How do you get into The Secret Bar?
We have not confirmed it. The Secret Bar 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: Sidecar, Boulevardier, and Vieux Carré are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where The Secret Bar sits
The Secret Bar is in Austin, Texas, in Travis County, in the Southwest of the United States.
Our directory currently lists nine speakeasies and hidden bars in Austin. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in Austin.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to The Secret Bar are Speakeasy, about 350 m away, Floppy Disk Repair Co., about 450 m away, and Speakeasy Hotel, about 550 m away.
Texas holds 110 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our Texas speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in Texas
Texas 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, Texas already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in Texas.
What the newspapers recorded in Texas
Searching the Library of Congress run of Texas newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Texas:
- El Paso herald, May 27, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Brownsville herald, July 2, 1922 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Snyder signal, June 11, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- Laredo weekly times, August 15, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach The Secret Bar by phone on (737) 701-6021, through its own website, and on Facebook.
The address is 200 Lavaca St, Austin, TX 78701. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For The Secret Bar 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 secret.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.