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Lexington HeraldLeader
Speakeasy guide: Hidden bars in Lexington, Cincinnati and one that plans a return
By Patti Nickell,
22 hours ago
Entry to this speakeasy didn’t require whispering a secret password to someone named Guido — just an admission ticket.
Nor did you need a clue and a map to an undisclosed location. The line wrapping around the Grand Reserve in the Distillery District showed exactly where the action was.
Once inside, however, the venue had been transformed into a dark dungeon, perfect for transferring the eerie tales of Edgar Allan Poe from the page to the stage.
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The Grand Reserve in the Distillery District was transformed into a dungeon worthy of Poe’s macabre tales. Midnight Creative The Edgar Allan Poe speakeasy, a national traveling show, arrived in Lexington this spring, showcasing Poe tales and cocktails. It should return in 2025. Midnight Creative
Welcome to the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy , a traveling show that combines tales and cocktails: Poe’s most chilling stories accompanied by some pretty scary adult beverages.
The performance started with an increasingly manic monologue from “The Tell-Tale Heart,” as audience members sipped on a concoction called the Pale Blue Eye (citrus and blueberry-infused vodka, fresh squeezed lemon juice and simple syrup, topped with a pale blueberry eye). Those who’ve read the story know the significance of the eye.
The Pale Blue Eye cocktail was served during the staging of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” Midnight Creative The Cat’s Meow, created in honor of Poe’s tale, “The Black Cat.” Provided
It ended with a libation called Cocktail of the Red Death (raspberry-infused vodka, cranberry juice, fresh squeezed fruits and fresh lime juice) inspired by my own favorite Poe opus “The Masque of the Red Death.”
Sandwiched in between were dramatic scenes from “The Black Cat” and “The Raven.”
The former came with a bourbon and brandy Cat’s Meow cocktail with a touch of vanilla cinnamon milk, sweet cream and maple syrup.
The cocktail accompanying the latter, arguably Poe’s most famous work, was dubbed Nevermore (peach and orange blossom-infused vodka, simple syrup and crushed charcoal.)
If the enthusiastic response was any indication, the event was a rousing success, both from an artistic and libation standpoint.
The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy teams up literary classics with one of the hottest trends in cocktails: Semi-secret bars, such as the speakeasys that sprang up when booze was banned.
Julia Tirinnanzi, creator of the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy, said that based on the response, they plan a return visit to Lexington next year, either with more Poe tales or excerpts from Gothic novels (as far as cocktails go, can we expect a Heathcliff Sour or a Bloody Rochester?)
You will have to wait for a theatrical evening of macabre cocktails, but you don’t have to wait for your next speakeasy experience. Lexington and surrounding cities are more than willing to take you back to the 1930s with these establishments.
Re-visit the Prohibition era with this guide and list of one of these atmospheric spots.
Trifecta Glass Art Lounge
243 Walton Avenue, Lexington
One might logically assume that an establishment with “art” in its name deals with art and not craft cocktails. In the case of Trifecta Glass Art Lounge , you get both.
Blown glass artwork by artist Travis Adams in the gallery space within the Trifecta Glass Art Lounge and the Glass House cocktail from the lounge at right. Marcus Dorsey, left, Provided The drink menu at Trifecta Glass Art Lounge changes every three months with both a new gallery show and a new cocktail menu. Photo provided
A working glass studio, it also has a small gallery/museum showcasing the works of Stephen Powell, Travis Adams and other glass artists. However, behind a full-length wall mirror near a restroom, visitors find art of a different kind.
Push on the mirror and you’ll be transported to a speakeasy straight out of the Prohibition era. Decorated in shades of jewel green, ebony and rust, with a bar dominating one side of the intimate room, it has a cocktail menu as artistic as the blown glass vases.
The drink menu at Trifecta Glass Art Lounge changes every three months with both a new gallery show and a new cocktail menu. Photo provided Behind a hidden door in the Trifecta Glass Art Lounge on Walton Avenue is a speakeasy. Marcus Dorsey/mdorsey@herald-leader.com
Although the menu changes every three months complementing the current gallery show, some past offerings have included a martini served in a bell pepper and a cucumber-flavored vodka cocktail garnished with celery bitters and a half broken eggshell to resemble egg yoke.
If this is a bit too avant-garde for your taste, co-owner Travis Adams says go for a Rusty Nail, Negroni or one of their other “smoked classics.”
On a one-way downtown street, visitors walk up to a building, look around surreptitiously and slip in. Once inside, one might wonder why all the secrecy as nothing more ominous than bookshelves line the walls.
Constitution, which features craft cocktails and a speakeasy feel, is located at 109 Constitution St. in Lexington, Ky. Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com Constitution, which features craft cocktails and a speakeasy feel, is located at 109 Constitution St. in Lexington, Ky. Upon entering through the front door, patrons are greeted by a bookshelf. After ringing a doorbell, a host opens a hidden door, allowing entry to the bar area. Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com
Welcome to Constitution “bookstore.” Push a bell, however, and you are admitted to an inner sanctum where classic Prohibition-era cocktails are on the menu — Old-Fashioneds and Manhattans with house-made syrups and purees.
If you’re into something more exotic, try the Jane Eyre (Earl Grey-infused gin, cherry blossom syrup, blueberry, lime and sparkling wine.)
A whiskey sour at Constitution, an establishment that features craft cocktails and a speakeasy feel. Constitution is located at 109 Constitution St. in Lexington, Ky. Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com Constitution, which features craft cocktails and a speakeasy feel, is located at 109 Constitution St. in Lexington, Ky. Upon entering through the front door, patrons are greeted by a bookshelf. After ringing a doorbell, a host opens a hidden door, allowing entry to the bar area. Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com
Don’t be disappointed if — upon ringing the bell — you’re not immediately granted entrance (it’s an intimate space, having once served as a workshop for a denture-maker.) Be patient; it’s worth the wait.
Inside Frankfort’s newest boutique hotel, the St. Clair , is an inconspicuous door marked “Maintenance.” However, don’t expect to find any cleaning supplies.
What you will find is a speakeasy that would have appealed to Al Capone and his cronies. No bathtub gin here, as this speakeasy is all about top-shelf bourbons, most of them rare — Pappy, George T. Stagg and Blanton’s Gold among them.
Décor is opulent, with green velvet sofas, wood paneling, black and white checkerboard floor, metal decorative tables, glass lanterns suspended from stag’s heads (in tribute to George T.) and a ceiling evoking the night sky — painted black and studded with star lights.
Blackberry Bourbon Smash and the Secret Handshake cocktails at the speakeasy in Frankfort’s St. Clair Hotel Becklynn Bleu Photography St. Clair Speakeasy Becklynn Bleu Photography
All of this deserves your full attention, so cellphones for talking or taking pictures are discouraged.
“We want people to feel like they are stepping back in time,” says Heather Nutt, St. Clair’s vice president of marketing.
Hotel guests get in free; everyone else must purchase a day pass ($20).
Volstead Bourbon Lounge
107 E. Flaget Street, Bardstown
The passage of the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, ushering in Prohibition, was a sad day for many Americans.
Fortunately, the opening of the Volstead Bourbon Lounge in Bardstown in 2022 caused no such gloom and doom. Just the opposite — it was a cause for celebration in the Bourbon Capital of the World.
Two cocktail enthusiasts toast the opening of the Volstead Bourbon Lounge in Bardstown. VisitBardstown.com
For starters, there’s a selection of more than 400 bourbons, with a price range of $8 to $100 per shot. If you’d like to jazz it up a bit, try a craft cocktail such as a Bourbon Peach Bellini Slushee or a Bacon Bourbon Old-Fashioned.
Get comfy on one of the crushed velvet couches or leather chairs, and sample classic cocktails as they were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Ghost Baby
1314 Republic, Cincinnati
In Cincy’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, go under instead of over to discover a sensual, seductive speakeasy in a former tunnel.
A description of Ghost Baby reads like something from Jack Kerouac. You can just imagine the hippest of all road-trippers enjoying himself in a place described as a “dimly-lit den of juke, swaddled in crushed velvet; a clubby, grainy hideaway where every soul making an entrance transfigures the room.”
Ghost Baby speakeasy is hidden underground. VisitCincy Ghost Baby in Cincinnati is in an underground lagering tunnel once used for aging beer. Provided by Ghost Baby
Or maybe with its plush pink brocade chairs made even more vivid under the rosy glow cast by chandeliers it would be more suited to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, notable tipplers of the Jazz Age.
Whatever ... Ghost Baby is the epitome of cool, but things can heat up in a hurry, whether the result of the music (a hot jazz brass band) or cocktails such as the “Some Like it Hot” — chile-infused vodka, mezcal, soursop, lime, hibiscus, and hell-fire bitters).
During the height of Prohibition, Newport, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, was as naughty as it gets. Gangsters and their molls, bootleg booze and befuddled G-men were ubiquitous in the city. So, it definitely deserves a bar like the Prohibition Bourbon Bar .
Prohibition Bar in Newport has more than 6,000 bottles to chose from. Cincy Region
Often described as “the quirkiest whiskey bar in Kentucky,” Prohibition is located in a historic townhouse, and is said to have the largest collection of bourbon and rye whiskeys in the world, with an inventory of more than 6,000 bottles.
Far from being secretive, however, everyone knows owners Peter and Kim Newberry, but one thing you should know is that it opens for business only on Friday and Saturday nights.
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