How do you get into The Best Kept Secret?
We have not confirmed it. The Best Kept Secret is in the directory because it described as secret, 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: Bronx, Monkey Gland, and Hanky Panky are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where The Best Kept Secret sits
The Best Kept Secret is in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, in Macomb County, in the Midwest of the United States.
This is currently the only verified hidden bar our directory lists in St. Clair Shores. If you know another, tell us.
Michigan holds 36 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Michigan speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Michigan
Michigan did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1918, two 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, Michigan already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in Michigan.
What the newspapers recorded in Michigan
Searching the Library of Congress run of Michigan newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Michigan:
- Alma record, February 19, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Charlevoix county herald, July 9, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Dearborn independent, August 28, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Alma record, April 1, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach The Best Kept Secret by phone on (586) 300-2044 and on Facebook.
The address is 22435 Harper Ave, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For The Best Kept Secret we hold street address, telephone number, and social accounts. We do not yet hold official website, 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 secret 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.