20 JUNE 11, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ridgewood bar had intriguing links to Prohibition, WWII
Two Kioodles, shown here as it looked in December 1987, was a famous Ridgewood bar from the 1930s into the 1980s.
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Prior to World War I, the large brewers
in the New York area had real
estate departments. They owned
buildings in residential and commercial
neighborhoods, usually at good corner
locations, which they leased out for use
as a saloon.
One of these brewers was the Samuel
Liebmann’s Sons Brewing Company, the
original brewers of Rheingold beer. A
few years before the U.S. entered World
War I, they bought a storefront located
at 770 Onderdonk Ave. in Ridgewood
and leased the ground fl oor for use as a
saloon serving their beer.
The U.S. became involved in “The
War to End All Wars” in April 1917, and
the confl ict soon began cutting into the
American liquor industry. That August,
President Woodrow Wilson shut down
whiskey distilleries, cutting off their raw
material supplies under the Food Control
Act. Then, in December of that year, he
reduced the food materials used for
brewing by 30 percent, and also ordered
breweries to limit the alcoholic content of
their beer to no more than 2.75 percent
by weight.
Restrictions in liquor production,
combined with the ongoing Temperance
movement, ultimately led to the ratifi cation
of the 18th Amendment — a ban on
alcoholic beverage production, sale and
consumption — in January 1919. National
Prohibition took eff ect the following
January.
S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewing Company
closed its Onderdonk Avenue saloon and
sold the property on Dec. 15, 1919. The new
owners, Peter and Tessie Neu, owned
the site until January of 1932, when they
transferred ownership of it to the 770
Onderdonk Avenue Realty Corporation.
National Prohibition, of course, failed
for myriad reasons, and momentum toward
its repeal grew in the early 1930s, as
the nation suff ered through the Great Depression.
The Cullen Bill, enacted in April
1933 (a month aft er Franklin D. Roosevelt
became president), allowed brewers to
produce beer with an alcoholic content
by weight of 3.2 percent. Then, on Dec. 5,
1933, the 21st Amendment repealing the
18th Amendment was ratifi ed, and any
and all limitations on alcoholic beverage
production were lift ed.
The corner saloon at Onderdonk Avenue
would be restored under diff erent
ownership. By 1938, the “Two Kioodles”
tavern was in operation. One of its
owners was Josef Dessinger, who lived
on Madison Street with his wife, Katie.
It is believed the other owner was Karl
Thieun, who resided in Glendale.
A kioodle (pronounced key-oodle) was
a German name for a small dog that tends
to yip. Why this name was selected for
the tavern, we do not know. However,
Two Kioodles became a popular hangout
in Ridgewood; business grew so
much that, prior to World War II in the
Ridgewood/Glendale area, it was known
among brewery workers as the largest
beer drop, with some 65 half-barrels of
beer per week.
It was famous not only in the neighborhood
but also among some visitors from
Germany, who came to visit Ridgewood,
which at the time was heavily populated
with German immigrants and their
children.
How famous was Two Kioodles? Two
World War II stories that we’ve heard
over the years answer that question in
a rather infamous way.
In the spring of 1943, when German
submarines were pounding the North
Atlantic convoys, a merchant ship in a
convoy was torpedoed. The crew of the
freighter put over their lifeboats and
pulled away from the sinking ship. The
convoy continued onward without stopping
to pick up survivors.
Eventually, after the convoy had
passed, one of the German submarines
surfaced near one of the lifeboats. The
u-boat captain called over in English and
asked if any of the lifeboat passengers
needed food, water or medicine. Because
the lifeboat had adequate supplies, the
merchant sailors said they didn’t need
anything.
The u-boat captain then asked if anyone
from New York was on board the
lifeboat. One merchant sailor said he
was from Ridgewood, Long Island. The
captain then asked if he knew Kioodles.
When the sailor responded that he did
know of it, the captain then asked when
he last visited the location.
The merchant sailor said about two
years prior, in 1941.
The u-boat captain went on to say that
he had been there aft er that. The United
States entered World War II on Dec. 8,
1941, one day aft er the Japanese bombed
Pearl Harbor, and the same day that Nazi
Germany had declared war on the United
States.
Another incident occurred when a
soldier from Ridgewood had been captured
by the German Army in Europe.
He was interrogated by a German offi cer
who spoke English. The story goes that
the German offi cer saw the soldier’s dog
tag — which indicated that he resided in
Ridgewood, Long Island — and asked him
about Kioodles.
Two Kioodles continued to be a popular
drinking hole in Ridgewood through
the 1980s, when it closed.
Sourced from the May 9, 1985, issue of the
Ridgewood Times.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or old
photographs of “Our Neighborhood: The
Way It Was” that you would like to share
with our readers, please write to the Old
Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell
Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, or send an email to
editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print
photographs mailed to us will be carefully
returned to you upon request.
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