About

Guests can walk through history and experience Bill Hardy’s vision of what was arguably the first “retro” bar. Bill Hardy, a jockey, a boxer and a “Broadway dandy” opened Bill’s Gay Nineties and Piano Bar during the heady days of the Volstead Act – also known as Prohibition, with his wife, a Ziegfield girl. His nostalgia for the 1890’s, a time of marked exuberance known as the Naughty Nineties, gave the establishment its now famous name. A false brick wall in the basement still opens to a secret room where liquor was kept. At the bar, beyond the heavy wood-and-stained-glass swinging doors, a plaque from a wine and spirits company saluted Bill’s for outlasting Prohibition: “Another proud survivor,” the plaque reads, “of those ‘dry’ years.” A true survivor of the Roaring Twenties.

And here we are again, in the Twenties of a new century – and Bill’s Supper Club re-opens. Gone are most of the classic restaurants of New York City, yet Bill’s Supper Club remains. New owner Christian Pascal aims to enliven the original spirit of Bill Hardy in the newly designed version of Bill’s, which encapsulates the Mad Men/Frank Sinatra/Jackie Gleason era of New York. Come hear the piano that the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Cagney sang along with. See the mural walls painted in the 40’s. Taste the modern interpretations of classic dishes. Drink the reinvented spirits and cocktails from a bygone era. With its three floors, – a bar on the ground floor, a restaurant on the 2nd and a private dining room known as Bill’s Social Club on the 3rd – guests can experience the definition of a true supper club: a great, fun place to eat, drink and socialize. We invite all of you to experience a piece of old New York, mixed with an air of sophistication in an establishment that truly defines what it means to be a modern classic.