Our location used to be home to the gangsters, mobsters, and gamblers at the Flamingo Club (633 Club). In the late 1930s, Arthur Dennert opened the Flamingo Club at 633 York Street. Dennert was a local bootlegger who subsequently opened Club Alexandria and was a partner in a beer distributing company. The Eastern Syndicate, with full concurrence of the Cleveland Syndicate (who “owned” the Northern Kentucky area), forced Dennert out of the Flamingo. The Levinson brothers, Mike, Ed and “Sleepout” Louis, representing the Eastern Syndicate headed by Meyer Lansky, ran the Flamingo and made it into a major player in the Newport gambling scene.
The back room featured a large gambling area complete with horse boards for all major tracks, roulette and craps and poker tables. The cooperation between the two syndicates was unusual, but there is evidence that Cleveland shared in the profits coming out of the Flamingo, so they could allow the Eastern Syndicate’s presence without financial harm. The Flamingo was also known as the 633 Club due to the address and much of its memorabilia has “633 Club” printed on it. Most illegal clubs tried not to advertise their intentions, but the Flamingo did so with the 633 Club tag. Gambling was ended in the early 1960s
Although we lack $1.25 fried Chicken, the Flamingo Club’s spirit is brewed into every batch of beer.
If you would like to learn about the Newport Gambling scene, there is a great write-up of its history which this paragraph was sourced here.