A bunch of mugs and dolls from last year’s Midtown Pop-Up Speakeasy, which returns next week.
Hey, all you flappers and four-flushers, you goons and grifters.
We got your chews, your giggle juice, even your rats and mice.
For the second straight year, the historic Central Trust Co. building in Midtown Harrisburg will roll back in time, transforming itself into a Prohibition-era speakeasy, complete with period cocktails, jazz music and games of chance.
The Midtown Pop-Up Speakeasy is a natural fit for the bank building, now the home of the Historic Harrisburg Association, the beneficiary of the fundraiser, said event co-chair Ralph Vartan. Indeed, it takes little to imagine the 1920s heyday of the brownstone at N. 3rd and Verbeke streets, with lines of people waiting at teller windows as the industrial city boomed around them.
“It was a huge success last year, even drawing a new demographic to HHA,” Vartan said. “It’s meant to be a fun event where people can let their hair down.”
Vartan said he was impressed with how attendees got into the spirit of the event, dressing up in slinky dresses, pinstriped suits and hats, hats and more hats. The HHA board of directors considered the sold-out event such a success that they upped the maximum attendance this year.
“It’s meant to really bring the community together to benefit a great cause,” Vartan said.
Café 1500 will provide heavy hors d’oeuvres, bartenders will make old-fashioned drinks (including Old Fashions), a Roaring ‘20s band will give you the crazy legs and Hollywood Casino will bring in gaming tables (thus, the rats and mice, which is Jazz Age slang for a type of gambling).
In the spirit of the speakeasy, bartenders will dress up as phony bank tellers and take drink orders using coded messages.
So, don your glad rags and ankle on over, but leave your gats outside. Don’t snitch, and it’ll all be jake.
The Midtown Pop-Up Speakeasy takes place April 6, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., at the Historic Harrisburg Resource Center, 1230 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. Tickets are $35. For more information, visit www.historicharrisburg.com or HHA’s Facebook page.
