Cocktails like the whiskey sour,
French 75 and Mary Pickford
became popular during
Prohibition.s crazy as this sounds,
Prohibition might have been
the best thing to happen to
American cocktail culture. When the
18th Amendment went into effect
100 years ago, starting a 13-year
ban on the production and sale of
alcohol, Americans didn’t stop
going out for drinks—they just got
more creative. Cocktails took the
place of straight liquor (they masked
the taste of poorly made bootleg
booze) and an underground bar
scene emerged: decoy storefronts,
discreet warning lights, secret
passwords. Visiting a speakeasy
is far easier in 2020 than it was in
1920, but the excitement of finding
a hidden bar lives on. Read on to see
some of our favorites.A century after Prohibition,
we’re still flocking to
speakeasies. Here’s a peek
inside some of America’s best.94 FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE ●^ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
PHOTO: RALPH SMITH; COCKTAIL STYLING: ADRIENNE ANDERSON.