Prohibition Repealed! Celebrate Tonight

by Steven Doyle

In 1919 the 18^th amendment was ratified into the Constitution of the United States. In the following years the government would spend $310 million enforcing Prohibition, and lose $11 billion in tax revenue.

Herbert Hoover would say, “Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.” That noble experiment would eventually fail, creating more crime and poverty than it had originally set out to eradicate.              

H.L Mencken  said, “Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished.”

It took 14 years to finally repeal Prohibition and tonight in Dallas there are several bars and restaurants celebrating including People’s Last Stand who will be serving up numerous cocktails from the 1920’s and 30’s. There will also be special give-a-ways and live Jazz music from the era.

Whiskey Cake will also offer 5-cent cocktails starting at 5pm, and have a special dinner at 6:30. Whiskey Cake will also host Bombay Sapphire master mixologist, Gary Hayward, as well as special guests from Maker’s Mark.

Edit: As manager of Victor Tango’s Greg Katz  mentions in the comment section here, VT will have 78-cent cocktails tonight from 5pm to 7pm. We checked this out last year and it can get quite crowded.  Go early!