WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES OCTOBER 26, 2017 21
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Ridgewood bar had intriguing links
to Prohibition and World War II
BY THE OLD TIMER
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.
No brewery operated in Brooklyn longer than this one, known for a time as S. Liebmann’s Sons, which
produced Rheingold Beer. Of its 121 years in Kings County, all but the fi rst were spent on Forrest Street off
Bushwick Avenue.
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 different
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, aft er 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 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 stories of Our Neighborhood
that you’d like to share with
us, email The Old Timer at editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com (subject: Old
Timer) or write to The Old Timer, ℅
Ridgewood Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd.,
Bayside, NY 11361.
Two Kioodles, shown here as it looked in December 1987, was a famous
Ridgewood bar from the 1930s into the 1980s.
