It used to be that you needed access to the super duper special phone number to get in to Milk and Honey, but now that’s out the window too? Cough up the hefty membership fees, I guess!

Marked by white subway tiles outside and a few lights, Weather Up is a tiny cocktail speakeasy that is fortunately in my ‘hood. The garden in back is romantic and divine. And you can just walk in the door without having to go through hoops.

You enter into Crif Dogs, a little hot dog shop, where further you have to enter a phone booth, sometimes to call ahead for seats, in order to get to the speakeasy called PDT. Hot dogs with cheese and avocado aren’t a bad back-up plan, but talk about some serious contrasts!

Most adorable bar name ever! Little Branch is a jazz lounge from the speakeasy king himself, Sasha Petraske. You can’t really claim to know the New York speakeasy culture today without hearing his name a few hundred times.

The location of Dreamland Roller Rink in Coney Island’s historic Childs Building is pretty special to me. Walk down my memory lane for a minute?

In high school, I had my sister, who was going to college in Brooklyn, take me to Coney Island in the dead of winter for a black and white photography project for school I had decided to do there. I knew next to nothing about Coney Island, but the Childs Building was very striking and stood out from the then-shut down rides and deserted pier. A homeless man huddled underneath one of those arches you see told us a little about its history. I will never forget that.