The sign on the Healdsburg Avenue storefront declaring
“prohibition is coming” might sound like bad news to wine
enthusiasts, but proprietor Richard Rosenberg’s plans for the
corner shop are anything but.
Rosenberg’s new wine bar, the Speakeasy Club, pays tribute to
the illegal bars that served alcohol to eager customers during the
Prohibition era. The shop on Healdsburg Avenue at the corner of
North Street is scheduled to open in December.
Like many speakeasies in Prohibition, the wine bar features a
“fake” retail storefront designed to hide the bar within. Unlike
the speakeasies of old, Rosenberg isn’t planning to keep the bar a
secret from anyone. At first glance, the Speakeasy Club will appear
like a small wine boutique selling bottles of wine, coolers and
accessories.
At second glance, patrons will notice the shop is actually quite
small and that a pane of glass obscures something in the back.
“We’re going to put up wavy, opaquish glass,” said Rosenberg.
“People looking in will know something’s going on but they won’t
know what.”
Once inside the shop, customers will find a phone booth tucked
into a corner with a working replica of an antique phone. “You dial
W-I-N-E and the back door opens up,” explains Rosenberg with a
grin.
And then they’re in, greeted by a pourer standing behind a long
wine bar with dozens of bottles of various varietals and vintages
hanging on the wall. The wine bar itself was formerly a tasting
room for Lake Sonoma Winery, which recently moved the operation to
Valley of the Moon Winery in Glen Ellen.
The idea for the Speakeasy Club came soon after when Rosenberg
noticed the empty storefront while driving down Healdsburg Avenue.
“I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that if the opportunity
ever came up I’d try something like this,” he said. “This location
is the opportunity I was waiting for.”
Rosenberg and wife Kathleen Jo Rosenberg own the Grape Leaf Inn,
a 12-room bed and breakfast on Johnson Street. The couple moved to
Healdsburg in 1995 after Rosenberg retired from a career in
entertainment law and soon after chanced upon an ad for the Inn.
“This is my 13-hour-a-day retirement,” he said with a laugh.
The Grape Leaf Inn has its own speakeasy hidden behind a
bookcase. Guests are invited through a secret door and down a
flight of stairs to a wine bar and wine cellar, a feature Rosenberg
said has been one of the inn’s most popular features.
The two speakeasies are a tribute of sorts to Rosenberg’s
grandfather, a man who ran one himself in New Jersey during
Prohibition and told his grandson stories about rum runners,
bootleggers and buying liquor from the mob. “The front of the store
was a laundry business,” he said. “In back they served hard
alcohol, cocktails, beer and wine. Law enforcement knew about it.
They were patrons as well.”
The speakeasy was never shut down and his grandfather converted
it to a real bar after Prohibition was lifted. Rosenberg enjoys
sharing that history with fellow wine enthusiasts.
Vivienne Sosnowski, author of the recently published “When the
Rivers Ran Red,” said his timing is excellent. “This January is the
90th anniversary of the beginning of Prohibition,” she said. “Even
then, I don’t think it was ever hard to get a drink in
Healdsburg.”
In her book Sosnowski chronicles the fortunes and challenges of
local growers and winemakers during Prohibition who suddenly found
their craft illegal and popular as ever. She writes about
Healdsburg’s Hotel Sotoyome and proprietor’s A. Barsotti’s
vigilance in selling illegal drinks to his customers. “The speed
with which Barsotti paid his fines made it clear both to his
customers and the law that bootlegging was more profitable than
running a legal saloon ever had been,” she writes.
Rosenberg has heard his fair share of stories about the
Prohibition days from Healdsburg growers. He said his speakeasy
will continue to honor these local winemakers. “It’s a tasting room
for the wineries without the overhead for them,” he said.
For more information on Rosenberg visit www.grapeleafinn.com. To hear
Sosnowski talk about her book and Prohibition in Healdsburg visit
the Healdsburg Library at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7. For more
information call 431-7663.
