'It just makes you feel cool:' New speakeasy comes to Nob Hill
Jul. 25—Tucked behind M'tucci's Bar Roma is a black door labeled with just one word: "Bakery."
It's not the door to a new patisserie in Nob Hill (although there are baked goods for sale inside). Pulling open a bakery "shelf" reveals red velvet curtains which frame a bar, frozen in the 1920s; or, more accurately, Albuquerque's newest '20s-themed speakeasy, Teddy Roe's.
The bar, located near Central and Carlisle, is steeped in gangster history, and decked out with antique glassware, newspaper clippings and glitzy wallpaper. Behind the counter, a fake brick wall slides open to reveal a private room, complete with a Bluetooth-enabled record player that patrons can use to play music. Besides playing music, however, Teddy Roe's has a strict phone policy. If guests want to take calls, they have to do so in the bar's phone booth.
The speakeasy, which had its grand opening on Monday, is a collaboration between M'tucci's Restaurants and local bartenders Jessica O'Brien and Arcy Law. The bar is Albuquerque-born O'Brien's "baby" — an idea she's been toying with since she moved back to New Mexico from the Bay Area six years ago.
"I really want to, like, create something in Albuquerque where it's service oriented. And you know, with really quality drinks," O'Brien said. "Six years later, here we are, so I hope it's ... what I — what we all — envisioned it to be."
O'Brien has been bartending for a little over a decade, and spent the past six years working at Sister Bar.
Quality is king at Teddy Roe's. O'Brien and Law said they select fresh, high-quality ingredients, and hand make the syrups used in the menu's 18 different cocktails.
"One of the best kitchens you walk into are scratch kitchens, and this is scratch bartending," Law said. "Everything that you're going to enjoy has been personally made and designed by us."
O'Brien and Law designed the small space to have several intimate seating areas, each with its own unique atmosphere.
"Each time you come it's a different experience," O'Brien said.
The bar is named after Theodore Roe, one of the only Black "policy kings" — mob bosses working the lottery — in Chicago. Roe was known as the "Black Robin Hood" for giving out $50 bills in poor Chicago neighborhoods.
O'Brien came up with the name after researching bootleggers that had been overlooked by history.
"I was looking up black bootleggers, or New Mexico bootleggers — just like anyone that was a person of color and was in that game, because you never hear about any of those people," O'Brien said. "So he is a mob boss that was not white or Italian."
Teddy Roe's is reservation-only, and has a membership program that includes perks like "Members Mondays." Membership is $1,000 per year and limited to 125 people. Each member will receive a coin, engraved with their membership number, which they can present at the door.
"It's not really like a true speakeasy because people know about it, obviously. But it's just to give that whole vibe ...," O'Brien said. "You walk in from outside where it's so bright and you come in here and it's like this dark, vibey, cool space. And it just makes you feel cool."
Go to www.teddyroes.com for more information.
