Prohibition Party Saturday, December 7 at First and South

Celebrate the 80th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition at First and South in Greenport on Saturday, December 7 starting at 10:30 p.m.

Those were dark days pre-1933, when the Temperance Movement got their agenda through Congress. The country spent 13 years dry, and the fallout was severe. The burgeoning wine industry in California was stopped dead in its tracks. Elliot Ness, well, you know the story. The violence of the black market reached the average joe. Even on the East End.What is now the Old Mill Inn can still show visitors the the trap door in the floor of the bar where the bartender could drop the contraband into the Mattituck Inlet. The same goes for Claudio’s in Greenport. So get yourself to Greenport and raise a glass to repeal. We wouldn’t have Long Island Wine Country without it.