Hidden Bars

By Camper English

New York City Milk & Honey on Manhattan's Lower East Side popularized the reservations-only bar concept and keeps the guest list limited with an unlisted phone number. The easier-to-access newcomer PDT (Please Don't Tell) has a published reservation line, but the not-so-obvious entrance is right out of Get Smart. Inside a hot-dog restaurant in the East Village, patrons squeeze into a vintage phone booth and pick up the receiver. The host on the other end opens a secret panel to allow entry to the bar. Classic cocktails are served by James Meehan, one of New York's top bartenders. pdtnyc.com

Alexandria, Va. Behind an Old Town fish-and-chips restaurant displaying a pirate flag is an unmarked door with a blue light denoting the entrance to PX. After you ring the bell, a host's eyes appear in a peephole, and a voice beckons you upstairs--or denies your entry because the place holds only 30 people. Inside, the bar is decked out with mirrored walls and glass chandeliers. Just like in the 1920s (the bar's era of inspiration), bartenders hand-make cocktail mixers, including the tonic water, bitters and fresh-squeezed juice. eamonnsdublinchipper.com

San Francisco The decoy sign outside speakeasy-themed Bourbon & Branch advertises the ANTI-LEAGUE SALOON, the prohibitionist group founded 113 years before the bar opened. Reservations for tables (and the daily password to whisper into the tiny loudspeaker) are available to all via the bar's website bourbonandbranch.com but remain hard to come by for much of the week. To meet demand, the venue expanded into a third room for standing patrons, accessed via another secret door behind a bookshelf. Despite the excitement in the bar, no loud celebrating is permitted in the seated section, with those patrons who don't "speak easy" escorted to the clearly labeled exit.