If you're one for solitude and sanctum whilst you slurp your carefully concocted cocktail, then you're likely in hot pursuit of some of the best hidden speakeasy bars around. Like Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. of Philadelphia, some of the
best cocktail bars in America double as some of the coolest speakeasies. Like a junkie miner hunting for his liquid gold, let us take you down the street, through the back alleys, up to unmarked doors and lend you the ever-changing password to travel down the magical rabbit holes and show you the best hidden American speakeasy bars.
Wilson & Wilson Private Detective Agency (San Francisco, CA)
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The Wilson is a speakeasy inside of a speakeasy, the pearl inside of an elusive oyster. That's right, you need two passwords to get in, and probably a decent pair of shoes to boot. In the upstairs of popular speakeasy Bourbon & Branch lies The Wilson, with a noir-esque simplicity we all clamor for in our busy-bee lives. And with 3-for-$30 drink flights of various, sophisticated aperitifs and digestifs, no one walks away unsatisfied from this San Franciscan speakeasy, a diamond inside of an elegant piece of coal.
Williams & Graham (Denver, CO)
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As far as cleverly hidden speakeasy bars go, this takes the cake. I mean, who would be smart enough to look in the back of a bookstore for a secret lair of liquor? And for that matter, who reads anymore? With the pull of a copy of "Savoy" - we're referring to Harry Craddock's "Savoy Cocktail Book" - well-trained guests can enter the world of Williams & Graham. Harry Braddock, for your information -not "FYI," you illiterate numbskull - was a passionate, well-known and accomplished cocktail craftsman of the 1920s, and his book - the key to your entrance - is the spell book for his witchcraft. With kind keepers of many a crafty concoction, patrons are on a first-name basis with their elixir shaman, thus, making the speak a little easier than a crowded bar of sorts.
The Varnish (Los Angeles, CA)
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In the back of Cole's - it's one of the
oldest saloons in downtown Los Angeles - through the kitchen doors and into a tight-knit room of both class and culture, The Varnish rests dark and moody on 6th Street. Wrap your lips around an orange mint vodka cocktail and enjoy the musings of local pianists, but keep it to a dull roar, as this speakeasy spot has a few rules about noise and vulgarity. Nothing on the other side of a kitchen door ever tasted so great, and you will share the same urinal space as greats like Charles Bukowski, just not at the same time.
Patterson House (Nashville, TN)
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Dressed like a room Capone or Dillinger might rest their weary heads in, the Patterson House in Nashville is dressed to the nines of pre-Prohibition and named after former Tennessee governor, Malcolm R. Patterson, who banned prohibition there more than a hundred years ago. With more than 50 items on the carefully craft-worthy menu, there's little not to love about one of the
best bars in Tennessee.
Blind Barber (Brooklyn, NY)
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Mixing style and sophisticated libations, Blind Barber puts its speakeasy in the back of a '50s style barbershop. With nostalgic, swirling carousels of red and blue and locations in Los Angeles, New York and a new location in Brooklyn, the Blind Barber delivers five uniquely crafted drinks - Blackjack and Sweeney Todd are great whiskey drinks - in addition to the usual canon of cocktails, along with a menu full of some of the best goddamn grilled cheeses on the planet. Pop into their new Brooklyn shop, greet my pal, Anthony, then get yourself a good
classic style trim, a grilled cheese and one of the best damn cocktails around New York.
The Violet Hour (Chicago, IL)
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Hidden in the windowless halls of Wicker Park, The Violet Hour is a modern speakeasy of evolving and dissolving graffiti art behind a camou-colored door and velvet curtains. In the dead of winter, you'll find the speakeasy's no-roaming policy a bit of a godsend as you hunker down for some of the craftiest cocktails just south of the Great Lakes. For every thousand wild Midwestern draught slingers, there's one man who belongs at The Violet Hour. Let it be you and drink with grace, young laddy.
PDT (New York, NY)
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Hidden inside famous frankfurter, Crif Dogs, in the East Village of New York, PDT (which stands for Please Don't Tell) is a tiny masterpiece of wood, brick, mortar, leather and taxidermy with a cocktail list that could sedate a wild rhino. The bacon-infused Old Fashioned is a sure-fire good time. Just dial "1" in the phone booth and wait to be buzzed into their secret passageway. Calling ahead helps to ensure your entrance, but nothing is sure in such a secure Jager-free bomb shelter.
Del Monte Speakeasy (Venice Beach, CA)
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In the narrow downstairs of one of Venice's best bars to get liquored up in - The Townhouse is her name - lies one of the best low-ceiling, gypsy hideaways the west side of Los Angeles. The answer to underground parties and poorly-lit good times, Del Monte dates back to the early 1900s when an Italian man turned the now-Townhouse into a grocery store during Prohibition and kept the downstairs as the bar it is today. And for that very reason, they know how celebrate the abolishment of prohibition - the $1 Old Fashioned. With some of the best local music, "Thriller" dance parties and handsome, well-trained barkeeps, there's still some hope of class for the sandy parts of L.A. in this stark basement.
Midnight Cowboy (Austin, TX)
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No, Jon Voight does not tend bar here, but it'd be a very popular spot if he did, especially if he dressed - and played! - the part. Not far from Austin's (best cocktail bar), Lamberts, this speakeasy houses one of the best rules ant establishment could hope to have: no cellphones. With the same sign, which hung above its door when it was a massage parlor, the words "Midnight Cowboy Modeling Oriental Massage" is how you know you're in the presence of greatness. Just make sure you have a reservation.
Circa 33 (Portland, OR)
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Circa 33, likely a reference to the year 1933, is a Post Prohibition-themed Portland bar on Belmont Street with special access to its hidden speakeasy behind the secret, swinging bookshelf by the bathroom. Welcomed guests will be gaining access to a tiny wooden room where the only things jetting out of place are shiny, bottles, billiards and live piano music. Oh, and the eyeballs of its constituents. For those of us who pride ourselves on discovering special watering holes with library ladders and towering shelves of bottles in our alcohol-friendly era of existence, let us drink one from the most top shelf of top shelves and cheers to finding yet another diamond in the rough of this sickening soiree we call life.
