‘It’s beefsteak season!’

   

Mariners 67

Mariners Lodge 67 in the First Manhattan District will host its famous Beefsteak Dinner later this month, which I mention here to urge you to attend. These are unforgettable banquets for enjoying course after course of terrific food (and not just beef), libations, song, and a camaraderie I don’t think can be found elsewhere. It’s a rite of passage unto its own.

This will take place Saturday, February 24. From the publicity:

Maritime Festive Board

and Beefsteak Banquet

February 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Masonic Hall, Jacobean Room

Attire: Tuxedo (preferred) or Business Formal, and everyone gets a Butcher’s Apron. This event is open to Masons and male guests only. Doors open at six; gavel at 7:30.

Tentative Menu:

First Course

Iced Shrimp, The Ancient Mariner’s Cured Salmon, House Pickles

Second Course

House-Smoked Brisket Pastrami with Rye Toast, Roast Pork with Rolls, Tomato-Braised Lamb Meatballs

Third Course

Memphis-Style Dry-Rubbed Pork Ribs, 72-Hour Braised Beef Short Ribs, Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Fourth Course

Strip Steak, Lamb Chops, Roasted Potato Wedges

Fifth Course

Assorted Dessert Platters

Draft beer from the legendary Bronx Beer Hall.

Click here to book your seats. This is a perfect group activity for your lodge.

Granted, the ticket price is a lot of money, but if you plopped down in a restaurant and ordered those dishes, you’d have to wash dishes to get back out the door.

Click here for coverage of the last time I attended.

Make time to read Joseph Mitchell’s legendary story from 1939, originally in the New Yorker, titled “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks.” Click here and turn to Page 291.

     

‘Way haul away, ye Mariners haul!’

     
It’s Robbie Burns’ birthday, but don’t look for haggis at this Masonic feast. We—more than 250 of us—are seated fairly comfortably inside the Grand Lodge Room of Masonic Hall in New York City, enjoying the camaraderie, conviviality, and near gluttony that is the Mariners Lodge Beefsteak Banquet.

This annual affair is sold out tonight at $150 a plate.

Everything we needed to know was spelled out in our program.

Tonight’s tobacco is chosen! Masonic Hall is smoke-free (must be some bureaucratic snafu), so no pipes at the beefsteak, but no matter. A pinch of Mr. Gawith’s Original every so often will aid digestion, stimulate conversation, and improve posture!

Getting ready to set sail.

Michael, Sal, and Josh.

At a Mariners Lodge festive board, Masons are on port and starboard sides. We were seated amidships.

How many Masons does it take to change a lightbulb? One, when it’s Moore. Actually, Isaac is up that ladder to shoot photographs, which were all over Facebook before long.

Don’t your festive boards have drones keeping an eye on things?

RW Bro. Sam conducted us through the festive board ritual and served as emcee. Grand Master Sardone, in purple, at his right.

If you ever wondered what 250+ Freemasons gorging on beef, lamb, beef, shrimp, salmon, beef, ale, potatoes, and beef looks like.

My mistake for relying on a phone as a camera. Here is our Junior Warden for the night.

The purpose of the aprons is defined clearly and humorously in that New Yorker piece by Joseph Mitchell I mentioned in the first Magpie post on this event, but it was lost on some of the brethren whom I observed eating their ribs and lamb lollipops with the cutlery. They went home with aprons as unsullied as any symbol of purity and innocence. From left: Oscar, Josh, Augustine, Michael, and Sal Corelli.

Close-up shot of the apron. This unforgettable event was described by some present as a Bucket List item. The maritime-themed festive board is something every cheerful Mason ought to experience, but I would hope everyone would be able to take part more than once.

  

‘All You Can Hold for 150 Bucks.’

     
They’re back in business! Historic Mariners Lodge 67 will host its legendary Beefsteak Banquet again next month after an interminable absence of, I think, a year. Don’t disappoint yourself by missing out. Tickets are on sale now.

Courtesy Mariners 67

This is not a colorized photo from the 19th century.
This is the real deal: the Mariners Beefsteak Banquet.

(The title of this edition of The Magpie Mason is borrowed from the great Joseph Mitchell’s piece in The New Yorker from 80 years ago in which he traces the history and describes the heavenly joys of the New York beefsteak dinner. Click here, but do as I did decades ago as an optimistic journalism student (ha!) and get a copy of his anthology Up in the Old Hotel, which also includes his “McSorley’s” story. “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks” and others even mention a few Freemasons. Buy yours today!)


From the publicity:

Mariners Lodge 67

Maritime Festive Board

and Beefsteak Banquet

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Masonic Hall, Grand Lodge Room

71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

Tickets here

A Uniquely New York,

Old-School Masonic Event

Seating Begins at 6:30

Opening Gavel at 7:30

Dress is Tuxedo (preferred)

or Business Formal

All Attendees Receive

a Butcher's Apron

to Wear and Take Home

Prepaid Reservations

Are Required to Attend

Reserve and pay online here

Five Course Menu

First Course

Iced Shrimp

The Ancient Mariner’s Cured Salmon

House Pickles

Second Course

House-Smoked Brisket Pastrami with Rye Toast

Roast Pork with Rolls

Tomato-Braised Lamb Meatballs

Third Course

Memphis-Style Dry-Rubbed Pork Ribs

72-Hour Braised Beef Short Ribs

Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Fourth Course

Strip Steak

Lamb Chops

Roasted Potato Wedges

Fifth Course

Assorted Dessert Platters

Beer from The Bronx Beer Hall

The Festive Board is a feature of the Masonry that extends back to our very beginnings. Operative stonemasons’ lodges would gather upon important occasions around tables laden with food and drink to celebrate in fellowship with the tangible fruits of their labor. Most common were feasts on St. John the Baptist’s Day and St. John the Evangelist’s Day, which were not coincidentally right around the time of the Summer and Winter solstices. These traditions have been part of our Craft ever since. Indeed, one of the reasons given for forming the first Grand Lodge in 1717 was to hold an annual feast.

In the days before Masons had their beautiful purpose-built Masonic temples and lodge rooms, members of the Craft often convened their lodges in taverns and restaurants. The tables were pushed back and Square and Compasses might be scratched out in the sawdust covering the floor while the brethren performed their Masonic work. Before too long the idea arose of taking advantage of what the tavern had to offer, and a practice was born whereby the brethren would take food and drink on a Masonic form and while conducting the work of the lodge.

Over time, various ritual practices of the Festive Board evolved, especially among military officers, who incorporated various elements from their formal dining traditions. These historic rituals and traditions have been resurrected in the modern day, and the Masonic Festive Board with its multiple courses of food, toasts, responses, and giving of “Masonic Fire” has become one of the most popular special events among Masons.

The Mariners Lodge Maritime Festive Board is a unique form of these table ceremonies, which invokes certain early Masonic legends and incorporates elements of historical naval practice and seafaring tradition.

About the Beefsteak Banquet

The Mariners Lodge Maritime Festive Board and Beefsteak Banquet incorporates elements from the rich New York tradition of the Beefsteak Banquet – those famous celebrations of gluttony where men gathered to eat massive amounts of aged steak, lamb chops, shrimp cocktail, pork belly and mini-burgers washed down with bottomless schooners of beer. Forks and knives are strictly prohibited, but you will be provided with a butcher’s apron and plenty of napkins!