Speakeasies

Anyone else fall for the speakeasy meme hard and fucking love it? I've been to a bunch in NYC and LA, and actually went to one in fucking Nottingham in the UK (why do they even have speakeasies, booze was never banned there?). They can have expensive drinks but they generally also have very good ones. They tend to have a great atmosphere, better service and a much more intimate setting than most bars.
Anyone have any good stories, experiences recommendations? Headed up to Boston in a few weeks, and I'm gonna hit the few that are up there too.

imo they're just themed bars, which isn't a bad thing but they're not really different from other bars

Kill yourself.

They can be fun for a romp down nostalgia boulevard, but they're in no way authentic. Cocktails were invented in American speakeasies because the bootleg booze was so vile you had to have mixers to drink it. They were run by the mob and usually had skeezy hookers hanging out in them.

I don't think anyone expects them to be authentic, honestly that's just absurd. They want fun themed bars with a degree of exclusivity and good cocktails

>The Blind [insert animal]

Salty flyover detected. How does it feel that a minor city in Britbongistan has a better grasp of our drinking culture than your shithole?

>pretending booze is banned is fun anons durr whos with me
You're retarded.

>unironically thinking these bars are prohibition themed
Retard

I feel like that's a meme, the only one I've ever been to like that was in Dublin.

Went here when I visited a buddy of mine in Spanish Harlem. Pretty good.

kys yourself

We have a neat one here but they keep the music so fucking loud I can't have a convo. Worth going once or twice though, good cocktails

>drinking 20 dollar mixed drinks in a cramped hallway with no windows is "our drinking culture"
coasties what will they think of next?

>drinking alcohol
Heh, keep paying to poison yourselves retards

I went to Milk and Honey on the LES shortly after Sasha opened it, which must hav e been around 2003. You had to call the secret phone number, give your name and wait for a call back to get in. Then you walked up a flight of stairs to a closed door, knocked, gave your name and your party was let in. Inside was a nicely decorated room. The first thing you came up[on was a printed set of rules. I remember two of them: no loud talking, and men who hit on women without the woman making the first move would be thrown out. I forget what cocktails we had, but I remember they were excellent and very steeply priced - $12 - $15 each. One of the guys behind the bar had a waxed mustache and was wearing a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of suspenders. It was the first time I'd been to a place where the bartenders dressed like that. Our party of four sat at a little table, nursed our drinks for a little while, then left.

Fun to do once, but I never went back. The East Village dive bars where you could get a can of PBR and a shot of well whiskey for $5 were more my scene at the time. Never was so much into cocktails. But the high end cocktail thing Toby Cecchini started really did sweep across the city around then. But the crowd I ran with was more likely to be doing blow in the basement of Niagra than shelling out for fussy mixed drinks.

>men who hit on women without the woman making the first move would be thrown out
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH Jesus christ is it capable to be more cucked than this.

It was not my scene, I'll tell you that..Way to fucking precious.

What is this? Some kind of LARP?

As a non-drinker, I like barcades and gay bars.

Funny that the one in Nottingham had a greenhouse patio and lots of windows. Only the ones in NY are like you describe and not functionally different from the thousands of bars like that in NY.

I'm fine with this rule if it goes both ways, people are going with their friends and loved ones to an intimate setting for at least a kind of special night where they've had to call ahead and get access. They don't need to be bothered by strangers. That said, the fact that "tee hee girls are fine" is such bullshit

Nah it's just fun to take girls to or hang out with your friends at some hidden spots, they are never overcrowded, and like OP they usually have great drinks and service. Speakesy only refers to the lack of advertised entrance and occasional need of a password they're usually just hidden theme bars/nice cocktail bars

It's almost like the one in Nottingham is just a bar...

So it's like the secret bar accessible through the mens room at the gay club?