This Speakeasy-Style Arcade Bar In Boston Is Hidden Behind A Freezer Door

Back during the Prohibition era, which lasted from 1920 to 1933 nationwide, speakeasies were private drinking establishments where you needed a password to gain entrance and illegally consume alcohol. Some of the original ones still exist today, such as Illinois' Luna Cafe, where Al Capone used to imbibe. Today, however, the speakeasy concept has been revived as a cute trend — a bar that, while 100% legal, nevertheless pretends to hide behind some sort of disguise to channel a vintage vibe. Such bars include Don's TV & Repair in Milwaukee, Canary Underground Speakeasy in Grinnell, Iowa, and NYC's own The Garret, which sits atop a West Village Five Guys. Boston also boasts quite a few of these bars, including Roxy's Arcade, which is "hidden" behind a freezer door. This door is located in the back of Roxy's, a Cambridge restaurant specializing in grilled cheese sandwiches, fried chicken, and burgers.

Roxy's Arcade, like many other self-styled modern speakeasies, completely ignores the Roaring '20s, and instead aligns itself with '80s, '90s, and Y2K nostalgia. Its whole shtick (apart from the freezer entry) is being an adults-only video game arcade with booze. The games, which include "Guitar Hero," "Mario Kart," "Ms. Pac-Man," and "Tetris," along with such old-school arcade attractions as a claw machine and "Skee-Ball," require you to purchase tokens to play, although the Xbox and PlayStation consoles are free to use. The venue also hosts events such as Monday night drag trivia, Wednesday karaoke, and DJs on the weekends.

Since Roxy's Arcade is as much a bar as gaming emporium, it offers a decent selection of bottled, canned, and draft beers as well as cocktails with cutesy names like Princess Peach's Downfall (rum, peach, and pineapple) and Temple of Bloom (gin, tamarind, and cucumber). Because it's in the back of a restaurant, though, you also have access to food from the kitchen.

For the most part, the Roxy's Arcade dining menu overlaps that of Roxy's the restaurant. There are seven different grilled cheese sandwiches (the establishment got its start as a gourmet grilled cheese food truck), fried chicken, and five different burgers. Unlike the restaurant, the bar also offers hot dogs and tofu dogs. It also has a larger selection of appetizers — in addition to truffle fries, poutine, and tomato soup, its menu also runs to chicken tenders, fried pickles, onion rings, and pretzel bites. Both establishments feature soft-serve ice cream and milkshakes as well.

Roxy's Arcade doesn't have any TripAdvisor reviews at present, but Roxy's itself has 4.3 stars. One reviewer raved about the "just outstanding bacon cheese burger, grilled cheese and fried chicken sandwich," while another said of the poutine, "HOLY CRAP those fries were so good we ordered a second one for to go, for movie night at home." Another person who visited the bar summed it up by saying, "This place is what dreams are made from ... the food is out of this world, but there is a speakeasy barcade you can get to by walking through a freezer door which is other worldly ... go."