Speakeasies

From 1920 to 1933, alcohol sales and purchase were illegal in the United States. This was also the same time period the Round Table was in operation. This didn't stop them from drinking. However, it was not at the Algonquin Hotel, which was "dry" due to owner-manager Frank Case. Some of the locales for the speakeasy and bathtub gin parties:

Jack and Charlie's (later "21") was located at 42 W. 49th Street. Tony Soma's was across the street, on the spot where NBC Studios now stands on West 49th Street. It was at Tony's, reportedly, that a bartender asked Dorothy Parker: "What are you having?" Dottie: "Not much fun." It was at Jack and Charlie's that she spent the evening in 1928 on the day her divorce from husband Eddie Parker came through: Dottie was drinking with boyfriend John Garrett II, and was crying her eyes out.

At Tony's, Dottie and Robert Benchley were grabbed by a patron showing off his new, indestructible watch. The pair took delight in pounding the hell out of it, stamped on it, and handed it back to the owner. "It's stopped," he said. They answered together: "Maybe you wound it too tight!"

The crowd was also known to Texas Guinan, one of the greatest saloon keepers of all-time. One of Guinan's places was Club Intime, which is still in operation as a champagne and cocktail lounge, Flute, 205 West 54th St. (between Broadway and Seventh Avenue). In 1928, the former Tex Guinan's (also known as Club Intime) was on the circuit of West Side speaks that catered to the theatre set. It is a short walk from the Broadway theatres and only 12 blocks from Times Square. When the crowd went to Polly Adler's brothel nearby, they could get liquored up at Guinan's.