How do you get into Behind the Bookcase?
We have not confirmed it. Behind the Bookcase is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, 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: Corpse Reviver No. 2, Twentieth Century, and White Lady are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Behind the Bookcase sits
Our record places Behind the Bookcase in Sarasota County, Florida, in the South Atlantic of the United States. The source data carries coordinates and a county or region but no municipality, which usually means an address outside an incorporated city, or a record that was never given one. The map pin is the reliable part.
Florida holds 100 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Florida speakeasy guide.
If you know which town Behind the Bookcase is in, tell us and we will place it properly.
Prohibition in Florida
Florida did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1919, one year before the Eighteenth Amendment came into force nationally on 17 January 1920. By the time the Volstead Act was being enforced across the country, Florida already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in Florida.
What the newspapers recorded in Florida
Searching the Library of Congress run of Florida newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Florida:
- The Pensacola journal, January 19, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Ocala evening star, August 4, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Lakeland evening telegram, August 10, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Pensacola journal, June 6, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Behind the Bookcase by phone on (941) 800-0665, through its own website, and on Facebook.
The address is 367 Jacaranda Blvd, FL 34292. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Behind the Bookcase we hold street address, telephone number, official website, and social accounts. We do not yet hold opening hours, a published drinks list, an online booking link, or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because the description in the source data describes it as a speakeasy.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.