How do you get into Toro Bar?
We have not confirmed it. Toro Bar 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: Jack Rose, Diamondback, and Brown Derby are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Toro Bar sits
Toro Bar is in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the county of the same name, in the South Atlantic of the United States.
This is currently the only verified hidden bar our directory lists in Spartanburg. If you know another, tell us.
South Carolina holds 17 listed venues in this directory. See them all on our South Carolina speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in South Carolina
South Carolina did not wait for the federal government. Statewide prohibition took effect here in 1915, five 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, South Carolina already had an established illegal trade and the habits that went with it.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in South Carolina.
What the newspapers recorded in South Carolina
Searching the Library of Congress run of South Carolina newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from South Carolina:
- The Union daily times, August 9, 1920 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Abbeville press and banner, October 21, 1921 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The county record, April 20, 1922 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Bamberg herald, May 18, 1922 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Toro Bar through its own website.
The address is 129 North Spring Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Toro Bar we hold street address and official website. We do not yet hold telephone number, social accounts, opening hours, a published drinks list, an online booking link, or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because the map tags on the record include a speakeasy tag.
OpenStreetMap carries this venue, contributed by a mapper; Overture Maps has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.