LA's Coolest Clandestine Cocktails

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Sep 10, 2012 —  For more than thirteen years beginning in late 1919, the 18^th Amendment banned the sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States.

It was known as Prohibition. And it was a dark time – seriously, like literally every photo from that period looks totally black and white – but true to their resourceful nature, many Americans refused to be denied what they felt was a god-given right to booze.

Sometimes great things come from bad decisions, and in this case Prohibition gave rise to speakeasies: refined hidden drinking dens that proffered high-quality bootleg beverages and regularly hosted seriously raucous parties.

Lawmakers – many of them regulars at these establishments – finally came to their senses in 1933, and one would have thought the speakeasy trend would have suffered a quick death as a result. Yet 80+ years later, there are still Los Angeles speakeasies up and running all across this great city.

Maybe it's because there’s something inherently cool in retro-styled bars; the kinds that often have no sign and still require a password to get in, and where vest- and flapper-clad bartenders make a mean classic the way it was intended to be made.

True, some are just poor, hastily designed copies of their vintage brethren, but we’ve picked out a few favorites that still manage to feel authentic – from the drinks list to the reclaimed furnishings to the universal embodiment of a bygone era.

Pull up a chair and turn back the clocks, friends. The LA speakeasy is waiting, and it isn’t going anywhere.