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May 2026
RL/Culture

Do Tail

Polo may have its roots elsewhere, but since its stateside inception, preparation for the game has been tied to a very American sporting tradition: the tailgate.
Friends and family, burgers, brats and beer, pickup trucks and SUVs, coolers, and a game of cornhole. Today’s vision of tailgating is mostly a collegiate one, rooted in American football and car culture. Some say it can be traced back to the Yale-Harvard football game at Yale Field in 1906, when The New York Times reported 32,000 fans traveling to New Haven, many of them city-dwelling alumni parking automobiles (which were still not widely available) in an open field, where train-taking fans “gazed with envious eyes as they neared the field at small parties of automobilists eating tempting viands that had been brought in hampers spread out in picnic fashion.” But it was also around this time that the game of polo began to gain popularity in the US, especially along the East Coast, where horse breeder Harry Payne Whitney (himself a Yalie) organized the American polo team that in 1909 would defeat England with a faster paced version of the sport. In 1907, Myopia (one of the oldest polo clubs in the US) played host to the Harvard-Yale football game on its own Gibney Field. And so began a parallel tradition of tailgating among fans of both American football and the more internationally inclined polo. Polo often has the advantage of allowing cars to back up directly to the playing field, with open trunks, tents, and picnic blankets creating a cushy outdoor living room that beats the plastic seating and tepid concessions of stadiums. A polo tailgate often wins in style points, too: Some spectators take it as an opportunity to bring a classic car out of the garage. There’s less emphasis on foam coolers and portable grills; more on Champagne buckets and picnic baskets, wicker trays, blankets, and creative seating. It’s not unheard of for tailgaters to set full tablescapes (with proper cutlery and real glass) under their tents, and some clubs even do a tailgate contest ahead of a match. Might American football fans gaze with “envious eyes” on such a scene today? We hope.
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From The Polo Bar

The Summer Night

Among The Polo Bar’s seasonal additions, the Summer Night is a fragrant twist on the Southside, a Prohibition-era classic cocktail linked to the South Side Sportsmen’s Club.

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. Hendrick’s gin
  • 1 oz. St-Germain elderflower liqueur
  • 1 oz. lemon juice
  • 4 leaves of basil
  • 4 slices of cucumber
  • 4 leaves of mint

Directions

Place herbs and cucumber slices in a mixing tin. Using a muddler, muddle together until aromatic. Add ice and liquid ingredients to tin. Cover and shake well. Using a strainer, strain over fresh ice in a double-old-fashioned glass. For the garnish, choose a generous sprig of mint and place on the side of a glass, stem down. Add a polo mallet.

Shannon Adducci is a writer and fashion editor based in New York. Her work has appeared in Elle, GQ, Departures, Robb Report, WWD, and T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
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