a t North Scottsdale Italian steakhouse The Americano, very little tips off diners to the Gatsby-themed cocktail lounge that lies below. The restaurant is sleek and moody, awash in a dark navy-gray. The hosts, adorned in all-black attire, move in and out of the dining room with guests. But not all who enter plan to sit in one of The Americano’s leather-bound booths to linger over Wagyu pappardelle and a glass of Sangiovese. Instead, they’ll zig past the main bar, zag through the dining room and walk toward the kitchen until the host pushes open a paneled wall to reveal a hidden staircase. Following the steps down, an arched doorway appears, the walls surrounding it encased in floral wallpaper. Above it glows a red neon light shaped like two martini glasses that signal one’s arrival. A second host guides guests through another brief rabbit hole, a red-lit mirrored hallway that gives way to the maximalist art deco dreamland of the under- ground cocktail lounge and music venue Tell Your Friends. There’s a lot to take in. The exuberant pop of Champagne bottles can be heard over the gentle hum of music and chatter. A glistening gold ceiling stretches from the stage to the expansive black stone bar. Arched walls punctuate the room with white tubed lighting. “We wanted it to be an eye-popper,” says Kevin Ferguson, the director of operations for the bar’s parent company, Creation Hospitality. Tell Your Friends’ glitz comes not only from its decor but also from the backing of celebrity chef Beau MacMillan and outstanding cocktails created by mixology pro Keifer Gilbert and beverage director Ashley Cibor. Speakeasies and hidden bars have cropped up across the Valley since the genre first took hold in the 2000s. But a decade ago, a bar like Tell Your Friends would have been a rarity. Now, these luxe hideaways are opening up in every corner of metro Phoenix. Barley & Smoke, Idle Hands, Poppy’s Office, Tell Your Friends, The Goose, The Madam and Wander have all opened their doors since last fall. “I feel like that kind of concept is having a moment,” says Kyla Hein, operating owner and beverage director for TWP Hospitality Group, the team behind Phoenix speakeasies Pigtails Cocktail Bar and the underground restaurant Rough Rider. “People are really getting away from just regular dining experi- ences. They’re looking for real, elevated immersive experiences.” Should we call it a speakeasy? To call any of these modern bars “speak- easies” is a misnomer, and their proprietors are the first to concede that. “Let’s be real, Prohibition is over, cops aren’t coming, we don’t have to stay quiet,” says Melinda’s Alley bar manager PJ Baron. Baron is referencing the moniker derived from “speaking easy,” or quietly, to avoid tipping anyone off to the illicit drinking that happened in secret unlicensed watering holes. Speakeasies are most readily associ- ated with America’s Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933, but they originated before the U.S. went dry. While there’s no threat of G-men kicking down the doors of today’s neo-speakeasies, there’s an air of nostalgia and appreciation for a bygone time when bartenders had to get creative to mask the taste of phoenix welcomes a new era of outspoken speakeasies. BY SARA CROCKER >> p 16 Tell Your Friends, a new speakeasy inspired by “The Great Gatsby” is now open in Scottsdale. (Photo by Jill McNamara) The Madam is a Prohibition-era speakeasy inside The Scottsdale Resort & Spa (Courtesy of The Scottsdale Resort & Spa) Red light fills the underground bar at Melinda’s Alley. (Photo by Lauren Cusimano)
