
The Gotham Club, found behind the scoreboard of AT&T Park, is one $2500 example. There are a number of secret bars in San Francisco that are exclusive, expensive, members-only establishments. In breaking with tradition, they started allowing women in 1976. Open continuously since 1908, this bar is, according to their website, the “last remaining drinking establishment for adults in San Francisco.” In keeping with tradition, they don’t have a clock or television on the premises. Remember how we mentioned the speakeasy that could be accessed through a tunnel from the Palace Hotel? Well, this is the one. There, you’ll find a cash-only bar area, a cozy living room with a fireplace, and a cocktail lounge set in a former bank vault.
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No password needed here, just walk down the stairs at the back of the store. This hidden cocktail lounge is found inside The Barrel Room – a wine bar and store on Sansome Street. If you’re going to the Ipswitch, then you already know more about it than we do. The Ipswitch is only available for private events. Named after the cigar shop that operated as a front for the speakeasy, this bar can be booked for private events, and is sometimes used as an overflow area for the Library.

You may only repeat this password once you arrive at the Jones street entrance. To access this bar, set in a fictional detective agency, make a reservation on their website.

Wilson and Wilson Private Detective Agency Access this standing-room only bar by finding the unmarked entrance on O’Farrell and giving the super-secret password, which is definitely not “books” (okay, it’s “books”). You’ll be provided with a password to whisper covertly when you arrive at the Jones street entrance. To gain access to the Main Bar, make a reservation online. There are five bars here, operating at varying levels of secrecy and exclusivity: Today, the building is a Russian nesting doll of secret bars. During Prohibition years the bar was moved to the basement, while on street level JJ Russell’s cigar shop operated as a front. The concept of a secret bar has been so firmly woven into the fabric of the city that new hidden bars continue to pop up today.Īccording to the Bourbon & Branch website, a bar has operated at this location since 1867.

While Prohibition was lifted in 1933, the city of San Francisco is still littered with secret basement speakeasies, some of which are still in operation. "In San Francisco, Prohibition was only a rumor," writes Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call, a book about the rise and fall of Prohibition. While most of America made do with homemade moonshine and bathtub gin during prohibition, the port city of San Francisco enjoyed alcohol smuggled in from all over the world. If that wasn’t enough – and if you were a man – you could take a secret tunnel from the hotel to the speakeasy/Gentleman’s Club across the street. Or, you could eat a meal at the Palace Hotel, order “flowers” for your date, and a bottle of whisky would be discretely delivered to your table. There was a time in San Francisco when, if you ordered the right cigar at JJ Russell’s Cigar Shop, a trap door would open to a secret basement bar.
