I Try | Pint&Pen&Paper Week 28 Vol (III) Special: North Bar (TriBeCa) | Steinhardt Bros
What’s up @YouTheReader,
You gotta admit, you probably haven’t heard this song in a while and the Stumblin’ line in this song fits like a glove for Sundays on Week to Week Notes. This song was released on September 27, 1999. I Try hit its peak on May 20, ‘00, when it was #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 while hitting #1 in Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.
Macy Gray was born in Canton, Ohio under the name Natalie McIntyre. Her mother was a math teacher and she grew up with a father who was absent. She decided to attend USC to pursue a film career and studied scriptwriting. While she was in Southern California, a classmate offered her a singing part in his jazz demo. There she started messing around writing songs for the jazz group she was in, but she really only viewed it as fun.
Macy Gray didn’t realize she had a unique singing voice until, “I was in college, so in my early 20s. I always had a kind of funny voice and it never occurred to me that I could sing…I kind of taught myself how to sing for a gig, but I didn't take it seriously until later. I was really awkward. I was just doing it for fun.” (Source: The Guardian) Gray decided to leave USC to pursue a musical career in 1989 and didn’t receive a record deal until 1994 with Atlantic Records. She recorded an album for Atlantic Records that never was released and she would be dropped from the label.
In 1997, she moved back to Canton, Ohio to become a teacher but a music producer convinced her to go back to LA. Great call by the music producer. In 1999, Macy Gray would sign with Epic Records and this time the label she worked for released her first album called On How Life Is. While the album didn’t immediately take off in the fall of 1999, this song, “I Try”, started to gain popularity and the rest is history.
While her music career was stagnant, Gray married her then-boyfriend, a mortgage broker named Tracy Hinds. The two had three children together but split up just as Gray got the solo deal with Epic Records in 1999. Many of the songs Gray wrote for her first album were about Hinds, including "I Try.”
@YouTheReader I’m warning you, if you hadn’t heard this song in a while, it only takes one or two plays and you’ll be humming along. Be careful now, do not try and do a raspy voice. This song came on at Pig ‘N Whistle Public House on April 30th and it has been in my head ever since, so I’m throwing its nostalgic catchiness on to you.
Macy Gray always had a raspy and high-pitched voice. This made her timid and she frequently was teased about it as a child. The raspy and high-pitched vocals ended up working out for her in the end, as this chorus sold her more than 3 million copies and she received 3 Grammy nominations.
“I thought the chorus was too wordy and I didn't think people would remember it. I didn't realize it would be that much of a big deal.” - Macy Gray.
Cool story. Great tune. This Stumblin’ Along was inspired by one of the bars I was at this week so it’ll feature a solo Pint&Pen&Paper Special (Week 28 Vol III)…
Guinness Challenge Season #1
@Kids don’t try this at home. Not just because you’re underage and will have plenty of pints to drink if that ends up being your thing when you’re older but also because Guinness is actually best served in a pint glass from a tap. A pint of Guinness varies depending on the drinking establishment. If the keg it sits in is rarely poured, it can lead to some underwhelming taste. Rather than stealing gimmicks, I’d like to start taking Notes while drinking Guinness. My grandfather from Connemara, who I never got the chance to meet, Thomas Davis, used to drink pints and by all accounts was a self-taught thinker. The one rule I’ve imposed on myself is that I will only have 1 pint per sitting from each establishment I review, so @AnyoneWorrying, don’t worry about my drinking habits. The Guinness Challenge is to “cut the G” on your first sip (more like a gulp and a half). If this is your first time hearing about it, I didn’t come up with the fun challenge @YouTheReader can try the next time you have a Guinness. The 0.0 to 10.0 scale will be extraordinarily nuanced but as a reference point, the only perfect 10.0 I plan ever to give out is at the Guinness Factory in Dublin one day.
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: Bricks behind the bar are painted a bluish gray or is it greyish blue, I’m not good with colors but it looks very nice. Their Mid Day Swinger cocktail is recommended. They also have many other very nice cocktail options to choose from made with fresh fruit perfect for a summer drink. Their fish tacos are also recommended. Come here for Oysters every Friday and Saturday night. In the back of the bar, they have booths with pictures of the history of the area and even boat pictures hanging on the wall sideways. North Bar in TriBeCa is the northernmost bar in TriBeCa. They also get the name of the bar from North River or River North, which was what the Hudson River was commonly referred to when the Dutch first settled in New York in the early 17th Century. The North Bar building itself used to be a whiskey wholesaler run by the Steinhardt Bros.
I really enjoyed the history element of North Bar. It is for sure a very modern bar, but they really do a great job including elements of the history of the TriBeCa Landmark District’s past. There is history in every panel of the place and they’ve done a great job capturing it. I was fortunate to talk to Katie, one of the partners about North Bar, and she mentioned the Steinhardt Brothers which is what today’s Stumblin’ Along will center around. The North Bar has In-Between Hours Tuesday to Thursday 7 PM to 9 PM as well as Saturdays from 5 to 7 PM where you can get 8 Buffalo wings and a Pale Ale for $17, Four Mini Tuna Tacos + Yuki Otoko Yeti Saké 180ml for $22, or Two Fish Tacos & a Margarita for $22. Those are all great deals made with high-quality ingredients. You can rent out their private Steinhardt Room, which is a perfect intimate setting for groups of around 10 people. I look forward to getting another Pint of Guinness at North Bar in TriBeCa again soon!
North Bar is housed in the TriBeCa Landmark District, Tribeca North. Still standing in its original structure, the building dates back to the late 1800s and is located two blocks away from the Hudson River. The first tenant of 458 Greenwich Street was a pre-prohibition liquor business owned by the Steinhardt Bros. (Source: North Bar Tribeca)
Steinhardt Bros
The Steinhardt Bros were a pre-Prohibition liquor business in New York City that thought to market their brand of liquor in fashionable ceramic containers. The ceramic container above is one of their old-school bottles that is displayed at North Bar. There were four Steinhardt brothers who partnered in the business. David, Henry, Lewis, and Morris were the proprietors of the business. Lewis Steinhardt was the original founder of the company. The brothers were the sons of Simon and Sophia Steinhardt who were originally born in Austria. Sometime in the 19th Century, they moved from Austria to Germany (when it was called Prussia) which is where Lewis and Morris were born. The Steinhardt’s left for New York City at some point between 1853 and 1857, where the other siblings were born. Once their father, Simon, moved to NY, he became a cigar merchant. Clearly, Simon’s occupation must’ve rubbed off on his sons as 4 of them would go on to become “liquor dealers” according to their 19th Century consensuses. (Source: Pre-Pro Whiskey Men)
As previously mentioned above, the Steinhardt Bros were the first tenants of 456-458 Greenwich Street, where North Bar is today. They opened up that spot in 1880 with Lewis Steinhardt, the eldest son, being the top manager at what is now North Bar. The company maintained many business locations including 143 Broome Street: from 1875 – 1883, 458 Greenwich Street: from 1879 – 1890, 87 – 93 Hudson Street: from 1879 – 1888, 121 Hudson Street: from 1893 – 1896, 315 Bowery: from 1886 – 1898, 134 Mott Street: from 1898 – 1902, and 209 East 120th Street: from 1892 – 1900. They were scattered all over New York City at the turn of the 20th Century. This immigrant family made their mark all over Manhattan and even had operations in Brooklyn. (Source: Bay Bottles)
The Steinhardt Bros & Co were not distillers, but they were importers and wholesale liquor dealers. The Steinhardt’s collected whiskey from a variety of sources and “rectified” (mixed) them. It sounds like a Long Island Ice Tea operation that would not fly by today’s standards. The Bros would distribute their liquor from their outlets in The City as well as nationally. One of their famous liquor was the Roxbury Rye, which was actually concocted in Maryland. The head of their advertising wasn’t a Steinhardt but a Strasser. The Strasser brothers Edward, William W. “Joseph” A., and William Strasser also played a key role in the business. Joseph Strasser was their ad guy. The Steinhardt Bros were a bit unconventional in how they marketed their brand. Rather than using newspaper advertisements at the time, they went about it another way, circulating fine lithographed business cards, giving out wooden wall clocks to customers, as well as other fancy giveaways that could be displayed at saloons that served their product. That said, the Steinhardt Bros were really a bit ahead of their time because of the quality of the ceramic containers in which they packaged their liquor. They had a “fancy for the fancy.” (Source: Pre-Pro Whiskey Men)
This Mountain Dew Brand of Whiskey made by the Steinhardt Bros would’ve been ideal to mix with the Mountain Dew brand we know today. @YouTheReader did you know that the origins of the Mountain Dew caffeinated soda was to be used as a mixer? That’s another story for another day but as the Steinhardt Bros, unfortunately, their story with importing alcohol came to an abrupt end during the Prohibition. During WWI, President Woodrow Wilson instituted a temporary wartime prohibition in order to save grain for producing food. Even though Prohibition didn’t become federal law until January 17, 1920, the sentiments started to rise when it was proposed by Congress on Dec. 18, 1917. This would contribute to the downfall of the Steinhardt Bros whiskey blend business as the firm disappeared from records by 1918. Lewis Steinhardt at the point was in his 60s and ready to retire. Once the National Prohibition did get lifted, the Steinhardt Bros did seemingly make a brief bit of a comeback in 1934, but not much is known about what happened other than the fact that the name can still be found on a fading ad on 860 Broadway by Union Square. They must have started importing other goods besides liquor and it must not have stuck.