Once again glasses will be held high and joined voices will ring out as the Brethren enjoy platters piled high with delicious meats and never-ending pitchers of beer
Click here to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/MarinersBeefsteak2025
Check out this video of the Beefsteak Festive Board from 2018: youtube.com/watch?v=QxYE7jlrAvQ
WHEN and WHERE
- Friday, January 17
- Seating at 5:00 PM
- Opening Gavel at 6:30 PM
- Grand Lodge Room, Masonic Hall, NYC
The Maritime Festive Board is the kickoff event for the 2025 Masonic Con New York! Go to MasonicConNewYork.com for tickets and information.
SOME DETAILS
- Tuxedo (preferred) or Business Formal
- Everyone gets a Butcher’s Apron
- This event is open to Masons and male guests only
- Prepaid reservations required to attend
- Tickets are transferrable but nonrefundable
- You are welcome to bring your own beverages but red
wine is strictly prohibited in the Grand Lodge Room
- We regret that we are not able to offer complementary tickets
MENU
First Course: Iced Shrimp
The Ancient Mariner’s Cured Salmon
House Pickles
Second Course: Pastrami with Rye Toast
Roast Pork with Rolls
Tomato-Braised Lamb Meatballs
Third Course: Memphis-Style Dry-Rubbed Pork Ribs
48-Hour Braised Beef Short Ribs
Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing
Fourth Course: Strip Steak
Lamb Chops
Tricolor Potato Medley
Fifth Course: Assorted Dessert Platters
Beer from the famous Bronx Beer Hall
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ABOUT THE MASONIC FESTIVE BOARD
The Festive Board is a feature of the Masonry that extends back to our very beginnings. Operative stonemasons’ lodges would gather upon important occasions around tables laden with food and drink to celebrate in fellowship with the tangible fruits of their labor. Most common were feasts on St. John the Baptist’s Day and St. John the Evangelist’s Day, which were not coincidentally right around the time of the Summer and Winter Solstices. These traditions have been part of our Craft ever since. Indeed, one of the reasons given for forming the first Grand Lodge in 1717 was to hold an annual feast.
In the days before Masons had their beautiful purpose-built Masonic Temples and Lodge Rooms, members of the Craft often convened their Lodges in taverns and restaurants. The tables were pushed back and Square and Compasses might be scratched out in the sawdust covering the floor while the Brethren performed their Masonic Work. Before too long the idea arose of taking advantage of what the tavern had to offer, and a practice was born whereby the Brethren would take food and drink on a Masonic form and while conducting the Work of the Lodge.
Over time, various ritual practices of the Festive Board evolved, especially among military officers, who incorporated various elements from their formal dining traditions. These historic rituals and traditions have been resurrected in the modern day, and the Masonic Festive Board with its multiple courses of food, toasts, responses, and giving of “Masonic Fire” has become one of the most popular special events among Masons.
The Mariners Lodge Maritime Festive Board is a unique form of these table ceremonies, which invokes certain early Masonic legends and incorporates elements of historical naval practice and seafaring tradition.
ABOUT THE BEEFSTEAK BANQUET
The Mariners Lodge Maritime Festive Board and Beefsteak Banquet incorporates elements from the rich New York tradition of the Beefsteak Banquet – those famous celebrations of gluttony where men gathered to eat massive amounts of aged steak, lamb chops, shrimp cocktail, roast pork, beef ribs and pork ribs washed down with bottomless schooners of beer. Forks and knives were strictly prohibited in those days, but at this event you will be provided with cutlery, napkins and a take-home butcher’s apron!
Here’s how Joseph Miller described it in a 1939 piece for The New Yorker:“Oh, they were amazing functions,” he said. “The men wore butcher aprons and chef hats. They used the skirt of the apron to wipe the grease off their faces. Napkins were not allowed. The name of the organization that was running the beefsteak would be printed across the bib, and the men took the aprons home for souvenirs. We still wear aprons, but now they’re rented from linen-supply houses. They’re numbered, and you turn them in at the hat-check table when you get you hat and coat. Drunks of course, always refuse to turn theirs in.
“In the old days they didn’t even use tables and chairs. They sat on beer crates and ate off the tops of beer barrels. You’d be surprised how much fun that was. Somehow it made old men feel young again. And they’d drink beer out of cans or growlers. Those beefsteaks were run in halls or the cellars or back rooms of big saloons. There was always sawdust on the floor. Sometimes they had one in a bowling alley. They would cover the alleys with tarpaulin and set the boxes and barrels in the aisles. The men ate with their fingers. They never served potatoes in those days. Too filling. They take up room that rightfully belongs to meat and beer.”