Speakeasy society: NYCs hush-hush bars blend Prohibition-era mystique with clever cocktails

Can you keep a secret? New York’s stylish speakeasies have stealth appeal and artful drinks.Here’s a look at five new hotspots, from an exclusive East Village gin joint to a clandestine cocktail house in Williamsburg.

Prior to the pandemic, the 35th floor of the Mandarin Oriental was already home to two of the city’s most prestigious, picturesque and critically praised libation locations: the avant-garde Aviary and the businesslike Office.COVID cleared them out, until last fall when a new, salubrious speakeasy-style sip-tuation set up shop, confidently called The Bar.Moody, in moments masculine, the 45-seat lounge is now mixing up transporting tinctures drawn from stops along the Silk Road.You’ll drink a Ginza Line in Tokyo (Hibiki Japanese Harmony whisky with walnut-infused maple) and a Night Market Bloom in Taipei (nigori sake, Roku gin, yuzu, lime and oolong tea presented in a teapot), with tastes of Singapore, Bangkok, Muscat and Istanbul along your way back to Europe.Asian heritage mixed with the best of the West? That’s just the MO of the MO.Nearly 20 years ago, PDT (Please Don’t Tell) shook up New York’s cocktail scene when it opened a bar behind a telephone booth within an East Village hot dog shop.Now, PDT owner Jeff Bell has launched a concept for the 2020s, a new speakeasy-style cocktail destination discreetly domiciled beyond the service entrance of an office building.Bell’s new shake, stir and strain station evokes “the golden age of luxury train travel” (it’s next door to Grand Central after all).The menu serves up complex combinations of liquor and soda (like the Fresa Fizz: rum, strawberry, lime, mint and soda), as well as concoctions that chug along like luxe locomotives.

Settle into your seat with the soothing knowledge that you’ve already arrived.Most modern speakeasies nod at secrecy but bank on popularity.Officially opened in July, The Collectors Bar is a Hong Kong-rooted speakeasy and cocktail house that goes boldly i...