This week we look back at The Milestone restaurant and bar in Englewood Cliffs, were many a New Year’s bash took place in the World War II era and post-war years.
The restaurant stood on 9W at the corner of Sherwood Avenue. Its famous “largest circular bar in Bergen County” is visible in the postcard above, which dates to the 1940s.
Two different New Year’s Eve advertisements are shown: the first dates to 1938 (filet mignon and champagne for $7 per couple!), while the second dates to 1950.
Harry Beyer and his wife Marie bought the restaurant in 1938 and operated it for decades. The Milestone offered dining, dancing and entertainment.
A featured dish in the 1940s was Chicken in the Rough: a half chicken served with fries, butter-drenched corn-on-the-cob, cole slaw and hot biscuits.
In 1945, Harry Beyer helped nab a teenage car-theft ring when he noticed a youth attempting to break into a car parked in the rear of The Milestone one night. Beyer grabbed the youth and called police as his accomplices fled in a getaway car. Fortunately, Beyer caught the license plate number and police found the vehicle. The car itself was stolen, and it contained the proceeds of vehicular break-ins that had taken place across Bergen and Essex counties. The boys involved were all between 15 and 17 years old.
In 1955 five gunmen held up The Milestone, locking Harry Beyer and a porter in a restroom. The thieves ripped out the telephone wires and stole all the cash from two registers, totaling between $500 and $750. In that case, the criminals got away with the crime.