The Revival of Speakeasies

Key Takeaways

In This Article

1. What is a speakeasy, and where did they come from?
2. What happened to the original speakeasies?
3. What is a neo-speakeasy?
4. Where are the best modern speakeasies?
5. Are neo-speakeasies here to stay?
6. Frequently asked questions
7. Quick reference

What is a speakeasy, and where did they come from?

During Prohibition, speakeasies replaced the saloon and disguised themselves in every imaginable way to admit only trusted patrons. To cross the threshold, you had to give a password, a specific handshake, or a secret knock. Often run by organized crime, these underground bars served homemade brews, liquor, and simple cocktails, a small act of defiance against the federal ban.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, most speakeasies vanished with it. But in their short, illicit life they had become synonymous with indulgence, secrecy, and glamour, a mystique that would prove impossible to kill. Decades later, it would inspire a whole new wave of bars.

What happened to the original speakeasies?

A handful of the most iconic names kept going after repeal, but the end of the ban changed them for good, through new crowds, public exposure, or a change of address. Three New York legends show how the story usually ended.

Harlem’s Cotton Club, run by the bootlegger and gangster Owney Madden, was the city’s most famous club of the era, with a house band that included Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. It was also segregated: Black performers entertained a whites-only crowd until the club finally admitted Black patrons in 1935. It closed for good in 1940. The glamorous Stork Club, founded by ex-bootlegger Sherman Billingsley and a magnet for movie stars and showgirls, hung on until 1965, after which it was demolished and its East 53rd Street site became the small Paley Park.

Chumley’s, the unmarked Greenwich Village literary speakeasy that opened in 1922 and drew writers from Edna St. Vincent Millay to Steinbeck, proved the most resilient. A dining-room chimney collapsed in 2007 and closed it; after a long renovation it reopened in 2016, only to shut permanently in 2020. For the survivors, the novelty was always going to fade, and they became more tourist attraction than secret. Capturing that lost sense of the taboo is exactly what the modern revival set out to do.

What is a neo-speakeasy?

Perfectly legal and regulated, the neo-speakeasy is known for its vintage decor, unassuming location, complex cocktails, and strict door policy. The point is the feeling: mystery, a touch of deception, and the sense of being part of a select insider’s club. Get the recipe right and the experience feels authentic, even when everyone knows the bar is there.

Much of the credit for the form goes to PDT in New York, which opened in 2007 and is often cited as the bar that launched the modern speakeasy trend.

Where are the best modern speakeasies?

In New York, three hideaways set the standard. PDT, short for Please Don’t Tell, is entered through a vintage phone booth inside the East Village hot dog shop Crif Dogs; dial the phone and a wall swings open onto a tiny, taxidermy-lined bar. Employees Only hides behind a working fortune-teller’s storefront and is famous for its white-coated bartenders and its Mata Hari, a cognac-based cocktail with chai-infused vermouth and pomegranate. And La Esquina conceals a subterranean brasserie beneath a corner taqueria, reached through an unmarked door.

“Sort of like Studio 54 with chipotle instead of cocaine.”

— Frank Bruni, then New York Times restaurant critic, on La Esquina

The theme runs nationwide. In Chicago, Room 13 sits behind a gate beside the Old Chicago Inn, with a dress code and, these days, access mostly for members and inn guests. In San Francisco, Bourbon & Branch is an unmarked, password-protected room in the Tenderloin, and tucked inside it is the reservation-only Wilson & Wilson, a detective-themed bar within a bar.

Not all of them make you work for it. In Los Angeles, La Descarga has a sign out front and no password, but what it lacks in concealment it makes up in atmosphere. Created by mixologists Steve Livigni and Pablo Moix, the candlelit, 1950s-Cuba lounge on Western Avenue is a go-to for Latin music, salsa dancing, and burlesque, with a cigar room and a deep rum list running to bottles like Guatemala’s Ron Zacapa.

A Few Modern Speakeasies and How You Get In

Are neo-speakeasies here to stay?

Today’s underground hot spots are not the originals. They draw a different crowd, often serve far more than booze, and can be as much about seeing and being seen as about a quiet illicit drink. Calling them inauthentic because they are more civilized, more expensive, and less secret, though, rather misses the point.

These bars actively popularized cocktail culture for a younger generation and were instrumental in the rise of the mixology movement. More than a decade in, with new ones still opening even as some of the originals close, the neo-speakeasy looks less like a fad and more like a permanent part of how America drinks. For all the eye-rolling, the hype is real, and the form has what it takes to stay.

Frequently Asked Questions About Speakeasies

🍸 The Neo-Speakeasy at a Glance

Key facts about the speakeasy, past and present.