How do you get into Room 56?
We have not confirmed it. Room 56 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: Blood and Sand, Bobby Burns, and Rob Roy are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Room 56 sits
Room 56 is in San Diego, California, in the county of the same name, in the West of the United States.
Our directory currently lists ten speakeasies and hidden bars in San Diego. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in San Diego.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to Room 56 are Witherby Speakeasy, about 250 m away, Prohibition Lounge, about 350 m away, and The Grand on 5th, about 350 m away.
California holds 173 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our California speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in California
California came under national prohibition on 17 January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment took effect and the Volstead Act defined an intoxicating beverage as anything above one half of one per cent alcohol — a threshold strict enough to close breweries that had expected to survive.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in California.
What the newspapers recorded in San Diego
Searching the Library of Congress run of California newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from San Diego:
- Süd California Deutsche zeitung, January 26, 1923 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Room 56 by phone on (951) 397-0407, through its own website, and on Facebook.
The address is 831 6th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101-6306. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Room 56 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 its own name calls it a room rather than a bar and 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.