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: Sidecar, Boulevardier, and Vieux Carré are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Speak Easy sits
Speak Easy is in El Cajon, California, in San Diego County, in the West of the United States.
This is currently the only verified hidden bar our directory lists in El Cajon. If you know another, tell us.
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 California
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 California:
- La prensa, March 6, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Imperial Valley press, June 14, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Imperial Valley press, October 18, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Imperial Valley press, November 5, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
The address is 1130 Broadway, El Cajon, CA 92021. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Speak Easy we hold street address. We do not yet hold telephone number, official website, social accounts, 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.
OpenStreetMap carries this venue, contributed by a mapper; Overture Maps has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.