Bodega, Boston
Yep, this is a real bodega, located on a Boston corner, selling all of the usual bodega things. Some people will be delighted to find a Snapple machine in the back of the store just because they love the beverage; others will know what’s behind it. Bodega is a popular shop full of sneakers and streetwear with an Instagram following of over 100,000.
Bourbon & Branch, San Francisco
There are not one but FIVE secret rooms inside San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch, and unlike many of the others on this list, these ones are actually kind of hard to get into. You can access the library through an unmarked door on O’Farrell Wednesday through Saturday nights with a certain password (you know… the object that you find in greatest quantities inside a library?). You can also get inside through a secret bookcase door located inside the main Bourbon & Branch room. From there, it gets harder and harder to find the rest, until ultimately, a trapdoor in the floor of one secret bar leads to the final piece of this puzzle: the Ipswitch, a secret basement room with the same name as the real speakeasy that operated in this space during Prohibition.
Williams & Graham, Denver
Ostensibly a tiny bookstore with a quaint wooden entrance, Williams & Graham in Denver grants you access to its hidden bar after giving your name to the store attendant, who writes it on a card and files it into a drawer. Within a few minutes, one of the bookcases swings open to let you into the warm, well-stocked cocktail bar beyond.
The Blind Barber, New York City
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By day, the ‘Blind Barber’ in New York’s East Village is a neighborhood barbershop with “the best pomade on the block.” By night, its back room becomes a cocktail bar so popular, you should definitely make reservations to get in. The concept has proven so popular, the Blind Barber is now a chain, with several locations in New York and one in Los Angeles (image via BK Mag.)
Bathtub Gin, New York City
A nod to the real ‘bathtub gin’ produced in the United States during the Prohibition, this speakeasy in New York City is hidden behind a real coffee shop on Ninth Avenue. Once again, the only thing that really gives it away is the line of people waiting to get inside said coffee shop at 9pm or later.
