Dine out

That’s because PX, short for personne extraordinaire, is part of a growing trend of latter-day speakeasies—which, though now perfectly legal, are throwbacks to the illicit bars that thrived during Prohibition. With unmarked entrances, dodgy locales and even password-protected passages, these nouveaux speaks are popping up across the Old Dominion—from the River City on up to the nation’s capital—and proving that everything old is new again.

And while there’s no longer the need to “speak easy” or keep drink orders hush-hush, such clandestine canteens as PX, The Gibson in D.C. and The Mint in Richmond maintain a historic sense of exclusive elegance with reservations-only systems and carefully crafted cocktails.

Hidden above a fish-and-chipper owned by the team behind Alexandria’s Restaurant Eve, PX ushers 30 patrons at a time into a world of Jazz Age ambience with dark polished wood, mirrored walls, glimmering chandeliers and antique barware. A short list of house rules—from “When a lady says, ‘No, thank you,’ she means it” to “If you let someone in … you’re out” and no standing at the bar—helps create an intimate environment where guests feel comfortable and the cocktails speak for themselves. “I didn’t want to open a bar where people are reaching over me or blowing smoke in my face,” explains Todd Thrasher, PX’s owner and master mixologist, of the bar’s creation in 2006. “I just wanted a bar where you can hold a conversation and be transported to a different era—when drinks were civilized.”

Boasting homemade bitters, sodas and even tonic, Thrasher serves up an oft-changing menu of unique combinations. They include the Smoker’s Delight—a mix of tobacco, honey syrup, honeycomb and Basil Hayden’s bourbon—and the BLT, featuring bacon-infused vodka, tomato water and ice cubes made of juiced iceberg lettuce. Thrasher sticks to seasonal, and many local, ingredients—including Polyface Farm eggs (the frothed whites add a creamy consistency) and Richmond’s own Cirrus vodka—to craft concoctions for a clientele ranging from “people celebrating their 21st birthdays to 80-year-olds who remember the real speakeasies and blind pigs,” he says.

But PX didn’t start out as a speakeasy, he adds. “I just wanted to create a bar, my own place where I had a chef’s table of sorts to create cocktails.” He insists that the aim is more altruistic than elitist. “Our ultimate goal is to teach people to drink a little bit better and try to expand their idea of the cocktail.”