Apr 2, 2007

Vintage Matchbooks=awesome


This past Christmas I remember standing in my parent's kitchen listening intently as my uncle Jim (a.k.a. Mr. Chicago) and his "faithful sidekick" Mary Anne were telling me what restaurants used to be cool in the 70s and 80s. We naturally got onto the topic of matchbooks and our mutual love of collecting them. I vaguely remember them saying they would send me theirs, but I didn't really expect them to let go of these treasures. Sure enough I was walking into my apartment Sunday night and a package was sitting in front of my door—inside was upwards of 50 matchbooks with a note. They wrote about how matchbooks were getting closer to extinction and went into detail about some of the more important matchbooks. Here's the quote from the classic New York eatery "21" (matchbook shown above): "The one and only. Do visit and have a Jack Rose cocktail for us! This matchbook goes back to the early eighties." I have to share one more of the notes because it's too good to pass up. Horwath's: "For years the site of high stakes card games! Joe Horwath wasn't one of the boys but he catered to the higher level Chicago outfit (mob) guys. Great characters at the bar, original Chicago accents, pinkie rings, sharp clothes, cigars and a doll or so to boot! It closed over a year ago. Alas, a victim of gentrification!" Thanks Uncle Jim and Mary Anne for sharing!

1 comment:

Bijoy said...

interesting stuff you have got here keep up the good work.will be back soon and i especially liked the photo you'd posted,


regards Biby - Blog