Brooklyn’s Former Speakeasies
Eighty-nine years ago today the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution passed, repealing the 18th Amendment ratified 13 years prior, which had made illegal the sale of alcohol. Former speakeasies from those dark days survive all over the city. (Remember Chumley’s in the Village? That place was still a speakeasy until its chimney collapsed in 2007; I don’t think anyone ever told them Prohibition had been repealed.) Especially in Brooklyn, “speakeasy style” has become a thing, making it difficult to find the genuine article, especially in Google searches. But here are eight bars that definitely were, or probably were, former speakeasies. [photo]
