El Morocco

El Morocco was once the ultimate epicenter of Manhattan café society, a world where the power to decide who belonged rested entirely on the appearance of a single rope. Founded by Italian immigrant and former boxer John Perona in nineteen thirty one, the club operated as a speakeasy before emerging as the city's most exclusive supper club after the repeal of Prohibition. Its name was chosen for its proximity to the Third Avenue elevated railway, which locals simply called the El. Perona cultivated an atmosphere of intense exclusivity, famously pioneering the use of the velvet rope at his entrance to physically separate his handpicked elite from the rest of the public.