A speakeasy is a bar you have to find. No sign, no obvious door - just a room that keeps to itself behind an entrance most people walk straight past. The style is a hundred years old, born out of American Prohibition, and it has lasted because there is something irresistible about a bar that makes you work, even a little, to get in. Toronto has a few. One of them is a floor below our King West dining room.
Where the word comes from
Prohibition ran from 1920 to 1933, and for those thirteen years making or selling alcohol in the United States was illegal. Bars did not close - they went quiet, moving into basements, back rooms and unmarked halls. The name comes from what patrons were told at the door: speak easy. Keep your voice down. Do not give the room away to the police or the neighbours. The hidden entrances and passwords were not a gimmick back then. They were how the place stayed open.
What makes a bar a speakeasy now
The illegality is long gone; the atmosphere is the part people kept. A modern speakeasy is usually small, low-lit and built around cocktails rather than crowds. The door is unmarked or tucked out of sight. Some take reservations only. Some just expect you to already know the room is there. What ties them together is not the drink list - it is the feeling of stepping off the street into somewhere that does not announce itself.
What to expect when you go
Read the room, because that is the whole point of it. A reservation usually smooths the way, voices stay low, and the focus is on what is in the glass rather than how loud the night gets. The best thing you can do is put the menu down and ask the bartender to make you something - a good agave bar team would much rather build to your taste than pour to order.
Finding it in Toronto
Toronto's hidden bars are worth hunting for, and ours is downstairs. Beneath the Silent H dining room on King West is Aitch, an agave lounge behind a hidden door, with more than fifty tequilas and mezcals and a guided pour you will not get upstairs. The play is simple: have dinner at Silent H, then head down to Aitch without so much as reaching for your coat.
If agave is new to you, say so at the bar. The fastest way in is to taste a blanco tequila against a joven mezcal and feel what the smoke does - after that the cocktail list takes over. Aitch is a small room, so anything past a handful of people is better booked ahead at 647 822 5367 than left to walk-in luck, and it runs Thursday to Sunday with guest DJs: Thursday is the calm version, Saturday the loud one. We are at 461 King Street West in the Entertainment District, and Aitch takes private bookings and after-parties too.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does speakeasy mean?
A speakeasy is a bar hidden behind an unmarked or secret entrance. The word dates to American Prohibition, when illegal bars told patrons to speak easy, meaning quietly, to keep from being noticed.
Why are they called speakeasies?
Because during Prohibition, drinkers were told to keep their voices down so an illegal bar would not be found out by police or neighbours. Speak easy, in other words.
Do you need a password to get into a speakeasy?
Some keep a password or a hidden door going for the atmosphere, but most just take a reservation or expect you to know the room exists. It depends on the bar.
What is the difference between a speakeasy and a regular bar?
A speakeasy trades on discretion and intimacy - a hidden entrance, a small low-lit room, a cocktail-first mindset - rather than the open, high-volume feel of a standard bar.
Where is there a speakeasy in Toronto?
Aitch, the hidden agave lounge below Silent H at 461 King Street West, is one - more than fifty tequilas and mezcals, behind a door you would walk right past.