Gossip Girl Puts Another Nail in Speakeasy's Coffin

Not even a month after one mag wished for the speakeasy trend to die, Gossip Girl (yes, a show about high school and college kids, but that’s another topic) is pounding another nail in the cocktail conceit, Derek Brown writes. With one of the show’s characters opening a Prohibition-style joint—“an authentic trend … co-opted by teenie-boppers and dumbed-down programming”—the trend has clearly “jumped the shark.”

“I appreciate ‘speakeasies’ for the substantive quality they have brought to drinking,” Brown, who has an interest in just such a joint, blogs for the Atlantic. “Without a few pioneers in this genre you’d still be sipping Cosmos and seeking out-of-the-way hotel lobbies for a civilized drink.” So, let’s toast to a compromise: “Let’s not call bars that restrict seating or reference pre-Prohibition cocktails and decor speakeasies anymore. … Let’s call speakeasies ‘cocktail bars.’ That’s what they are. And getting a good cocktail is timeless.”
(More speakeasy stories.)