beefsteak in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
Origins
Beefsteak banquets originated among the working-class of New York City in the mid-1800s as celebratory meals or "testimonials". The meal would generally be set up by an organization wishing to laud or raise money for politicians, newly promoted friends, or celebrities. Tammany HallTammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
regularly threw beefsteaks as political fundraisers, often enough that it was a large portion of beefsteak business in New York and "when Tammany Hall [got] a setback, beefsteaks [got] a setback". Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
and Bill Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
had beefsteaks thrown for them in the 1930s.
Early beefsteaks were held in a relaxed, men-only atmosphere, with diners sitting on crates and eating with their fingers off of rough, improvised tables in saloons, rental halls, or residential basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
s. Food and drink were the focus of the evening, and entertainment often consisted simply of those present telling stories and singing amongst themselves. Brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s were sometimes hired.
Early organization
Though the centerpiece of beefsteak culture was indisputably the frenzied consumption of beef and beer, with diners eating with their fingers and drinking with abandon, serving styles varied. 1930s-era beefsteaks could be grouped into two styles, referred to by Joseph MitchellJoseph Mitchell
Joseph Mitchell was an American writer best known for the work he published in The New Yorker. He is known for his carefully written portraits of eccentrics and people on the fringes of society, especially in and around New York City.Mitchell was born on his maternal grandparents' farm near...
in a 1939 The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
article as "East Side
East Side (Manhattan)
The East Side of Manhattan refers to the side of Manhattan Island which abuts the East River and faces Brooklyn and Queens. Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and lower Broadway separate it from the West Side....
" and "West Side
West Side (Manhattan)
The West Side of Manhattan refers to the side of Manhattan Island which abuts the Hudson River and faces New Jersey. Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and lower Broadway separate it from the East Side. The major neighborhoods on the West Side are West Harlem, Morningside Heights, Manhattan Valley, Upper...
" and roughly corresponding to the geographic separation of New York City into the same-named areas. Each group claimed to Mitchell to have originated beefsteak banquets and to have the most authentic serving and eating styles.
"East Side" beefsteaks were largely patronized by the working-class and immigrants, and the center of the East Side beefsteak world was at First Avenue and Nineteenth Street in Manhattan. East Side beefsteaks were heavily meat-centered, with courses consisting of items like sliced beef short loin
Short Loin
Short loin is a cut of beef that comes from the back of the steer or heifer. It contains part of the spine and includes the top loin and the tenderloin. This cut yields types of steak including porterhouse, strip steak , and T-bone...
, beef kidneys, and ground beef trimmings (referred to as "hamburgers"). One East Side beefsteak was reported to have consisted of "3000 pounds (1,360.8 kg) of steak, 1500 pounds (680.4 kg) of lamb chops, 425 pounds (192.8 kg) of hamburger and 1300 pounds (589.7 kg) of kidneys wrapped with bacon."
"West Side" beefsteaks, on the other hand, were often thrown at "gentlemen-only" establishments centered around Eleventh Avenue and Twenty-third Street. West Side beefsteaks tended more toward expansive menus, with courses including crab meat, lamb chops, and baked potatoes to go along with the beef loin. Diners at West Side beefsteaks were allowed to use disposable forks for some courses, but were expected to eat the beef course with their fingers.
Dining style
Both schools of thought in New York agreed that eating with one's fingers and not being afraid to get messy were integral to the culture of the beefsteak. No matter which type of beefsteak a diner attended, the main course was beef loin dipped in butter-based sauce and served thinly sliced on rounds of bread (day-old bread, at East Side beefsteaks; fresh toast, at West Side). Napkins were considered unnecessary; diners generally wore aprons with which they could wipe the grease off their hands. Food was dispatched from the kitchen laid out on trays and waiters continued bringing out trays until diners could literally eat no more (In his New Yorker article, Joseph Mitchell quotes one man as saying, "I'm so full I'm about to pop. Push those kidneys a little nearer, if you don't mind."). Beer flowed freely during banquets in pre-prohibitionProhibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
years.
Evolution
With the passing of the 18thEighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...
and 19th
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
amendments to the U.S. Constitution, in 1919 and 1920, respectively, the traditional men-only, beer-soaked format of the beefsteak began to change. Politicians began including newly enfranchised women voters in their beefsteak banquets after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, and with the attendance of women came corresponding social niceties. Cocktails, popularized by illicit drinkers during Prohibition, replaced pitchers of beer, and "fruit cups[,] and fancy salads" were soon added to beefsteak menus. Orchestras were hired in place of old-fashioned brass bands and storytellers, and the long-forbidden knives and forks began to appear on beefsteak tables. By the 1930s, according to Joseph Mitchell, beefsteaks were no longer the manly, messy affairs they had once been; they were now closer to formal meals in which beef and bread happened to feature heavily. The cheerful gluttony of the past was tempered by female sensibilities; "women," Mitchell reported, "do not esteem a glutton, and at a contemporary beefsteak it is unusual for a man to do away with more than six pounds of meat and thirty glasses of beer."
In 1938, "Hap" Nightingale, a butcher in Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 84,136. The 2010 population represented an increase of 5,464 residents from its population of 78,672 in the 2000 Census, making it the state's 11th largest...
(a suburb of New York City), began catering parties in his area according to the old-time beefsteak formula. He offered a set, all-you-can-eat menu of french fries and sliced beef tenderloin on bread. His business thrived locally, and the company has since been passed down through ensuing generations of Nightingales, all of whom continued to adhere to the tried-and-true formula.
Current practice
The modern beefsteak banquet hews fairly closely to the early-1900s model, although the expansive selections found at an old-fashioned "West Side" beefsteak have been tapered down to beef, fried potatoes, and tossed salad. Butter is sometimes replaced by margarine, and a pasta course makes an occasional appearance, but attendees at beefsteaks still expect to be fed mostly beef tenderloin, and lots of it. Modern beefsteak attendees often follow an unspoken protocol to leave their bread slices uneaten. Piling them up in front of one's plate instead of consuming them "saves valuable stomach capacity for more beef while simultaneously serving as an informal scorekeeping system".Modern distribution
Beefsteak banquets have largely vanished from New York City, where they originated, but remain widespread in Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey. The institution is now almost entirely limited to these areas, save for a popular biannual beefsteak held in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
; while residents of Bergen and Passaic counties consider them an ingrained part of regional culture and regularly stage beefsteak fundraisers (caterers interviewed in a New York Times article stated that they "put on about 1,000 of them in the region [in 2007]"), across the county line in Essex County
Essex County, New Jersey
Essex County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the United States 2010 Census, the population was 783,969, ranking it third in the state after Bergen County and Middlesex County; Essex County's population has declined from 786,147 as of the bureau's...
, for example, they remain nearly unheard of.
Political fundraiser beefsteak banquets are no longer common in New Jersey; beefsteaks now usually raise money for fire departments, policemen's benevolent associations, and other charitable organizations. Nostalgia for beefsteaks among foodie
Foodie
Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.- Distinguished from gourmet :...
s continues, and gourmet beefsteaks are sometimes staged by New York-area restaurants.
Since 2009, two Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
graduates, Andrew Dermont and Derek Silverman, have thrown a biannual "beefsteak for beefsteak's sake" in Brooklyn, to revive the tradition of the beefsteak banquet in its place of origin, New York City.