Finding the entrance is part of the evening at these Boston speakeasies. Carrie Nation has a lounge behind a red velvet curtain. Backbar asks you to find an orange door off a Somerville alley. Hecate sits beneath a restaurant you could walk past without realizing there is another room below.
These are modern cocktail bars with a taste for concealed rooms and theatrical surroundings. Come for the drinks and the setting, rather than expecting an original Prohibition drinking den. Pick the room that fits the night: dinner with a reservation, a few drinks with a friend, or a small bar where you may have to wait.
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Carrie Nation Cocktail Club
11 Beacon Street, Downtown
Carrie Nation’s speakeasy sits beyond the main bar, down a corridor and behind a red velvet curtain. Keep going and you’ll find a windowless lounge with leather seating, polished wood, billiards and its own bar. The back room gives you somewhere to settle in beyond the restaurant’s dining spaces, with a pool table providing an alternative to another hour of talking about work.
The name is a deliberate provocation: the real Carrie Nation campaigned against alcohol. A cocktail club in her honor probably wasn’t the tribute she had in mind. Reservations cover the dining room only; the speakeasy and bar operate first come, first served. Book dinner if that’s part of your evening, but don’t mistake the confirmation for a guaranteed seat behind the curtain. They’re different rooms with different seating policies.
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Wink and Nod
3 Appleton Street, South End
Wink & Nod pairs its downstairs South End cocktail lounge with a kitchen that regularly changes hands. Its culinary residency program gives chefs room to develop their own menus, so check what’s cooking before treating this as a drinks-only stop. The current resident is Dorchester native Valentine Howell of Black Cat Eatery, whose cooking draws on Afro-Caribbean influences.
The drinks list gives whiskey drinkers plenty to consider, alongside gin, rum, tequila and mezcal cocktails. My Favorite Things combines browned-butter-washed bourbon with maple, orange liqueur, bitters and cinnamon smoke; Scorched Rose takes chili-infused rum in a coconut-and-rose direction. There are spirit flights and nonalcoholic choices, too. Reservations are available through OpenTable. Wink & Nod opens daily at 5 p.m., making it a useful option on nights when several other bars in this guide are closed.
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Backbar
7 Sanborn Court, Somerville
Backbar’s orange door off Sanborn Court is easy to overlook. Once you’re inside this Union Square cocktail bar, the more pressing issue is finding a seat: there are only 39. The bar warns that groups larger than four have fewer places to sit and can face longer waits. Bring a couple of friends rather than recruiting everyone you know.
Regular service is walk-in only, with changing cocktail menus and a separate nonalcoholic selection. For a more structured evening, cocktail classes and Closet Bar tastings can be booked separately through Tock. Those experiences are distinct from reserving a table in the main room. Backbar currently opens Wednesday through Sunday at 5 p.m., with last seating and last call at 11:15 p.m. It closes at midnight, so put this earlier in your plans rather than arriving for a final drink just before the doors shut.
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Saloon
255 Elm Street, Somerville
Saloon sits below Davis Square, with a substantial spirits selection and enough food to make dinner part of the plan. Whiskey is well represented, but the current drinks menu also has room for mezcal, absinthe and martinis that take some liberties with the format. One uses bread-and-butter pickle brine; another brings cacio e pepe to the glass. You can order three house martini variations as a flight in miniature glasses.
The food goes beyond something salty to accompany a drink. Fried halloumi with chili oil and smoked honey, Portuguese mussels with chouriço, a burger and steak frites give you several ways to avoid leaving hungry. Reservations are available through Resy. Saloon makes sense when you want a downstairs cocktail bar but would also appreciate a proper meal and a table arranged in advance.
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Hecate
48 Gloucester Street, Back Bay
Hecate’s entrance is in Public Alley 443, below Krasi in Back Bay. The dimly lit room takes its name from a Greek goddess, and the drinks give you plenty to discuss before the first sip. The cocktail menu brings together ingredients such as cedar smoke, sea moss and wormwood. Snake Oil pairs vodka and gin with eucalyptus; Nightmarch takes rum toward coconut, oolong and pineapple.
Read the ingredient lists before ordering, particularly if you have allergies or avoid egg, dairy or animal products. Hecate’s zero-proof selection gets similar attention, including a drink with chicory, beetroot and fig. Choose this stop for an evening spent considering what is in the glass. For more on Hecate and The Wig Shop, read about the two Boston speakeasies that cracked North America’s top 100.
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