Asheville, NC
The 9 Best Speakeasies in Asheville
Asheville's speakeasies don't ask for passwords. Most are basements or back rooms, and some you reach through another business.
Written by Brandon Beiler Updated
The bars below are grouped by how you get in. Some have no sign at all, so you look for a lantern, a gate or an unmarked door. Some are down a staircase. The rest are attached to another business.
Choose by what you want to drink. Tiki Easy, behind a working brewery, is a tiki bar with Scorpion and Volcano bowls. Pulp, under a music hall, is a bourbon bar. Red Ribbon Society, in the Flat Iron’s old boiler room, is a velvet-and-brass cocktail room.
No sign on the door
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The Crow & Quill
- The door
- A plain door with a lantern on each side and 106 above it
106 N Lexington
- Until midnight nightly
- Menu checked Oct 22
There's no sign out front. Look for a plain door with a lantern on each side and the number 106 above it. Behind that door is a whiskey bar that has been open since 2014.
Full venue page →Step inside
It stocks more than 800 whiskeys and 1,200 spirits in all. Some of the bottles sit in a big carved wooden cabinet.
There’s a piano in the seating area. Well-behaved dogs are welcome. Ask the bartender what to drink.
What to order
- Mothman's Bane $15 Red Cedar Infused Blanco Tequila · Meletti Amaro · Dolin Genepy · Lemon · Smoked Cedar Salt
- Smoke Moon $16 Vida Mezcal · Luxardo Bitter Bianco · Smoked Cinnamon · Fresh Lemon · Grapefruit Juice
- Hot Buttered Rum $14 Spiced Apple Cider · Dark Jamaican Rum · Pad o' Butter · Cookies
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Hotel Eve Jazz & Cocktail Lounge
- The door
- A gate between Virtue Boutique and Dane Wells Gallery
56 N Lexington
- Until midnight Fri & Sat · Closed Mon–Tue
- Menu checked Oct 14
The address is 56 North Lexington, but there's no storefront. Look for a gate between Virtue Boutique and Dane Wells Gallery. The courtyard and the jazz room are behind it.
Full venue page →Step inside
The main room is a basement listening room with red velvet curtains and exposed brick. Local and touring players perform live jazz. Local jazz musicians keep all the ticket money, and the club guarantees them a living wage. Liz Williams hosts the weekend shows.
The courtyard serves drinks and has no cover. Check the calendar and pick a show before you go.
What to order
- Abigail's Summer $18 Chemist Billmore Conservatory Rose Gin · Bruto Americano · Blackberry · Lemon · Foam
- Marcia Abroad $15 Pisco · Passion Fruit · Ancho Chili · Cinnamon · Orange · Lime
- Bennie K. $14 Cachaça · Pomegranate · Grapefruit · Lime · Rose Water
-
Tiki Easy Bar
- The door
- Through the Hi-Wire taproom, past the tanks, to an unmarked door
197 Hilliard
- Until 1am Fri & Sat
- Menu checked Sep 10
There's no sign on the building, on purpose. Walk into the Hi-Wire taproom on Hilliard and keep going to the back. You pass the brewery's tanks and barrels, then follow a black carpet to a door with nothing on it.
Full venue page →Step inside
Let yourself in. Neon lights and palm fronds start on the other side. The bar opened in 2023. Its 2,500 square feet had never been open to the public before.
The list runs to big tiki drinks like the Scorpion Bowl and the Volcano Bowl. Nobody checks you at the door. Walk to the back like you’ve done it before.
What to order
- Scorpion Bowl $15 Rum · Gin · Brandy · Lime · O.J. · Orgeat · Demerara Syrup
- Painkiller $12 Rum · Pineapple · O.J. · Coconut
- Volcano Bowl $15 Rum · Maraschino Liqueur · Lime · Pineapple · Passionfruit · Demerara Syrup · Bitters
Down a staircase
-
Red Ribbon Society
- The way down
- Stairs down from the Flat Iron hotel lobby
20 Battery Park
- Until midnight Fri & Sat
- Menu checked Oct 22
The way in is inside the Flat Iron hotel. Take the stairs down from the lobby. The steps are worn down in the middle from a century of use.
Full venue page →Step inside
The bar is in the building’s old boiler room. The Flat Iron was finished in 1926 and was an office building for almost 100 years.
At the bottom of the stairs, a red-lit hallway runs under the old pipes to a door lettered for a ribbon supply company. The lettering is decoration. Past it, the room is velvet and brass, with backlit nooks full of glassware and a wire-mesh chandelier over the bar.
The cocktail list changes often. Ask what’s new.
What to order
- Preakness $18 rye · Carpano Antica vermouth · Badia a Coltibuono Vin Santo · Jewel Hill honey · bitters
- Vesper $17 gin · parmesan-washed vodka · Lo-Fi dry vermouth · basil oil
- Afternoon Glory $17 fig leaf tequila · clementine · lemon · absinthe
-
The Low Down
- The way down
- Follow the arrow sign one flight down
723 Haywood Rd #001
- Until midnight nightly
- Menu checked Apr 15
At 723 Haywood Road, a lit sign shows an eye with tears and an arrow pointing down. Look for the arrow. Nothing else at the door says there's a bar downstairs.
Full venue page →Step inside
The stairs used to lead to The Black Cloud, a metal bar under blacklights. Casey Campfield, who also opened The Crow & Quill, gutted it and rebuilt the room in red oak and Baltic birch.
It seats about 40 in four booth sections, with a shuffleboard table. Order a cocktail, or ask about the non-alcoholic drinks.
What to order
- Blue Ghost $13 Blue cheese & olive oil fat washed gin · extra dry vermouth · brine · blue cheese olive
- A Cure for Shyness $14 Pisco · Velvet Falernum · crème de violette · elderflower liqueur · thyme · lemon
- Cloud 9 Negroni $18 Barrel-aged Negroni with Batanist gin · Natural orange wine vermouth · fino sherry · Campari
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Farmese Cocktail Lounge
- The way down
- A street door at 5 Biltmore Avenue, then stairs
5 Biltmore
- Until 2am Fri & Sat
- Menu checked Oct 23
The door is at 5 Biltmore Avenue, and it looks like any other street door. Open it and take the stairs down. The lounge is in the basement of a historic building.
Full venue page →Step inside
Downstairs there’s exposed brick with a world map painted across it. The bar groups its cocktails by technique, including barrel aged, carbonated, foamy and smoked.
The signature drinks change every quarter, so ask what’s new this season. The name sounds like “pharmacy.”
What to order
- Old Fashioned $14 bourbon · brown sugar simple syrup · angostura bitters
- Negroni $14 gin · carpano antica · campari
- Manhattan $14 rye whiskey · carpano antica · peychaud bitters
-
Pulp
- The way down
- 103 Hilliard Avenue, one floor under the Orange Peel
Biltmore Ave
Pulp is one floor under the Orange Peel music hall. The Orange Peel is at 101 Biltmore Avenue, but Pulp is at 103 Hilliard Avenue, so head for Hilliard.
Full venue page →Step inside
It’s a bourbon bar, with more than 550 bourbons. Justin Ferraby opened it in 2009. There’s a Rock-Ola jukebox under a wall of disco balls, and a vinyl station sponsored by Harvest Records.
The show upstairs plays down here on a TV and the sound system. Come down between sets.
Attached to another business
-
Strange Magic
- The door
- Walk through The Lazy Diamond to the back
- Until 2am · Closed Sun–Wed
Strange Magic is a bar at the back of another bar. Walk into The Lazy Diamond and keep going to the back. The Lazy Diamond is the dive bar with a black awning behind the patio umbrellas.
Full venue page →Step inside
The Lazy Diamond’s bar runs the length of the room, with booths on one side and a small dance floor at the end. Strange Magic is past that. It has no street entrance of its own, and there’s a cover at the back.
The back room is a dance room. Come ready to dance.
-
Antidote at Chemist Spirits
- The door
- Off a courtyard it shares with the Chemist distillery
151 Coxe Ave Ste 20
- Until midnight Fri & Sat
- Menu checked Oct 22
Antidote isn't hidden. It's on this list because it's built like an old apothecary, with a working distillery next door. The bar and the distillery are separate buildings with an open courtyard between them.
Full venue page →Step inside
The site was an auto repair shop until 2015, when Legerton Architecture designed the two buildings and the courtyard. From inside the bar, you can see the stillhouse through a window. It has four hand-hammered copper stills.
Debbie Word taught herself to distill, and the bar opened beside the still in 2018. Sit where you can see the copper.
What to order
- Vulnerable Cosmo $14 Chemist Vodka · cranberry · chamomile · hibiscus · lime · cardamom · Meletti Amaro
- Navy Tom Collins $15 Chemist Navy Gin · lemon · cane sugar · club soda · orange · cardamom · ginger
- White Negroni $16 Chemist American Gin · sweet vermouth · Campari bitter · citrus · rose · fresh botanicals
After the speakeasies
More Asheville guides
How this page works
Do you need a password?
No. The Crow & Quill doesn’t use a password or take reservations. It’s first come, first served. At Tiki Easy, you let yourself in.
Is there a cover?
Sometimes, and it usually goes to the musicians. The Crow & Quill charges a cover only when someone is playing, and all of it goes to the performers. At Hotel Eve, the courtyard is free. The listening room downstairs is $10 on weekdays and $15 on weekends. Strange Magic has a cover at the back, about $6 by one reviewer’s account.
Which one should you start with?
It depends on the night you want. For the most hidden door, walk through the brewery to Tiki Easy. For an old building, take the stairs under the Flat Iron to Red Ribbon Society. For a long whiskey list and a seat for the evening, go to The Crow & Quill.