The 20 best speakeasy-inspired bars in NYC

For four years, Experimental Cocktail Club pleased us with speakeasy environs, both in surrounding and in the glass, before shuttering in 2016. Now, the bar is back, hidden down a set of stairs found in La Compagnie Wine Bar in Flatiron. Among the Art Nouveau interior, a single white piano sits, ushering you into an evening like no other. 

Ironically famed the world over for its concealed location down a few stairs, inside a hotdog shop and through a telephone booth, PDT is a genre classic that first opened in 2007 ahead of NYC’s last speakeasy-style bar revival. Although, as proprietor Jeff Bell points out, many newly minted drinkers may have never actually used a telephone booth, all the bells and whistles are a reminder of a time when this city really committed to the bit. It's also cozy and comfortable as a rich guy’s hunting lodge, and the are drinks best in class, so prepare to wait for entry. 

Occupying the former Milk and Honey space (which opened on New Years Eve in 1999), there’s now a whole generation of drinkers who could be forgiven for thinking Attaboy has been here forever. Its narrow interior, anchored by a brushed steel bar, is chicly worn and plenty of old-timey tipples are available. Some still say it’s a little hard to find, so here’s a tip: The address is 134 Eldridge Street, and it reads “AB” on the door. 

The late ​​Sasha Petraske’s imprint is all over NYC cocktail culture, and particularly deep in the speakeasy bracket. Attaboy ancestor, Milk and Honey, Time Out New York Best of the City award winner Dutch Kills and Little Branch are among his most famed operations. Little Branch first opened beyond a barely there, nondescript (except for the line that often forms outside!) doorway and down a staircase in 2005, and it’s still got top-notch classic and bespoke drinks today. 

This is the best of all those self-described speakeasies that opened post-pandemic. Its Cortlandt Alley address is genuinely hard to find the first time you try, you must buzz for entry and even then it’s still a few levels below ground. Downstairs, it feels like a private lair with the pulse-quickening promise of intrigue. And, like any proper hideout, it’s almost impossible to get in, but the recent addition of reservations makes planning a little easier, at least. 

Look for the red "on air" sign to point you in the right direction of Sake Bar Decibel. Once you see it, head down the stairs and see if there's a table open. A wait is almost guaranteed for a seat at this small Japanese bar with a super sake selection, but it's absolutely worth your time. You'll be ushered into dark surrounds where you'll sit practically shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow sake sippers for an underground yet deliciously over-the-top escape.

The best of these bars have the potential to transform otherwise humdrum activities—grabbing a hot dog, shopping for a doll, a quick stop at the bodega—into a more whimsical affair. Although that is still a highly unlikely occurrence, and your visit to most of the places on this list will come after even a bit of planning, The Little Shop has tons of potential in this regard. Peruse the provision-lined aisles up front if there’s a wait for the eclectically-appointed space in the back where the drinks are better than most in the "speakeasy" column. 

Aiming to be “the best cocktail bar in the universe,” Nothing Really Matters shines in more ways than one. It still fits the bill better than many of its contemporaries by virtue of its recessed entrance in a midtown subway station alone. Find your way downtown-bound to see whether the style tracks. 

The Back Room is one of only two speakeasies in New York City that operated during Prohibition and is still in existence today. Meaning, this speakeasy is more than a schtick. Peep the sign, The Lower East Side Toy Company, and find your way downstairs for cocktails in a teacup and beers in brown paper bags. 

If you’re really thirsty for the whole hide-and-seek conceit, or simply tolerating someone who is, this is the place to be. Up front, it’s a functional coffee shop. In the back after dark, it’s Jazz Age cosplay, baby. Not that most people come wearing costumes, but they certainly could and blend right in with the copper bathtub in the center of the room. Go ahead: Take a little social media dip.

La Noxe is, like a lot of spots, literally underground. Like fewer, with the sole exception of Nothing Really Matters, its unexpected location just off the 1 train in the 28th Street subway station gives it an edge. It has more of an element of surprise than most of its peers, better capturing that slightly clandestine quality other venues in this category aspire to. Take a date here for boudoir decor and the quickest possible exit. 

Another one of the earlier entrants to NYC's last speakeasy boom, Employees Only was built by industry pros in 2004. The lovely illuminated Art Deco lines and excellent cocktails have enabled it to endure and even grow in popularity for nearly two decades. The multi-award-winning bar also has a dinner menu and a handsome dining room.

This unmarked boîte is the sort of contrived hideout that might be cooked up by an overgrown kid with a chemistry set. The bar is littered with old vials, the cocktails are referred to as “the formula list,” and the bartenders-cum-mad-scientists are in rare form. Does all this hocus-pocus translate to better drinks? Well, the Mistral Macaw with a combination of absinthe, overproof Jamacian rum, and genitan liqueur balanced with pineapple and cucumber certainly cured our sobriety. 

Only on Friday and Saturday nights, Le Boudoir’s status as occasionally operational gets it closer to speakeasies of yore than any other, no matter how many twists, turns and fakeouts its peers employ. But of course, it does have one of its own: See if you can’t spot the entrance upstairs at sister restaurant Chez Moi. 

In 1890s, Nikola Tesla lived and worked inside the Radio Wave Building. Now, the cellar is home to a steampunk style speakeasy with cocktails, deep blue booths, and rows of, gulp, Edison bulbs (sorry Tesla). Thumb through your tipple of choice and toast to him anyway. 

Like Bathtub Gin before it, Keys & Heels digs into the biz-within-a-biz motif. This time, the bar’s behind the facade of an old fashioned key-cutting shoe repair shop. But before you decide to split the rent with your date and scuff your stiletto in a dash out the door to start your new life of romance, remember that the entrance is but a decoy. Only the drinks and snacks in the back are the real deal. 

The space beneath Chinese Tuxedo makes this a singular destination for a full, fun, photogenic night out, all at one address. Dine updoors before you slink down for terrific cocktails and pretty floral 'gram-ops illuminated by neon lights.  

Mingling sports bar and speakeasy themes is incredibly clever, and J. Bespoke is the only game in town successfully executing both at once. Here, you’ll view games from velvet banquettes and sip seamlessly between $18 cocktails and $7 draft beers. 

Dear Irving is practically hidden in plain sight, with double doors that could pass as the entrance to some tech millionaire’s pied-à-terre. It also has a bit of moneyed eccentricity inside, divided into period themes skewing vaguely Victorain in one spot, a little Mad Men-esque in the next. Pick your period and sip drinks that’d be just as tasty in any era. 

Similar to Bathtub Gin, UES. has an ice cream shop front, but when you ask whether they have this or that in the back, you get an intoxicating surprise. And it’s alcohol! Make like a soda jerk and pass the frozen treats for Upper East Side-themed cocktails like the 1040 Fifth Avenue and Here’s Looking at You, Bradshaw, in what is colloquially known as UES.’s “storage room.”