America's very first Fourth of July celebration was held at the City Tavern in Philadelphia! On July 4, 1777, Congress gathered there to commemorate “the anniversary of American Independence.” The merriment included a lavish banquet in the Tavern’s Long Room, likely including foods such as chicken, duck, tongue, roast beef, mutton, shad, bread and butter, cucumbers and lettuces, washed down with sizable amounts of porter, spirits, toddy, punch, Madeira, and claret. John Adams described it as a “festivity and ceremony becoming the occasion” in a letter to his wife Abigail.
Read more about the significance of the City Tavern to this important time in America’s early history in my new book,City Tavern: The Founding Table, with a foreword by City Tavern's former Chef, Walter Staib. Now available for preorder, with a launch date of August 21!