By: Mario Mancini
If you are looking for the city’s hottest new bar, you may not find it, and that’s exactly the point. A new speakeasy-style establishment has opened on the Upper East Side. If you pass the Keys & Heels storefront on Second Avenue between 77th and 78th Streets, you would not be alone in thinking it’s a locksmith store that’s past it’s prime. Step inside the faux façade and you will enter into a warm and inviting brand new business.
“I love the idea of maintaining something that is so visibly old New York,” restaurateur Massimo Lusardi told The New York Post of the inspiration for launching this spot. “I wanted something that could appear out of the blue one day, yet hides in plain sight. It’s often completely overlooked, as it looks so old people don’t even notice it’s new,” said Lusardi, who also launched the Italian restaurants Uva and Uva Next Door, both located adjacent to Keys & Heels.
“I also wanted it to be about privacy and making the whole space feel like a private room,” he added. “Stepping through one thing and into another really transports you and allows room for the unpredictable.”
Keys & Heels had originally planned to open to the public in December, but due to the ongoing pandemic pushed its official opening to March. Walk-ins are now welcome Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. until late, and limited reservations can also be made online.
So far, the establishment has been a popular place for parties as it gives any event a semi-secret exclusive feel. The drink offerings include a two-part list of house cocktails ($18 to $22), followed by a limited selection of wine and three $9 beer options, and finished with the bottle service offerings ($175 to $425). All of the food items look delicious. The menu highlights homemade panini and focaccia, salmon tartare, and pigs in a blanket, all priced around $12.
Speakeasies came to be during prohibition in the 1920’s. With alcohol being made illegal, people needed to find a way to go out and have fun. Hidden bars existed behind, under, and next to legitimate businesses to disguise the activity. People would give a secret password or knock and enter into a secret world where they could drink, dance, and let loose without fear. The most famous speakeasy of all was probably Chumley’s located at 86 Bedford Street. It was opened in 1922 and had a long history of literary guests such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and J.D Salinger. It managed to stay open for nearly one hundred years, only closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
