How do you get into Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon?
We have not confirmed it. Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon 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 Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon sits
Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the county of the same name, in the Midwest of the United States.
Our directory currently lists five speakeasies and hidden bars in Milwaukee. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in Milwaukee.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon are Bugsy’s Back Alley Speakeasy, a few doors away, Speak Easy & Eatery, about 800 m away, and Naughty Angel, about 1.4 km away.
Wisconsin holds 44 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Wisconsin speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Wisconsin
Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin.
What the newspapers recorded in Milwaukee
Searching the Library of Congress run of Wisconsin newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Milwaukee:
- The Milwaukee leader, June 28, 1930 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Milwaukee leader, August 23, 1929 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Milwaukee leader, March 12, 1929 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Milwaukee leader, February 11, 1930 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon by phone on (414) 221-6564, through its own website, and on X.
The address is 218 N Water St, Milwaukee, WI 53202. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Bugsy’s Back Alley Saloon 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 names an alley 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.