NYC EATS

“Sometimes when I reflect on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. I think, ‘It is better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.’” - Babe Ruth

You may know of some famous New York families, like the Roosevelts, the Rockfellers, the Ramones – but if you don’t know the Rupperts (Roo-perts), you don’t really know New York. This father-and-son (and -grandfather) team left an indelible, and somewhat surprising, legacy in this city.

The first Ruppert in America, Franz, arrived in the city in 1835. He started turning out the Bavarian-style beer of his homeland at his Turtle Bay Brewery on First Avenue and 45th Street. His son, the first Jacob Ruppert, worked alongside his father from an early age, and by 1867 he was helping to manage the entire business. He soon branched off and opened his own Jacob Ruppert Brewery on Third Avenue and 92nd Street, which was an immediate success, producing 5,000 barrels its first year. The brewery had to be expanded again and again, until it filled the area between 91st and 92nd Streets, from First to Second Avenues. This, and the other major breweries located on the Upper East Side, drew many beer workers from the downtown enclave of Kleindeutschland up to the Yorkville area, making it a new “Little Germany.”

Ruppert implemented the latest brewing technologies, such as glass-lined steel tanks for greater beer purity, a slew of year-round ice houses, and state-of-the art stables to house his fabulous delivery horses. Known as “one of the largest figures in the brewing world,” Ruppert branched out into other industries, such as real estate, silk production, and lumbering. One would think that with such credentials, Jacob Ruppert would stand apart as a world-renowned businessman. But he fathered a son who would soon eclipse him in fame, riches, and inventiveness.

Jacob Ruppert Jr., born on August 5, 1867, grew up in his father’s house on Fifth Avenue. The brilliant lad was accepted into Columbia, but instead opted to work in his father’s brewery. He started out as a barrel washer, working 12-hour days for $10 a week. Eventually he became vice president and general manager of the business.

It seemed that anything Junior attempted turned out to be a smashing success. He refined the recipe for Knickerbocker beer, which became the brewery’s biggest seller. When he enlisted as a private in the National Guard, he was speedily promoted to colonel (a title he used for the rest of his life.) He was then appointed aide-de-camp for two successive New York governors. Why stop there? In 1898 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, defeated the incumbent, and served four terms in Congress. When Jacob Senior died in 1915, Jacob Junior inherited the Jacob Ruppert Brewing Company and became its president.

From brewer to colonel to congressman to company president. Not a bad life story...but we’re far from the end. There was one thing that Jacob Junior loved more than anything...more than beer brewing, law making, or being a colonel...and that was baseball.

Since childhood, Ruppert dreamed of somehow being involved in professional baseball. Now he could afford to buy his own team! His offers to the New York Giants fell on deaf ears. However, their lackluster rivals, the New York Highlanders, were for sale, and Jacob nabbed them before the 1915 season for $480,000. Reasonable, considering the team rarely posted winning records.

Then, guess what? Colonel Ruppert changed the franchise’s name to the New York Yankees and acquired one Babe Ruth from Boston. The Yanks began drawing more crowds than the Giants, with whom they shared the Polo Grounds. After the Yankees won their first AL pennant, the Giants’ owner raised their rent. Thank God...this move inspired the Colonel to build a new stadium across the Harlem River from their rivals. And, in an unusual move, he named the new ballpark not for a donor, advertiser, or himself, but for the team: Yankee Stadium.

It would be any Yankee fan’s dream to have been in “The House That Ruth Built” during the Ruppert years. Acquiring players like Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and “Murderers Row,” hiring managers like Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, and Casey Stengel, and collecting an unsurpassed ten World Series victories during his tenure, Ruppert had left another mark on his beloved hometown. He was thanked in 2013 by being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

If you wish to thank Junior more “personally,” next time you’re at his stadium visit his plaque in Monument Park, installed just after his death in 1938. It calls Rupert: “Gentleman, American, sportsman, through whose vision and courage this imposing edifice, destined to become the home of champions, was erected and dedicated to the American game of baseball.”

He made great beer, too.

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