Author Rich Cohen will be guest bartender at The Benjamin on Nov. 8 to support RIdgefield Historical Society

Strands of history will converge on Wednesday evening, Nov. 8 from 6 to 10 pm when author Rich Cohen will be the guest bartender at The Benjamin, 20 West Lane in Ridgefield, to benefit the Ridgefield Historical Society. 

The evening will be the time to savor a historic location in Ridgefield and enjoy some time with friends while quizzing the bartender about sports history, particularly the 1987 NBA season (his latest book, published Sept. 5, is When the Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest Season). A percentage of every purchase between 6 and 10 p.m. will be donated to the Ridgefield Historical Society. Everyone is welcome.

Rich Cohen has fleshed out sports history across football (Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football); baseball, The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse; and even youth hockey (Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent). His other New York Times bestsellers include Tough Jews; When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead (with Jerry Weintraub), and The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones.

The Benjamin, named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, opened this year in a building with a long history of hospitality. Built around 1900 as the country home of George Pratt Ingersoll, who called it Ingleside, it became the Kane’s Inn in the 1930s and was later Walter Tode’s Inn, then Henry Prieger’s Inn at Ridgefield, and in 2000, Bernard’s, owned by Bernard and Sarah Bouissou, who sold the property to restaurateurs Rob Moss, Dave Studwell and BJ Lawless.

 If sports aren't your thing, our guest bartender is also  a co-creator of the HBO series Vinyl, an Editor at Large at Air Mail and a columnist at the Wall Street Journal. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications. Cohen has won the Great Lakes Book Award, the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award, and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for outstanding coverage of music. His stories have been included in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. According to his official biography, “Despite frequent predictions, he still lives in Connecticut.”

The Ridgefield Historical Society works to preserve and celebrate Ridgefield history; for more information call 203-438-5821 or ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org. For more information on The Benjamin call 475-275-6001 or thebenjaminrestaurant.com 

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