3 Salt Lake City Speakeasies: Start with Hide & Seek
Salt & Seek · Salt Lake City night-out guide
The right door. The right table. A night that starts with a plan. Hide & Seek is our first stop.
A speakeasy night should not begin with circling the wrong entrance. This guide puts Hide & Seek first, followed by Repeal and The Rest, and focuses on the practical differences: where to arrive, how to approach seating and whether you want dinner or music to shape the evening.
First stop · dinner + cocktails
Hide & Seek
Start with Hide & Seek when dinner deserves as much attention as the drinks. Its seasonal kitchen menu includes composed seafood dishes, while table reservations and walk-in bar seating give you two different ways to visit. The entrance matters here: use the 600 South door, not just the building’s Main Street mailing address.
Where to start
- A reserved table for dinner: Read the current kitchen menu before booking. The site highlights dishes such as sake-cured hiramasa with fruit, but seasonal offerings can change.
- Walk-in bar seating: The restaurant lists bar seats as first come, first served. Choose that route when your evening can accommodate a wait.
Before you goHead to Bonnie & Clyde’s at 20 E 600 South, enter the cafe and find the host near the bookcase. Wait for the host to guide you. Hide & Seek is 21+; the website lists a 15-minute reservation grace period.
Find it
20 E 600 South, Salt Lake City, Utah
Cocktails + live jazz
Repeal
Repeal combines dinner, cocktails and live jazz beneath the Walker Center. This is the music-led choice in the guide: reserve time for the room and performance as well as the food. The kitchen says it makes breads, pasta, sauces and desserts in house, while the current menu ranges from mushroom small plates to lamb chops.
Where to start
- Fried Lion’s Mane, $18: Mushrooms with honey habanero, cashew coconut and a candied soybean-sesame crisp.
- BBQ Pork Sliders, $17: Two pork-belly sliders with barbecue sauce, jalapeno slaw and aioli on brioche. For another direction, the $26 lamb chop comes with almond romesco and mint-chile chutney.
- Blackened Branch, $22: A bourbon-and-rye cocktail with Cocchi di Torino, cedar-tobacco bitters, coffee water and Hinoki incense.
- Vanishing Act, $20: Tequila Ocho Plata and Green Chartreuse with lemon verbena, bee pollen, spruce cordial, lime, celery and eucalyptus.
Plan your visitRepeal advertises dinner from 5 p.m. and jazz from 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Check the performance calendar for your date and the kitchen schedule if arriving late. This is a 21-and-over venue; bring valid ID.
The official cocktail menu gives the full drink descriptions. Choose Blackened Branch for a whiskey base or Vanishing Act for tequila and herbal ingredients.
Find it
19 E 200 S, B-200, Salt Lake City, Utah
A downstairs dinner
The Rest
The Rest is the downstairs dining room beneath Bodega on Main Street. Its candlelit, intimate setting gives this stop a different purpose from an upstairs drink: plan a dinner here, with a cocktail and enough time for a main course. Ask for The Rest by name when reserving so you are booking the downstairs experience.
Where to start
- Miso Crab Cakes, $16: Soy-maple reduction and sesame slaw accompany the starter.
- Pappardelle Ragu, $38: Maitake mushrooms and Parmesan make this the menu’s vegetarian pasta direction.
- Beer Can Chicken, $55: A whole slow-roasted chicken with cider gastrique. The $32 braised short rib is another substantial main, with garlic mash, carrots and red-wine demi.
- The Heir: The venue’s cocktail story describes Basil Hayden bourbon, Mr Black coffee liqueur, Frangelico, Swedish Punsch, espresso, demerara and coffee/cherry bitters. Adalynn takes a fruit-and-floral direction with vodka, raspberry-rose syrup, lemon oleo and Prosecco.
Plan your visitBook the downstairs room for a full dinner, and confirm access and availability through the venue. Cocktail descriptions come from Bodega’s own stories; ask which are available on your visit.
The venue explains the family names behind its drinks in its cocktail stories. That background adds context without treating an older drink photo as today’s menu.
Find it
331 S Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah
Good to know
A few useful answers
Where is the Hide & Seek entrance?
Use 20 E 600 South, just east of Main Street. Its official directions say to enter Bonnie & Clyde’s and find the host near the bookcase.
Can I walk into Hide & Seek without a table reservation?
The restaurant lists bar seats as walk-in and first come, first served. Reserve if your plan depends on a dinner table.
Are Hide & Seek and Repeal 21 and over?
Both publish a 21+ policy. Repeal specifically requires valid ID. Confirm The Rest’s current admission rules directly when arranging your visit.
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How we chose: Three venues with different ways to plan a meal or night out, researched using current official menus and visitor information. This is a selected guide, not an exhaustive directory or a scored tasting review. Restaurant photos sourced from the linked Instagram accounts and supplied for this guide; pictured dishes and menus may change. The featured cover is an editorial illustration. Check the official links before visiting.
