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Angeloni’s Club Madrid: Aperitivo Hour
When:
May 20th
4 — 8PM
Where:
Bok
800 Mifflin Street
Price:
Pay As You Go
Event Details
Join Club Madrid for a pop-up at Irwin’s as the prepare for their grand reopening in Atlantic City!
the HISTORY of club madrid
Like a lot of great Atlantic City stories, this one starts in Philadelphia. At 1313 Locust St. to be exact. The year we are not as sure of, but it was in the mid 1920’s. Prohibition was in full swing…but not for Joe Moss, and certainly not for Atlantic City. So much has changed since then, but really, so much hasn’t.
The CLUB MADRID opened at 1313 Locust St in the mid 1920’s. It was the kind of place where broadway stars performed & lunch was 85 cents. It operated as a cabaret, but it was really just an indulgent escape from prohibition. the Club Madrid was a smart place for smart people!
On November 10th, 1925, Philadelphia’s night life received it’s first major blow of the season when Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick revoked the dance license at the CLUB MADRID. This action was taken as an aftermath of a police raid of the fashionable club shortly before midnight on October 30th.
In that raid, members of unit #1 swooped down upon the place, seized copious quantities of liquor, & arrested every guest, performer, waiter & manager.
Six paddy wagons of fashionable gowned women, and their escorts, were taken to the 7th & Carpenter St. Station to be bundled into already overcrowded jail cells. Of the more than 170 guests rounded up in the raid, but a scant score appeared the following morning for a hearing. It appears... that most of those taken prisoner had given a fictitious name.
A Philadelphia mayor making questionable decisions & overcrowded jail cells in the heart of south Philly full of colorful characters who committed the same
“crime” as the person locking them up. All of this at the direction of corrupt government officials who subscribe to a “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy.
100 years later, the names and faces might be different, but this story remains virtually unchanged.
After losing its dancing license, Joe Moss did what any smart businessperson would do: He packed up & moved his CLUB MADRID 60 miles East. At the former Martin’s restaurant, at 170 S. New York Ave, the CLUB MADRID opened on December 24th, 1927. As fate might have it, another infamous restaurant with Philadelphia roots also opened its doors in Atlantic City in 1927. That restaurant is still in business today at the corner of Iowa & Atlantic Avenues. It goes by a couple of names but most of you know it as the Baltimore Grill. From the roaring 20’s to 2024, Atlantic City has ALWAYS been Philly’s second home!
With prohibition in full swing, the CLUB MADRID settled right into its New York avenue location. meanwhile, between 1928-1933, at the corner of Arctic & Georgia avenues, local entrepreneurs like Paul Kilbride, George Brunswick, and Harry Armstrong were running a “Soda Shop”. It’s likely that you could get a soda there, but judging by the number of arrests and forced closures, it’s safe to say that the real purpose was not a pop shop. This era of Atlantic City was marked primarily by two things, a construction boom…and the rise to power of Enoch Johnson (Aka Nucky Thompson). This period of time was beautifully documented in the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire. Atlantic City quickly became known as The Worlds Playground, and for good reason.
Halloween plans were in motion at the CLUB MADRID until one fateful Tuesday in 1929. On October 29th, the United States stock market crashed and set into motion some of the hardest years America has ever seen. The Great Depression followed in the 1930s. This economic crisis struck Atlantic City hard. For a city that predicated itself on tourists it would inevitably see a decline as families didn’t have the necessary means to vacation. Atlantic City was arguably the hardest hit city in the country. To make matters worse, the Prohibition had been lifted in 1933. The intrigue of traveling to Atlantic City for illegal alcohol was gone. The appeal of the city had been lost….
…Meanwhile, at the corner of Arctic & Georgia Ave’s, George Brunswick was operating a “soda” shop which he subsequently sold to the Merino family, who sold to the Armstrong’s (Harry) and then to the Kilbride family (Paul) in the late 1920’s/early 1930’s. While they surely did sell some soda, judging by the number of raids & arrests, this was much more of a speakeasy than a pop shop.
Atlantic City is no stranger to hard times. While Prohibition highlighted the uniqueness of the city, the Great Depression exploited it. After the stock market crash of 1929, we didn’t hear anything about the Club Madrid. Until August of 1933, when it relocated from NY Avenue to the corners of Arctic and Georgia. This seems to be where Joe Moss, the original owner & founder of the Club Madrid, is no longer involved. From 1933 on, it was always referred to as “someones” Club Madrid. The first being “Henri” Frenchie La Cour.
Although prohibition officially ended in December of 1933, that didn’t stop the Club Madrid from opening in August of 1933 at the cor of Georgia and Arctic Ave’s. It changed hands many times in the first few years; the most notable owner was Frank Ferretti, the captain of detectives in the ACPD. In typical Atlantic City fashion, he gave ownership to a Mr. Kissel, but only for a week. The same week that all the Club Madrid bills were due! If that’s not an Atlantic City story, nothing is.
After Henri “Frenchi” La Cour, the next emcee of the Club Madrid was Suzanne. The town now admits that there is Something New at the Club Madrid.
The “BEST IS YET TO COME” is a song from the 1960’s popularized by Mr. Frank Sinatra. It’s a song about hopeless optimism. It’s about looking towards the future with a positive attitude & excited anticipation for what lies ahead. Sinatra. The Baltimore Grill, Angelonis II. Atlantic City. What do they all have in common? PERSEVERANCE. This song is just as relevant today because it reminds us that no matter what we have been through that there is always hope for a better tomorrow. With that same hopeless optimism, we are excited to officially announce that we have joined forces with @julia.vain to bring @angelonis2ac back to life!