Big Apple's oldest bartender mixing it for the best

NEW YORK - As the commercial capital of the New World, New York loves to celebrate all things that are its oldest.

Bowling Green is its oldest park, Pete's Tavern its oldest restaurant and crocodiles in the sewers its oldest myth. Yesterday, the town stopped to salute a man who, as far as anyone can tell, is its oldest living bartender.

Hoy Wong, turned 90, is indeed still alive and thriving and, more importantly, still showing up for work five nights a week to watch over his flock of corporate-card spenders and would-be literati at the Blue Bar in the Algonquin Hotel.

While the Algonquin Hotel, built in 1902, is not quite the oldest in the city, it is surely one of its most storied and most antique in atmosphere.

It is a nostalgic match made in Heaven. The Algonquin is the hotel where Dorothy Parker held her writers' round tables after World War I with the likes of Robert Benchley and Harold Ross, who conceived the New Yorker magazine there. Wong, meanwhile, is the only martini shaker left who can reminisce about stars of an era, all of whom he served and befriended. Think Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin and Judy Garland.

The hotel did not let the birthday of Wong, known as Mister Hoy, to pass by quietly. There was a party for his friends and most loyal regulars in the Algonquin's main reception room.

"It's rare in your life when you meet someone who really is the real deal like him," said the hotel's general manager, Bill Liles. "He is by far our most dependable employee, always a smile on his face. And he has quite a female following, quite a sex symbol in New York. He is an icon, really."

The lapel pin is Wong's homage to the country that has given him such fortune. He arrived in San Francisco from Hong Kong in 1940 before moving to New York two years later. In 1943, he enlisted with the US Army Air Forces and from 1943 until 1946 was stationed in India and then in China.

His memories of those days are still vivid and anyone who asks should be ready to spare a few minutes.

His first bar job came in 1948, when he began work at a now defunct Chinese restaurant and bar on 53rd and Lexington called Freeman Chums.

"The boss, he knew a lot of politicians, a lot of people," Wong said in his fragmented English, signalling he was ready to begin his list of celebrities he has known and mixed drinks for.

Judy Garland came in regularly with a friend but was generally "very sad". She also downed the booze. "She said keep going, keep going" as he poured the whisky.

Jerry Lewis used to go into Freeman Chums when he was in town. So did Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye, who would pull his jacket over his head as he came in to elude the attention of fans on the pavement. "Marilyn Monroe came in for lunch every Wednesday when she was in New York with second husband, Arthur Miller," he said.

"Always Beefeater Martini, dry. Never change."

- INDEPENDENT