At the weekly meetings, the members wore a blue coat and buff waistcoat with brass buttons bearing a gridiron motif and the words "Beef and liberty". The steaks and baked potatoes were accompanied by port or porter. After dinner, the evening was given up to noisy revelry. The club met almost continuously until 1867. Sir Henry Irving continued its tradition in the late nineteenth century. The Sublime Society was revived in 1966 and holds many of the original Society's relics in safe keeping. Its membership includes lineal descendants from the nineteenth century membership, and it adheres to the Society's early rules and customs. [1] Gilbert, who could not bring himself to sit through the opening nights of his own plays, often waited at the club until it was time to go to the theatre for the curtain calls. [36]

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Report of the fiftieth anniversary dinner, "Beefsteak and Brotherhood", Cairns Post, 6 June 1936, p.13. Timbs (1872) gives no date for this club but cites Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewis, vol ii, p. 196 as his source. The oldest dining club in Australia is the Melbourne Beefsteak Club, established in May 1886, [21] when merchant John Deegan, [22] City Councillor William Ievers, [23] solicitor James Maloney and manufacturer Frank Stuart [24] gathered with friends for regular lunches. [25] Their motto was "Beefsteak and Brotherhood", and the membership was made up of gentlemen from business, the professions, and academia. [26] It held its 300th dinner on 14 October 1916 [27] and its 400th on 11 August 1928, in the Hotel Windsor. [28] [29] "Leadership in War", the speech that General Sir John Monash gave to the Club on 30 March 1926, was included in a 2004 collection entitled The Speeches that Made Australia. [30] Successors to the Sublime Society [ edit ] Dining room at the Lyceum, used by the Sublime Society and later by Henry Irving. The kitchen is at the rear, beyond the gridiron-shaped grating. Irving's dinners and the present Sublime Society [ edit ]

Deegan, John F. The Chronicles of the Melbourne Beefsteak Club. Volume 1, 1886-1889 (Melbourne: The Club, 1890) The Sublime Society of Beef Steaks was established in 1735 by John Rich at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, of which he was then manager. One version of its origin has it that the Earl of Peterborough, supping one night with Rich in his private room, was so delighted with the steak Rich grilled him that he suggested a repetition of the meal the next week. Another version is that George Lambert, the scene-painter at the theatre, was often too busy to leave the theatre and "contented himself with a beefsteak broiled upon the fire in the painting-room." His visitors so enjoyed sharing this dish that they set up the Sublime Society. William and Robert Chambers, writing in 1869, favour the second version, noting that Peterborough was not one of the original members. [3] A third version, favoured by the historian of the society, Walter Arnold, is that the society was formed out of the regular dinners shared at the theatre by Rich and Lambert, consisting of hot steak dressed by Rich, accompanied by "a bottle of old port from the tavern hard by." [6] Whatever the details of its genesis, Rich and Lambert are listed as the first two of the society's twenty-four founding members. [7] Women were not admitted. From the outset, the society strove to avoid the term "club", but the shorter "Beefsteak Club" was soon used by many as an informal alternative. [6] The club originally met at the Imperial Phiz public house in Old Jewry in the City of London, but finding that venue not private enough, it ceased to meet there, and by 1709 it was not known "whether they have healed the breach and returned into the Kit-Cat community [or] … remove from place to place to prevent discovery." [4] Joseph Addison referred to the club in The Spectator in 1711 as still functioning. The historian Colin J. Horne suggests that the club may have come to an end with the death of Estcourt in 1712. [2] There was also a "Rump-Steak or Liberty Club" (also called "The Patriots Club") of London, which was in existence in 1733–34, whose members were "eager in opposition to Sir Robert Walpole". [5] Sublime Society of Beef Steaks [ edit ] Badge of the Sublime Society: a gridiron and the motto "Beef and Liberty"

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Johnson had, in the winter of 1749, formed a club that met weekly at the King's Head, a famous beef-steak house in Ivy Lane, near St. Paul's, every Tuesday evening. Thither he constantly resorted with a disposition to please and be pleased. Our conversations seldom began till after a supper so very solid and substantial as led us to think that with him it was a dinner." [18] The Sublime Society of Beef Steaks was re-formed in 1966 and has met continually since then. Several nineteenth century members have lineal descendants among today's membership, who wear the original blue and buff uniform (of a Regency character) and buttons and adhere to the 1735 constitution whenever practicable. [1] This revival started to meet at the Irish Club, Eaton Square, in 1966, then at the Beefsteak Club, Irving Street, and today meets in a private room at the Boisdale Club and Restaurant in Belgravia/ Victoria and, annually, at White's Club in St James’s, where it is able to dine at the early society's nineteenth century table and where it also keeps the early society's original "President’s Chair", which Queen Elizabeth II gave to the current society in 1969. [1] [33] Although other of the society's relics (such as the original Grid Iron, Sword of State, Halberts and early members' chairs, rings, glasses, documents, etc.) have passed down to members of the current society from ancestors in the original society, the current society "leaves such items in safety, keeping less fragile replicas and proxy items for its normal meetings in Central London". [1] Other early customs of the original society, such as the singing and composition of songs, are also encouraged by the current society. [34] Beefsteak Club, Irving Street [ edit ] Early members of the 1876 Beefsteak Club: (top) Henry Irving (l) and W. S. Gilbert; (below) Henry Labouchère (l) and F. C. Burnand Hollingshead, John (1903). Good Old Gaiety: An Historiette & Remembrance. London: Gaiety Theatre Co. OCLC 1684298. a b c Horne, Colin J., "Notes on Steele and the Beef-Steak Club", The Review of English Studies, July 1945, pp. 239–44 While it has now been dethroned by the mighty Tikka Masala and the moreish fish and chips, Britain's most iconic dish was once - indisputably - Roast Beef.Perfect for pairing with your favourite meat or barbecue dish, there’s a Beefsteak Club wine for every occasion. Allen, Robert Joseph (1933). The Clubs of Augustan London. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. OCLC 2174749. In the final episode of this World Cup marathon, Tom and Dominic chart the dish’s prominence over the years and how, as an affront to the French, it became a rallying point for British patriotism and conservatism. East India Club 1849–present (Incorporating the former Public Schools Club, which now makes up most of its membership)