Please Don’t Tell, New York City
Since its opening in 2007, Please Don’t Tell has become the trendiest and most sought-after speakeasy in New York City, consistently earning worldwide recognition. Hidden down a few stairs, inside a hotdog shop and through a telephone booth, PDT is a genre classic that first opened ahead of NYC’s last speakeasy-style bar revival. The entrance alone is worth the experience.
The entry point is hidden inside Crif Dogs on the East Side, only a 15-minute walk from Washington Square Park, where you’ll need to find the phone booth before you can order a variety of creative cocktails accompanied by their Chef Dogs. Let me tell you, finding that phone booth in a crowded hot dog joint while trying to act casual is half the fun. The bar is cozy and comfortable as a rich guy’s hunting lodge, and the drinks are best in class, so prepare to wait for entry.
The Laundry Room, Las Vegas
Constructed from what used to be a legit Prohibition-era Las Vegas speakeasy that doubled as laundry facilities for the El Cortez Hotel, The Laundry Room was one of the first in this new revival. Here’s the thing, this isn’t just some tourist trap with a vintage theme slapped on. The Laundry Room serves 27 expertly crafted cocktails to just 22 guests and occasional live piano music, and the speakeasy’s name is a nod to the space’s history as the former laundry room for El Cortez across the street.
The Laundry Room is extremely private, only seating 22 people at a time, a maximum of 4 per party, and reservations open up two weeks in advance of your day, and they do book up fast. The bartenders here genuinely take pride in their craft. You can give the bartender a little bit of your likes and dislikes and challenge them to blend a special concoction just for you, making each visit feel wonderfully personal.
The Varnish, Los Angeles
The Varnish earned the prestigious Best American Cocktail Bar at Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards in 2012, and honestly, it still lives up to that reputation more than a decade later. Known for its classic speakeasy atmosphere, The Varnish is located in the heart of Downtown LA, hidden behind a modest entrance in a historic building, where the bartenders here are masters of their craft, serving up delicious cocktails with a focus on quality and precision.
The exceptional live jazz performances run Sunday through Tuesday from 9 PM to 12:30 AM, with Marc Gasway curating a music lineup that ranges from classic jazz to blues and Tin Pan Alley tunes, as the upright piano’s gentle melodies blend with the speakeasy’s dim lighting and intimate atmosphere. It’s hard to say for sure, but this might be the closest you’ll get to time travel in LA. The entire experience feels like you’ve stepped into another era where quality and craftsmanship actually mattered.
The Back Room, New York City
The Back Room is a unique speakeasy because it actually used to be a speakeasy, and in fact, it’s only one of two speakeasies in NYC that was open during the Prohibition and is still around today. This place isn’t trying to recreate history – it is history. Head inside through the secret entrance down a dark alleyway – the same one used 80+ years ago – and step back in time to the roaring twenties, when celebrities and gangsters would party the night away in this very spot.
Take a seat on vintage furniture and sip your cocktail from a teacup, the way people drank in secret during the 1920s. The teacup detail is brilliant, really. It adds this layer of authenticity that you just don’t get at most modern speakeasies. The furniture creaks with stories, the walls seem to whisper secrets, and you can almost feel the ghosts of bootleggers and flappers swirling around you.
Handshake Speakeasy, Mexico City
For the first time, a Mexican bar has been crowned No.1 at The World’s 50 Best Bars in 2024, sponsored by Perrier. Tucked away in the Colonia Juárez neighbourhood of Mexico City, Handshake Speakeasy is one of the capital’s best-kept open secrets. Tucked behind a secret door in a supply room full of vintage spirits, the Art Deco space is moody and seductive with black marble and brass accents, while behind the stick, beverage director Eric van Beek is revolutionizing classic cocktails with innovative techniques developed at the speakeasy’s on-site lab.
With a cocktail menu fuelled by advanced culinary techniques, where drinks often take up to 48 hours to craft, Handshake’s experimental approach to fine-dining sips includes the Butter Mushroom Old Fashioned or the famous Mexi-Thai that combines tequila with kaffir lime, coconut basil oil and tomato, with an on-site laboratory run by manager Yiyi Aparicio hidden at the heart of the bar where the team experiments daily. Drinks that take two days to make? That’s dedication on another level.
Century Grand, Phoenix
The bar is located inside locally-owned Century Grand, an immersive cocktail experience and home to two other individual bars – Platform 18 and Grey Hen Rx, and Century Grand was recently named the best cocktail bar in the U.S. at the 2023 Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s 17th Annual Spirited Awards, which is the equivalent of the Oscars for the spirits industry. There are no street or building signs, which makes finding it feel like you’re on a legitimate treasure hunt.
Next door to Sip Coffee, Undertow invites patrons on a nautical adventure, set inside a fictitious 19th Century clipper ship, where the bar boasts an intimate atmosphere inspired by the high seas as you step inside and find yourself transported to the deck of a ship with its maritime decor and exotic cocktails. The commitment to theme is impressive. You’re not just drinking a cocktail, you’re embarking on a voyage, and honestly, that’s exactly what a great speakeasy should deliver.
The Lock, Las Vegas
One of Las Vegas’ newer speakeasies, and a personal favorite, The Lock is in Horseshoe Las Vegas, and you follow the signs to the Cabinet of Curiosities downstairs from the casino floor. At the end of the room is a big door that looks almost like a huge bank vault door, you pickup the phone and the The Locksmith will answer, if you have a reservation, or they have room, The Locksmith will come out to get you and guide you back to a room filled with safes where each safe contains a numeric clue inside to the locked door and you must arrange the clues to get the combination to the door lock.
Once the code is solved, or you beg the Locksmith for help, you crawl through the big safe door if you are adventurous, and they made the entrance one of the most fun of our adventure, and it is definitely worth it when you are in the quiet, conversational drinking mood. The puzzle-solving aspect turns the entire experience into an adventure. It’s playful and mysterious, and you genuinely feel like you’ve earned your cocktail once you make it inside.
Bathtub Gin, New York City
The entrance to Bathtub Gin was at a fake coffee shop with a bouncer stationed out front, and upon approaching the bouncer, we provided him with the reservation name, and he allowed us to enter. As soon as we entered, we were brought through the curtain, where we saw the iconic brass bathtub in the middle of the room. That bathtub is what Instagram dreams are made of.
At Chelsea’s Bathtub Gin, the classic speakeasy mix is spiced up with live burlesque shows, and the copper bathtub in the middle of the room plays a central role in all of this. The combination of expertly crafted cocktails and live entertainment creates an atmosphere that’s both elegant and electric. A pricey drink or two is all it takes to experience an evening in the most sexy bar in the city. Worth every penny, in my opinion.
