The secret bar plays on the great modern craze for the hidden, the concealed, and the thrill of the speakeasy
The Secret Bar in Streatham holds three hundred and twenty reviews and a 4.5 – a strong score on a good sample – and it plays directly on one of the great crazes of modern bar culture: the secret, hidden, concealed venue, and the thrill of discovering the bar that is not supposed to be found.
The hidden bar
“The Secret Bar” names, with cheerful directness, one of the most popular of all modern bar concepts: the hidden, secret, concealed venue. We met this craze at the speakeasies of the Kensington survey – the bars hidden behind bookcases and unmarked doors, entered through fridges and phone boxes and hidden passages, whose whole appeal lies in their concealment. “The Secret Bar” embraces this concept in its very name – the bar that is a secret, hidden and concealed, to be discovered by those in the know.
There is a lovely paradox in a bar called “The Secret Bar,” of course – a secret that announces itself as a secret is not quite secret. But the paradox is part of the fun and the wit. The name plays knowingly on the whole craze for hidden bars, embracing and gently teasing it – promising the thrill and glamour of the secret, concealed venue while cheerfully naming itself “The Secret Bar.” It is a knowing, playful, self-aware take on the hidden-bar phenomenon.
The thrill of the secret
The appeal of the secret bar runs deep, and this survey has explored it before. Part of it is the thrill of exclusivity and insider knowledge – to find and enter a hidden bar is to be “in the know,” part of a select group who know the secret, which flatters and delights. Part of it is the sense of discovery and adventure – the hunt for the concealed entrance, the passage through the hidden door, the reward of the secret space beyond. And part of it is the romance of the speakeasy – the echo of Prohibition-era America, when bars really were secret and illegal, hidden behind innocent facades, entered by password, thrillingly against the rules.
The modern secret bar recreates this whole thrilling world – the concealment, the discovery, the exclusivity, the romance of the hidden and forbidden – as a delicious game and atmosphere, without the actual illegality. It taps into the deep human love of secrets, discovery, exclusivity and adventure, turning the simple act of going for a drink into a thrilling little quest. “The Secret Bar” names and embraces this whole appealing world.
The knowing name
There is real wit in naming a bar “The Secret Bar.” It is at once a description (a secret, hidden bar), a promise (the thrill of the concealed venue), and a knowing joke (a secret that names itself). It plays the hidden-bar game with a wink and a smile, embracing the craze while gently sending it up. This self-aware, playful, knowing quality is very much in the modern spirit – the bar that knows exactly what it is doing, and invites you to enjoy the game along with it. The strong score suggests the game is played well – a genuinely good, atmospheric, enjoyable secret bar, delivering the thrill and fun its knowing name promises.
The bar
A strong, well-regarded bar doing a good 4.5 across a good sample, playfully named “The Secret Bar” – embracing, with a knowing wink, the great modern craze for the hidden, concealed, speakeasy-style venue.
Verdict
Strong, well-regarded, and wittily named – “The Secret Bar,” the hidden venue that cheerfully announces its own secrecy, playing the speakeasy game with a knowing wink.
Find your way to The Secret Bar – a secret that names itself – and enjoy the knowing, playful thrill of the hidden venue, the whole speakeasy craze embraced and gently teased in a single cheeky name.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
