A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from January 20, 2009
“Beer before wine, you’ll feel fine; Wine before beer, you’ll feel queer”

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Google Books
September 1897, The Home Furnishing Review, pg. 367, col. 1:
The free translation (from German—ed.) of still another is:
 
Beer on wine,
Nit!
Wine on beer,
It!!
     
Google Books
Engelsch woordenboek: Eerste—[tweede] deel. ... . Achtste, omgewerkte en zeer vermeerderde uitgave
By Karel Bruggencate
Published by J. B. Wolters
1918
Item notes: V.2
Pg. 615:
wine on beer gives good cheer; beer on wine you’ll repine
(Translated from Dutch—ed.)
   
Google Books
Muret-sanders enzyklopädisches Englisch-deutsches und deutsch-englisches Wörterbuch:
Ein Parallelwerk zu Sachs-villate’s Französisch-deutschem und deutsch-französischem wörterbuche: mit Angabe der Aussprache nach dem phonetischen System der Methode Toussaint-langenscheidt

By Eduard Muret, Daniel Sanders, Immanuel Schmidt, Cornelis Stoffel, Hubert Jansen
Edition: 5, unabridged, revised
Published by Langenscheidt
1922
Item notes: v.2 K-Z
Pg. 9944:
wine on beer, give good cheer
beer on wine, you’ll repine
         
Google Books
My Ten Years in a Quandary and how They Grew
By Robert Benchley
Published by Blue Ribbon Books
1940
Pg. 203:
Beer before wine,
Everything fine!


is all right as a slogan, unless you happen to think that it might be: “Beer after wine.”
     
Google Books
Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases of Illinois
By Frances M. Barbour
Published by Southern Illinois University Press
1965
Pg. 14:
Wine on beer, never fear; / Beer on wine, always decline.
     
27 April 1965, Long Beach (CA) Independent, “Those Blasted Reminder Rhymes” by George Robeson, pg. A3, col. 1:
An old rhyme for revelers goes something like, “Beer before wine, everything fine.” Everything is fine, unless the saying goes, “Beer AFTER wine…” A little mistake like that can turn into a pretty big mistake if you’re the type person who would drink both beer and wine in one evening, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you are.
     
Google Books
Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations
By Kevin Guinagh
Edition: 3
Published by H.W. Wilson Co.
1983
Pg. 210:
Wine on beer, that’s my rule; beer on wine, that’s for the fool.
(Translated from German—ed.)
     
Google Books
Sex and Death to the Age 14
By Spalding Gray
New York, NY: Vintage Books
1986
Pg. 39:
It was there that he learned the good old German drinking expression, “Beer on wine, das is fine, wine on beer, das is fear.”
 
Goolge Books
A Dictionary of American Proverbs
By Wolfgang Mieder, Stewart A. Kingsbury and Kelsie B. Harder
Published by Oxford University Press
1992
Pg. 43:
Beer before wine, you’ll feel fine; wine before beer, you’ll feel queer.
Var.:
Wine on beer brings good cheer; beer on wine is not so fine.
   
Google Groups: alt.folklore.urban
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Dave Garland)
Date: 1996/06/07
Subject: Re: Switching Drinks

A cautionary rhyme from my youth:
“Beer on wine, all fine;
beer on whiskey, mighty risky.”
 
And a variation:
“Wine on beer, all clear;
wine on whiskey, mighty risky.”
     
Google Books
Alcoholica Esoterica:
A Collection of Useful and Useless Information as it Relates to the History and Consumption of All Manner of Booze

By Ian Lendler
New York, NY: Penguin Books
2005
Pg. 239:
“Beer before wine, you’ll feel fine. Wine before beer, you’ll feel queer.”

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityFood/Drink • Tuesday, January 20, 2009 • Permalink


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