The best speakeasies in Panama City (and how to get in)

Panama City has a real speakeasy scene, and almost all of it is packed into the few blocks of Casco Viejo. Here is what is behind the doors, and how to get past them.

What counts as a speakeasy in Panama

The word gets used loosely. In Casco Viejo it usually means one of three things: a bar with no sign and an entrance you would never guess, a bar inside another business that you reach through a bookshelf or a back stair, or a bar that only lets you in with a reservation or a password. The best ones do all three. What they share is scale. These are small rooms, often under forty seats, built around a bartender who knows what they are doing.

That intimacy is the whole point, and it is also why they are hard to get into on a Friday night without a plan.

Arcano: behind the bookshelf

Arcano sits inside the Sofitel Legend hotel, in the old Casco Viejo club building. You walk through the hotel's library, a wall of books swings open, and you are in a dim room of dark wood, tropical wallpaper and a serious collection of Panamanian rum. The signature move is the tarot deck. You draw a card, The Fool, The Empress, Justice, and the bartender builds the cocktail that card represents. It sounds like a gimmick until you taste it.

Arcano is reservation-first and runs on a passcode, so this is the one where showing up cold most often fails. It is also the one our Old Town tour opens with, because there is no better first door.

The 1920: the twenties never ended

The 1920 Casco Bar leans fully into the prohibition era that gave speakeasies their name. Low light, brass, jazz-era cocktails and a room that feels like it was sealed a century ago and reopened last week. It is the stop on the tour where groups tend to slow down, because the mood asks for it.

Casanova: follow the hummingbird

Casanova hides behind a facade that looks like a trading company. There is no name outside. What there is, if you know to look, is a small hummingbird. Follow it, find the hidden stairs, and the room at the top is the last cocktail of the night. Casanova is the door people photograph the most, mainly because they walked past it twice before they found it.

How to get in

• Reserve, always. Every one of these rooms is small. A message the day before is the difference between a table and a polite no.
• Go early or go with a group. Doors open around 6 or 7 PM. The first two hours are the easiest to get in and the best time to talk to the bartender.
• Dress a notch up. Nobody will turn you away for sneakers, but Casco Viejo at night is a smart-casual town and these bars are the dressiest corner of it.
• Keep the password quiet. Half the fun for the next person is not knowing.
• Do not shout the location. The bars stay hidden because guests let them. Post the cocktail, not the door.

Or let someone hold the passwords

If you are a group of ten or more, the simplest way to see all three in one night is our Old Town Speakeasy Tour. It starts at 7:00 PM, includes a signature cocktail at each bar and finger food along the way, and a host walks you from door to door with every password already arranged. About four and a half hours, $95 per person. The details are on the home page.