Secret rooms, secret entrances, secret passwords, and secret menus.
It’s all a big secret.
But that’s why people go.
The first speakeasies popped up after the passage of prohibition in the 1920s, according to Ball State University professor of history James Connolly. The Volstead Act, which enforced prohibition, said it was illegal to make or transport alcohol, rather than consume it.
“People were willing to drink and, despite the fact that there was a law that said prohibition was to be enforced and was the law of the land, plenty of people drank,” Connolly says.
There were “dry” areas in every state, but it was relatively easy to find an alcoholic beverage and a hidden spot in every major city, including Indianapolis.
Today, the idea of a speakeasy comes down to its exclusivity.
“My definition of a speakeasy would be someplace where you kind of have to know somebody to get there or get in,” says Zoe Hayes, beverage director for Ambrosia Hospitality Group. “It’s that layer of secrecy, that thing where you kind of have to be in on the secret to get into it.”
As beverage director, Zoe is responsible for all beverage decisions across five Indianapolis establishments: Ambrosia, Nowhere Special, Commodore, Bocca, and Vérità — which is housed under Bocca. Commodore and Vérità are the business group’s two speakeasies.
Zoe was a part of the opening team for Commodore, Ambrosia Hospitality Group’s first speakeasy, and became the bar manager at Vérità, eventually becoming beverage director of the business.
“Most of the people who come here are either people in the neighborhood who already know about it or people who have heard about it from friends because they know there’s a speakeasy in the basement,” Zoe says.
Vérità requires very little sleuthing to gain entry to the secret space. Next to the host’s stand at Bocca, there is a red velvet rope that guards a staircase underground.
“If the velvet rope is up, it’s closed. If it’s down, you can walk right in,” Zoe says. “We want people to come here, we just want them to work a little bit for it.”
Down the flight of stairs, guests are greeted by a sharp right turn and an exposed brick hallway. A few steps down and a quick left, visitors stumble into a small, dimly lit corridor with soft jazz playing low in the background. One bartender staffs the small bar with dark leather couches lining the walls of the space that can hold no more than 50 people.
“We’re going for sleek, dark, sexy [at Vérità], like a good date night spot, a good hang spot,” Zoe says. “I will say, the concept at Commodore changed a ton in that first year. That’s partly because your guests will tell you what they think you are and who they need you to be. Part of being a good venue is adapting to that a little bit.”
Zoe calls Vérità the simplest of the speakeasies, while the Commodore is much more complex. If you know how to get there, it’s not that complicated, according to Zoe, but a first-time patron? A much different story.
“Commodore is an unmarked door, down a hallway, between two other unmarked doors,” Zoe says. “There’s no outside entrance to get in … You have to know which of the unmarked doors is the correct one. There are some visual clues, but there is no external signage anywhere.”
External signage is key when defining a speakeasy; it’s the main reason Adriana Rubio, bar manager at Wiseguy Lounge, believes the space behind Goodfella’s Pizza on Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis can classify itself as a speakeasy. Despite being a well-known chain, there is no advertising on the streets, and most don’t know about it unless they hear from someone else.
“It’s not nearly as speakeasy-esque as other speakeasies,” Adriana says. “If you just go past the bathrooms a little too far, you’re like ‘Oh my gosh, what’s going on here?’”
In the front of the house, guests can grab a $4 slice at the local pizza chain, but if one takes their meal for a short walk around the dining rooms and just a hair past the bathrooms, a large entranceway welcomes you into a hidden hangout. The massive shelf is lined with more than 100 different bottles.
All Wiseguy Lounges specialize in whiskey — referred to as a whiskey bar — and have six signature drinks.
“Each whiskey tastes so, so, so different,” Adriana says. “It does take a while to start to be able to pick out those flavors, but there’s some whiskeys that are really fruity … it’s such a vast flavor profile across all of them.”
Adriana caught onto the speakeasy idea after her first visit to a Wiseguy Lounge in Covington, Kentucky.
“I didn’t know I was walking into a bar,” Adriana says. “The one I went to was up on a deck area, and it looked really different than the inside … Then you open the doors, and you’re in this really dark, dark leather, dark brick [space with] mood lighting.”
There is an energy in the speakeasy scene that draws people in and makes them stay connected.
“You’re looking for that little bit of secrecy, that little bit of privacy, that little bit of the ability to step outside of the outside world a little bit more,” Zoe says.
People travel state-to-state looking for new speakeasies to try, especially spaces like Bootleggers.
While Wiseguy Lounge, Commodore, and Vérità do not require a password, one speakeasy in Indianapolis stands out as the most secretive.
The spot is housed in a high-end restaurant filled with various rooms and corridors. Most of the doors open, but one — with an old twisting doorbell — will only open if a password is spoken through the slit in the door.
If guests guess the password — which is supposedly hidden somewhere in the restaurant — correctly, the door opens to a dark set of stairs. Around the corner at the bottom, past a vintage Coca-Cola machine, and through an actual hole in the wall, is a secret hiding place that has captivated most speakeasy goers in Indianapolis: Bootleggers.
For those who can find the spot, there are rewards to be had in the drinks to share. Popular drinks include the Delilah and the Sidecar, and that’s about all of the information available.
While those clues do not give away much, there is still an opportunity to find the exclusive spot.
It just requires one to start sleuthing.
Source: National Archives
