DOCTOR’S ORDERS Red Phone Booth Nashville offers a Prohibition Era experience Written by Melissa Mahanes Discretely off Broadway in the Hume-Fogg School’s shadow and just a stone’s throw from the Lower Broadway scene lies an inconspicuous brick building distinguished only by an intriguing red phone booth. Behind this façade lies the ultimate 1920s prohibition-era speakeasy experience, Red Phone Booth Nashville. Red Phone Booth is a club featuring premium hard-to-find spirits, craft cocktails, and cigars catering to the connoisseur. To enter, you dial a secret telephone number on the rotary phone inside the cannibalized British phone booth—a number that can only be obtained through a member, friend, or a concierge of one of 12 nearby luxury hotels (until now...). The 100-year-old building that houses Red Phone Booth has quite a fascinating history, having been home to several businesses, including the Tin Cup Coffee House, a tailor who made costumes for country music stars, and most notoriously, the Classic Cat “gentleman’s club.” Passing through the phone booth entrance into the club, a wall with private humidors on the left is crowned by “the Cabinet of the Gods,” an illuminated glass case of bottles with some of 72 slmag.net
the rarest spirits on Earth. The club’s front portion is the Bar, or “The Pharmacy,” which features a robust back bar of fine “medicine.” The lounges are furnished with custom Italian leather couches on floors of reclaimed tobacco barn wood. The walls are embellished with still-life paintings by renowned artist Christian Waggoner, who, among other accomplishments, was sanctioned by Lucas Films LTD to create images commemorating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. The very back of the club houses the private “Mafia Room,” with a pool table and lounge with a large flat-screen TV to enjoy sports events, concerts, etc. The creator of the RPB concept, Steve de Haan, started tending bar early on at TGI Friday’s in Atlanta. There, Steve discovered he had a flair for mixology and was even a competitive flair bartender. His grandfather, W.J. “Bill” Boortz—a pharmacist, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Squire, and cigar aficionado—was a tremendous influence on Steve. He introduced him to the early 20th-century art of making craft cocktails and the etiquette of entertaining. The food and beverage menu at Red Phone Booth pays homage to his grandfather’s
