• by Karl Greenberg , October 7, 2014

New York's literary history is, of course, intimately bound with booze, and vodka brand Stolichnaya is going to tell that story, or at least sponsor a telling of it, via a partnership with the three-day long The New Yorker Festival. 

The company, which is using the partnership to tout its super-premium “elit by Stolichnaya” spirit, will start things off on Oct. 10 with a branded exhibition and photo exhibit. The event, “Spirit & Ink,” is curated by writer/historian Kevin Fitzpatrick, founder of the Dorothy Parker Society. The exhibit is about the intersection of New York literature and cocktail culture. 

The brand is also partnering with six New York City watering holes for a literary drinking guide. Each of the bars — the Algonquin's Blue Bar, The Lion, The Library at the Public Theater, Hudson Bar and Books, Employees Only and Winnie's Bar at the Refinery — will feature an elit by Stoli-infused cocktail. 

Fitzpatrick will host tours of the Algonquin and the neighborhood, including the Royalton Hotel, Harvard Club, and the original location of the Damon Runyonesque steakhouse Delmonico’s. 

Missing from the list are the most famous literary bars: The White Horse Tavern, where Dylan Thomas got terminal alcohol poisoning; the (defunct) San Remo Cafe on MacDougal, where literary critic Anatole Broyard, and dancer, writer, bon vivant Vincent Livelli (who is still alive and well on Perry Street in the Village, by the way), their friend Delmore Schwartz, and then later on William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg all held forth; and The Old Town bar. But these are or were dives where writers could afford to drink, rubbing shoulders occasionally with mafiosi.  

The other festival sponsors are MasterCard, Acura, United, and Häagen-Dazs. The Folio Society and Ontario, Canada. MasterCard, through its “Priceless New York” program is offering access to special “behind the scenes” events and block tickets; Häagen-Dazs is hosting a Gelato Bar at the MasterCard Stage as the School of Visual Arts, one of the Festival venues; United will have a sponsored lounge in the same area, and there will be a “Taste of Ontario” food truck.