In this month’s hot take, we catch up with a food and drink historian about how too many bars are throwing around the word “speakeasy” as false advertising.
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I think we need to bring back Prohibition. Not for the sale of alcohol, though, but for something that arose from that era: the word “speakeasy.” It was the proper word for the clandestine bars throughout the country during the 1920s and early ’30s, but now it’s tossed around left and right to describe everything from a quiet restaurant to a luxe lounge with low lighting, all with perfectly visible signage and websites.
So, let me be the one to say it: No, you were not just at a speakeasy the other night; you were at a bar or a restaurant or maybe a pub. One with a good marketing team. And that’s it. Sorry to burst your boozy bubble.
I’ve been writing and deeply researching food and drink history since 2006, including writing several books and endless articles about the history of food, restaurants, and bars. I’ve learned a lot about historic bar culture, bootlegging, liquor laws, and what makes a speakeasy an actual speakeasy. We even have my great uncle’s bathtub gin recipe as a family heirloom, which I intend to perfect. I’ve spent many a night disappointed by walking into what was billed as a speakeasy only to find out it was just a velvety room. To help you understand my perspective, let’s go back to the Roaring ’20s and explore an actual speakeasy.
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The History of Speakeasies
Prohibition started on January 17, 1920, largely thanks to the religious-backed temperance movement that claimed alcohol was causing all sorts of societal evils, like crime and abuse. So, when the clock struck midnight on that day, all legal establishments selling booze throughout the country had to go dry.
We can safely say that Americans in the 1920s did not take that restriction well. Secret bars and taverns began to pop up in cities throughout the U.S. They weren’t fancy; they were often in a basement or a dimly lit, small back room with bare walls. In the Midwest, we embraced beer flats: apartments or homes with a barrel of beer hidden in the kitchen that was poured for patrons in the house. It was like going to your neighbor’s home if your neighbor’s home was secretly a bar. All these hidden bars were also called blind pigs, blind tigers, juice joints, and gin joints.
Most of the hooch at these establishments was either bootlegged or homemade, which caused numerous quality issues. If you’ve ever wanted to go blind from drinking gin made in a bathtub or die from watered-down carbolic acid mixed with Coca-Cola, this was the time for you! Every sip meant potential death or a possible tussle with the booze-running mob that supplied secret bartenders their alcohol, which could also have meant potential death depending on the circumstances.
Competition for customers in the busy underground drinking scene during Prohibition became so fierce that establishments began offering entertainment and making their spaces look extra fancy. So, in comes raucous jazz bands, gilded decorations, and indulgent cocktails, though mostly in larger cities where locals could afford to create these spots. Dancing and socializing—with everyone inside, not just with your group—became commonplace.
The term “speakeasy” itself came about (in the U.S. at least; it had been in use in Europe for decades already) because you’d have to tell someone the password in a low, quiet voice, so no one would overhear you — particularly undercover police officers, who often knew where to raid alcohol supplies because they’d posed as patrons themselves. The speech style was actually called speaking easy.
Police attempting to enforce the dry law led to an increasing number of hidden entrances, whether through a trap door in the floor, behind a bookshelf, or on the other side of a fake wall. Some spots went all out with their concealment, like the 21 Club in New York City, where a button was installed that would drop all the bottles of alcohol from the bar down a chute into the basement if the cops showed up. Speakeasies had so many clients that even a few days after a raid, when police destroyed the alcohol and arrested the owners and the drinkers, the spot would be back up and running full service.
Speakeasies faded away when Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933. Who needed a place to go drink illegal liquor when you could get it for free? Instead of dealing with the mob or making your own booze to sell, all you needed to do now was allow your establishment to be governed by federal rules and regulations. What was once a mainstay of American culture became a relic of Prohibition-era life, that is, until the early 2000s.
The Modern ‘Speakeasy’
The modern “speakeasy” tore through the country’s bar scene starting in January 2000, with the opening of New York City’s Milk & Honey. This was actually a speakeasy. The entrance was a simple door with the number 134 on it, next to a window marked “Tailors M&H Alterations.” The phone number and address were secret; you could only get in with reservations, and no one waited to greet you. Milk & Honey instead used a security camera to watch for people with booked spots in order to buzz them in. The space inside was tiny—a single candle-lit room with a five-seat bar and a handful of booths. The drinks fancy and exceptional.
Milk & Honey spawned countless imitations and iterations of a speakeasy during its 20-year run. Although the NYC hotspot reinvigorated speakeasies for the modern era, subsequent attempts at replicating the vibe completely diluted the definition of an actual speakeasy.
I don’t know if it was a PR stunt or media gimmick or if people just gradually forgot about Prohibition culture, but suddenly, “speakeasy” began to mean a dimly lit bar with cocktails and plush furniture. Hidden entrance? Nah. Password? No thanks. Random police raids? Well, obviously not.
Look, I know it feels extra sneaky-special to push your way through a velvet curtain and end up in a room looking plush and fancy, with couches and benches draped in velvet, all George Costanza style. The low light hides makeup imperfections! The soft, jazzy music feels timeless! I get it! There’s a vibe for sure—but that vibe definitely is not “speakeasy.” Besides, it’s not like the alcohol at the places you’re going could kill you after a couple of sips.
I will say, though, that some speakeasies do exist. They may not be completely secret, but they still bring the idea behind an actual speakeasy to life. One of the most well-known is probably the spy-themed restaurant SafeHouse in Milwaukee, where you enter into a mock office and need to know the password to get into the restaurant itself.
Chicago has the Magic Lounge—you enter a laundromat and pass through to a hidden bar and magic performance venue. Scottsdale has several, including Poppy’s Office (entered through a bookcase) and Straight Up (entered through a phone booth). At Captain Gregory’s in Alexandria, Virginia, you have to pull a flag on the wall of a donut shop. To access vampire-themed Potions in New Orleans, you need to get a secret code earlier in the day from a nearby shop and give it to the bartender at a different bar, who will lead you to the hidden entrance.
At these spots—and at fake speakeasies—you can toast to the real speakeasy lifestyle with drinks that became classics after bartenders of old mixed them to mask the taste of bad hooch. So the next time you have a brandy Alexander or an old fashioned, say thanks to the creativity of the past, when liquor was against the law and the word “speakeasy” actually meant something.