How do you get into Speak Easy?
We have not confirmed it. Speak Easy 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: Bee’s Knees, Southside, and Last Word are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Speak Easy sits
Speak Easy is in Columbus, Ohio, in Franklin County, in the Midwest of the United States.
Our directory currently lists ten speakeasies and hidden bars in Columbus. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in Columbus.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to Speak Easy are The Jury Room, about 1.2 km away, The Speakeasy, about 1.2 km away, and Sotto Terra at The Sanctuary, about 1.9 km away.
Ohio holds 54 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Ohio speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Ohio
Ohio 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 Ohio.
What the newspapers recorded in Ohio
Searching the Library of Congress run of Ohio newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Ohio:
- The toiler, February 13, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The American issue, June 17, 1921 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The American issue, December 31, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The American issue, November 4, 1921 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Speak Easy through its own website and on Facebook.
The address is 188 McDowell St, Columbus, OH 43215-4012. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Speak Easy 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 its own name calls it a speakeasy.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a music venue.