8 Speakeasy Bars to Mark the Anniversary of Prohibition

Last orders—with no pretty please—was the brusque command to barflies across the United States in January 1920. Prohibition, brought about by the temperance movement, had been voted in state by state over preceding months and years, but it was the adoption by Utah, the 36th, of a rule banning drinks containing more than a measly 1.28 percent alcohol, which precipitated the Federal shutdown.

Or rather, not. For the next 13 years drinkers went underground, fulfilling their vice in secret bars where they covertly sipped cocktails made with bootlegged liquor out of teacups. Officials lacked the resources to fully enforce legislation, which did reduce deaths from cirrhosis, alcohol-induced crime, and the rate of workers calling in sick. But tax revenues on liquor were lost, party animals grumbled ever louder and by the end of 1933 Prohibition had been repealed.

 1. Congress Street Up, Savannah, Georgia, United States 

Savannah, with its many lively bars, is the unlikely home of Prohibition, thanks to a decree handed down from George II to state founder James Oglethorpe. That 1735 order to desist may not have held, but between 1895 and 1908, Georgia went dry city by city, the 8th state to sign up to a ban on serving alcohol. Savannah’s party people resisted, and are brought to life over authentic drinks at Congress Street Up, a speakeasy within the Prohibition Museum, which tells the whole story of America’s flirtation with abstinence. Although no one now needs to go underground for a drink in Savannah, city notables still dive into 17Hundred90, located beneath the eponymous downtown inn, for extremely strong, well-priced classic cocktails.

americanprohibitionmuseum.com

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2. American Bar, London, England

The last drink legally served in a United States bar was allegedly mixed by Harry Craddock, who made London’s Savoy Hotel a mecca for legendary drinkers from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Hemingway. While the American Bar opened in 1893 to serve new-fangled mixed drinks from across the pond, its glory days were the 1920s and ’30s, when Prohibition brought Craddock back to his native land to ply his skills. With him came his little black book of cocktail recipes, published by the Savoy in 1930 and still in print today.

Related: Visit Manhattan’s Best Speakeasy Bars

Permanently hovering close to the top of the World’s 50 Best Bars list, the American Bar is no speakeasy but a spacious and glamorous establishment complete with piano bar. Try Craddock’s signature White Lady, considered his most important contribution to a bar menu enhanced over the decades by subsequent mixologists.

thesavoylondon.com

3. Old Absinthe House, New Orleans, United States

Pierre Cazebonne, owner of The Old Absinthe House, barely stopped serving alcohol during Prohibition. Like competitors, he transformed his establishment, the oldest bar in New Orleans, into everything from a French restaurant to a soda fountain, later a cabaret venue and casino, serving drinks until the building was padlocked in 1926. When the barricades were lifted in 1928 he moved out all the bar fixtures and reopened just steps away at a more covert location on Bourbon Street.

The vivid green absinthe frappes, which were the bar’s original raison d’etre, are still on offer, though with so much competition in a city that claims to have invented the cocktail, today’s Old Absinthe House is more of a tourist curiosity, worth a look for its sense of history.

ruebourbon.com

4. Employees Only, New York City, United States

Employees Only, a strictly 21st century establishment evoking the railroad bars of old, has made all 11 editions of the World’s 50 Best Bars list. While Art Deco-style fixtures nods to the speakeasy era, the friends who dreamed up the place 16 years ago aim to improve traditional recipes­—a smoother daiquiri than Hemingway enjoyed, for example. Quirky touches like the fortune teller at the door add to the high-decibel fun, driven by a distinctly post-Prohibition soundtrack.

employeesonlynyc.com 

5. Floreria Atlantico, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Another award-winning watering hole, Floreria Atlantico keeps the speakeasy spirit alive, requiring visitors to enter through a fridge door at the back of the florist’s shop from which the bar takes its name. The concept is to celebrate Buenos Aires’ history as a port, which has welcomed a world of immigrants, through classic recipes brought by bartenders from the United States and Spain using gin from England and the Netherlands, anise from Turkey, pisco from Peru and rum from the Caribbean. But Argentina is never forgotten by the Floreria, which waves its national flag with a yerba mate-infused G&T.

floreriaatlantico.com.ar

6. Jerry Thomas, Rome, Italy

In 2010, the bartender-owners of Jerry Thomas decided to create what they claim is Italy’s first “secret bar” in a corner of Rome between Piazza Navoni and the Tiber. This five-years-in-a-row fixture on the World’s 50 Best Bars list is proper speakeasy stuff—you not only need to knock for entry but quote a password and pay a nominal €5 membership fee. The bar is small, cramped and the wait to get in can be long for those with no reservations, but velvet, tassels, trad jazz, and bartenders in Prohibition-era gear add a dash of 1920s authenticity. Expect modern twists on classic cocktails like a pine-enriched mint julep and many original concoctions.

thejerrythomasproject.it

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7. 1930, Milan, Italy

Milan being the ultimate speakeasy city where all the action goes on behind the locked doors, it has to try harder than others at secret addresses. 1930 is a really well-kept secret, a project of the MAG café in the lively Navigli neighborhood, whose owners only invite those they like the look of into a separate hideaway concealed behind the door of a very plain shop. Once inside, it’s all vintage glamour and well-made drinks—Grand Marnier-based cocktails are a favorite.

8. The Old Man, Hong Kong

Named after the hero of Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer-winning novel, The Old Man in the SoHo enclave of Hong Kong Central took only two years to be named Asia’s best bar and make the top 10 of the World’s Best 50. No self-conscious speakeasy, it’s neither vintage in décor nor period-authentic in its menu—In Our Time-1924, a curious combination of clarified banana ghee, celery, salted tequila, and special banana skin tincture is one such example from the forward-thinking menu. However, locals insist the bartenders, celebrated graduates of the island’s drinking scene, make a mean Old Fashioned too.

theoldmanhk.com