How do you get into Bar 86?
We have not confirmed it. Bar 86 is in the directory because it an unmarked door, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
Drinks of the era
We have not seen this venue’s own list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Mary Pickford, El Presidente, and Hotel Nacional Special are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Bar 86 sits
Bar 86 is in Alexandria, Virginia, in the county of the same name, in the South Atlantic of the United States.
Our directory currently lists two speakeasies and hidden bars in Alexandria — too few for a city guide of its own yet, so they sit on the Virginia page until there are more.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to Bar 86 are PX, about 700 m away.
Virginia holds 30 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Virginia speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Virginia
Virginia did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1916, four years before the Eighteenth Amendment came into force nationally on 17 January 1920. By the time the Volstead Act was being enforced across the country, Virginia already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in Virginia.
What the newspapers recorded in Virginia
Searching the Library of Congress run of Virginia newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Virginia:
- Richmond times-dispatch, February 11, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Richmond times-dispatch, March 7, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Richmond times-dispatch, October 17, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Richmond times-dispatch, January 2, 1921 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Bar 86 through its own website and on Facebook.
The address is 215 S Union St, Alexandria, VA 22314. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Bar 86 we hold street address, official website, and social accounts. We do not yet hold telephone number, opening hours, a published drinks list, an online booking link, or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because the map tags on the record mark it a cocktail bar.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.