When I Feel Like Time Traveling, I Sip A Cocktail In An Old Bank Vault At This Chattanooga Speakeasy

There's just something cool about stepping into an old building with those unique and interesting architectural elements that we so rarely see anymore: beams, stained glass, archways. Old buildings have almost an otherworldliness to them as they transport you to another time. I always find myself trying to imagine what it must have been like to be in the same space decades or even centuries ago. Maybe laundry once hung from that tiny window. Someone cooked dinner in that old brick fireplace. That same dressing area held everything from corsets and petticoats to Travis Kelcee jerseys.

Buildings are saturated with former existences: The floor is warped from absorbing the weight of a century's worth of steps and the stone railing is worn smooth from the touch of millions of hands. It's fascinating (and maybe a little creepy, but like, good-creepy) to think of all the lives and people and stories and history and experiences and events that every old building has witnessed. If old walls could talk, they'd never shut up.

I've always been drawn to historic buildings and never much cared for the shiny new ones — which is why I so enjoy The Vault in The Waymark Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Waymark is a hotel that was recently renovated from an old bank building, and The Vault is a bar inside the actual, original vault where they used to keep all the bank's money and valuables. The bags of cash and safety deposit boxes may be long gone, but they've been replaced with something equally valuable, at least to some. Bottles of pricy, clearly high-quality whiskeys and liquors line the bar — such as a coveted bottle of Van Winkle 12-Year Bourbon, which sells for $72 a shot.

The Vault is downstairs in the underbelly of the hotel. It's dark and windowless down there, and dimly lit, giving it a rather speakeasy-esque vibe. This is the sort of place where F. Scott Fitzgerald would feel at home sipping whiskey neat. But although a lot of the hotel staff and even the official company website readily throw around the word "speakeasy," The Vault's bar lead, Miles Harbin, wants to set the record straight: "We're not really a speakeasy," he says. The reason being that the place is too open to be a true speakeasy. "You walk down and you see right through into the bar. To me, a speakeasy is a hidden entrance; you've got to know the code to get in." Having been to a bar in Atlanta where you enter via the hidden back door of a bright red phone booth after telling someone a secret password, I see his point. The Vault isn't quite that. "I'd say we're speakeasy-adjacent," Harbin says.

The bar's decor is simple yet showy at the same time, and a touch masculine. There's wood paneling, gold detailing, and the ceiling is a deep shade of navy blue. It kind of feels like being in a classy cruise ship lounge beneath the waterline. Harbin describes the look as Art Deco, explaining that the designers were going for "something not too flashy, but something that's a little elegant. They decided not to put any art or pictures on the wall. They wanted the focus really to be on who you're with, the hospitality of the staff, and the drinks that you're drinking."

Built in 1927, the building served as the Chattanooga Savings Bank and Trust Company until the fallout of the Great Depression essentially broke the bank in the 1930s. Following its closure, some floors were rented out to law firms and real estate companies before the structure sat abandoned for decades. That is, until the hotel company purchased it and brought it back to its former glory. 

Although the building (which turns 100 next year) was meticulously renovated, turning the old vault into a bar was its own challenge. Lines on the floors — which are all original from when the building was constructed — show where walls up to 2 feet thick and filled with rebar once protected people's money and worldly goods, and these sturdy walls had to be removed to put in booth seating for bar patrons. "The accounts are varied, but it took the construction crews somewhere between three and eight weeks to knock everything down, cart everything up one wheelbarrow at a time," Harbin says.

Because the bar is situated in what Harbin calls "a concrete and steel-reinforced box" which makes the space prone to echoes, they added soundproofing panels on the ceiling and walls. Now, people can gather for a drink with friends and not have to yell to be heard over one another. Not that it's an everyone-yelling type of bar. "It's not quite the typical late-night bar, no one doing shots, nothing too rowdy," he says. "The music stays pretty mellow, low-key." And so do the people. They're just there to quaff, converse, and maybe play a little backgammon while they're at it. The hotel's owner is a big fan of the game and keeps the place stocked with two publicly accessible backgammon sets that Harbin says are used every night.

To keep up with the speakeasy theme, Harbin says the specialty of the bar is spirit-forward, Prohibition-style cocktails that are crafted with house-made ingredients such as handmade syrups, shrubs, and infusions along with a whiskey and bourbon list that would impress Jack Daniels himself. No bartender there will be annoyed with you for ordering a complicated cocktail even if the place is packed because that's The Vault's forte. Every drink on the menu is elaborate and time-consuming to mix.

The finance-themed names of the cocktails, such as The Discretionary and Bear Market, harken back to the building's banking days. And while we're on the topic of discretionary income, keep in mind that you're going to need a little if you stop in at The Vault. This is a high-class hotel bar with prices to match — cocktails range from $17 up to $22. That said, if you can swing it anything you imbibe here is going to be worth the investment. You can bank on that.

Being underground and surrounded by concrete means it's tough to get a good cell signal, but that's okay. It only intensifies the experience of traveling back in time. After all, bankers in the building's early days wouldn't have been texting or playing Wordle. (I discovered during my time there that it also means the parking app won't work from the bar either, so make sure you've paid for enough time before you step underground and lose your signal.) As Harbin points out, it's nice to put your phone away, disconnect, and enjoy the present moment — while also enjoying the past.

If you want something to nibble on while you drink, The Vault has a few bar snacks to choose from — "salty and savory little treats," Harbin calls them. I would recommend the deviled eggs or the pimento cheese and crackers (or both, since the flavors actually go quite well together). That is, if they're still around — a new menu is in the works and should be coming out any day now. The plan is to keep changing the menu every three months or so to bring in seasonal ingredients for both drinks and food. There will also be some holiday cocktails coming soon, including perhaps an eggnog or gingerbread old fashioned.

If you're looking for something more substantial than a few small bites, you'll have to take a journey up 12 floors to Iris, The Waymark's rooftop bar, where there's a full menu. Admittedly, food is not The Vault's main focus. "A lot of times, The Vault operates as this liminal space before and after dinner," Harbin explains. "People come for some pre-dinner cocktails, or afterwards for some nightcaps." As for me, I just like to go for the drinks, the atmosphere, the friendly service ... and the rest is history.

"We're excited. We've been open for eight months at this point, and we're just treating it as a marathon, not a sprint — just slowly making this place [incrementally] better and better every day. That's kind of our goal," Harbin says of The Vault. "If you get 1% better every day, by the end of the year, you're 365% better." Those are words you can take to the bank.