9 NYC Storefronts With Secret Identities

The secret life of NYC's hidden speakeasies, clothing stores, and after-school tutoring programs.

1. Community 54

Via respect-mag.com

Location: 54 Clinton Street (Lower East Side)

Via boweryboogie.com

It may appear to be an ordinary vintage video arcade...

Via boweryboogie.com

...but walk through the fully functional photo booth ($3 per photo), and you enter into...

Via community54.com

...a secret men's street-wear store. There's also an outdoor event space decorated by international graffiti artists that's hosted acts like Soulja Boy.

2. Beauty & Essex Pawn Shop

Via peikianachao.com

Location: 146 Essex Street (Lower East Side)

Via beautyandessex.com

Pawn shop in the front...

Via beautyandessex.com

...swanky eatery (with a dress code!) in the back.

3. The Blind Barber

Via yelp.com

Location: 339 E 10th Street (East Village)

Via nycgo.com

Walk through the old-fashioned barber shop in front to enter a speakeasy bar with drink names like "Sweeney Ted" and "Smoke & Dagger."

4. Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

Via nerdsontherocks.com

Location: 372 Fifth Avenue (Park Slope)

Via artsytime.com

This Park Slope all-purpose superhero supply store has everything a caped crusader might need...

Via timeout.com

...including utility belts, grappling hooks, matter (and anti-matter!).

Via 826national.org

So what's the secret? Well, there's a hidden doorway behind one of the bookshelves that leads to Dave Eggers's 826 NYC student literacy program, which provides one-on-one mentoring to under-resourced students ages 6-18.

5. Please Don't Tell (PDT)

Via travelettes.net

Location: 113 St. Mark's Place (East Village)

Via timeout.com

In order too get into this reservations-only speakeasy bar, enter the phone booth in Crif Dogs (the hot dog place next door), pick up the phone, and press the buzzer once (and only once). A hostess answers and -- if approved -- the wall of the phone booth opens to let you into...

Via timeout.com

...a secret bar with taxidermied animals and trendy cocktails.

6. Employees Only

Via harrietmagpie.com

Location: 510 Hudson Street (West Village)

Via Flickr: pexton

In case you needed another reason to think psychics were frauds, walk past the fortune teller in front and you'll find yourself in...

Via nyccapers.blogspot.com

...a hidden speakeasy bar with top-notch mixologists.

7. The Raines Law Room

Via manhattansideways.com

Location: 48 W. 17th Street (Flatiron)

Via jetsettimes.com

Ring the doorbell at the bottom of an unmarked stairwell to enter a classy bar where every table has a button to call on your server airplane-style.

8. The Back Room

Via webpage.pace.edu

Location: 102 Norfolk Street (Lower East Side)

Via everystockphoto.com

There are no toys here, despite what the fake delivery side entrance door would have you believe. Instead, walk inside to find...

Via eatsnbeats.wordpress.com

...a Prohibition-style speakeasy bar that serves cocktails in teacups and beer in paper bags. As for how to get into the back room of The Back Room, I have no idea...

9. Bathtub Gin

Via seeyousoon.ca

Location: 132 9th Avenue (Chelsea)

Via Flickr: aranciaproject

The Stone Street Coffee Company is actually a very real, fully functional coffee shop (with micro-roasted beans from Brooklyn), but walking through an unmarked door after hours leads you into...

Via nycurchin.com

...yet another trendy speakeasy cocktail lounge (and yes, there is a copper bathtub in the center of the bar!).