FOOD & DRINK

A new generation of speakeasies, all of them hidden behind fake frontages, has appeared in Manhattan, despite it being 90 years after Prohibition. La Esquina (+1 646 613 7100, esquinanyc.com) lies beneath an artfully decayed taco stand on Kenmare Place while the perpetually shuttered Gold Flower restaurant on Doyers Street in Chinatown shelters Apotheke (+1 212 406 0400, apothekebar.com). Once an opium den, this is now where owner Albert Trummer (above) and his staff mix up some of New York’s most intricately made cocktails, including the Smoking Jacket (single-malt whisky infused with handmade bitters and agave honey).

Milk & Honey (milkandhoneynyc.com) started the new speakeasy trend in 2000 when owner Sasha Petraske chose to hide his bar behind a battered door on the Lower East Side and only allowed in people who had made reservations.

Regulars at Crif’s Dogs, a hot-dog stand in the East Village, are used to people going into the phone booth that lies at one side of a nearby shop. They squeeze themselves in and then vanish from sight. They’ve gone to PDT, or Please Don’t Tell (+1 212 614 0386, pdtnyc.com), a Narnia-like secret bar on the other side of a fake wall with equal measures of wit and whimsy, candlelight, cosy booths and singularly good cocktails.

Find out how to mix your own Apotheke cocktail at our Food & Drink blog.

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