Handshake Speakeasy

Eric van Beek—the 2018 Bacardi Legacy World Champion—operates a thirty-two-seat Art Deco speakeasy inside the NH Collection hotel that held No. 1 in North America and No. 2 globally in 2025. Ninety-minute seatings move through a sixteen-drink menu where preparations run up to forty-eight hours: the Mexi-Thai fat-washes tequila with coconut oil and finishes with makrut lime leaf distillate and clarified tomato cordial. The black-and-gold room trades on intimacy and precision in equal measure. No bar in the Western Hemisphere operates at a higher level of sustained excellence.