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Rich Cohen, Guest Bartender @ The Benjamin
Wednesday, November 8, 2023 @ 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST
Strands of history will converge on Wednesday evening, Nov. 8, 2023 when author Rich Cohen will be the guest bartender at The Benjamin, 20 West Lane in Ridgefield, to benefit the Ridgefield Historical Society.
The evening will be the time to savor a historic location in Ridgefield and enjoy some time with friends while quizzing the bartender about sports history, particularly the 1987 NBA season. This fun gathering will include the “fast break” as our signature drink, drawings (bring cash for tickets), and more. A percentage of every beverage and food purchase in the bar between 6 and 10 p.m. will be donated to the Ridgefield Historical Society. Everyone is welcome to attend and there is no admission fee.
Cohen’s most recent book is When the Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest Season, when the greatest teams were the Celtics, the Lakers, the Pistons and the Bulls, led by Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and a young Michael Jordan. The story of this season is in many ways the story of the 1980s NBA, when the finals always came down to a team facing the Celtics or the Lakers, and three times to those two facing each other. 1987 was one of those seasons.
Rich Cohen has fleshed out sports history across football (Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football); baseball, The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse; and even youth hockey (Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent). His other New York Times bestsellers include Tough Jews; When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead (with Jerry Weintraub), and The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones.
The Benjamin, named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, opened this year in a building with a long history of hospitality. Built around 1900 as the country home of George Pratt Ingersoll, who called it Ingleside, it became the Kane’s Inn in the 1930s and was later Walter Tode’s Inn, then Henry Prieger’s Inn at Ridgefield, and in 2000, Bernard’s, owned by Bernard and Sarah Bouissou, who sold the property to restaurateurs Rob Moss, Dave Studwell and BJ Lawless.
Rich Cohen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tough Jews; Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football; Sweet and Low; When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead (with Jerry Weintraub); The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones; The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse, and Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent. His new book, When The Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest season, was published on Sept. 5, by Random House. He is a co-creator of the HBO series Vinyl, an Editor at Large at Air Mail and a columnist at the Wall Street Journal. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications. Cohen has won the Great Lakes Book Award, the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award, and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for outstanding coverage of music. His stories have been included in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. According to his official biography, “Despite frequent predictions, he still lives in Connecticut.”
The Ridgefield Historical Society works to preserve and celebrate Ridgefield history; for more information call 203-438-5821. For more information on The Benjamin, click here.
