Hidden bars & speakeasies in Des Moines
Looking for hidden bars & speakeasies in Des Moines? These 10 are the genuinely strange ones — The Atlas Room, The Haunt, Inner Space — ZeroBody Dry Float & Salt Lounge and more — each hand-vetted and sourced, not pulled from a top-ten list. Great for an unusual date, a weird afternoon, or showing a visitor the side of Des Moines they'd never find on their own.
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The Atlas Room
West Des Moines' newest speakeasy is hidden inside Serenity Couture Salon & Spa in the old Wells Fargo buildi…
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The Haunt
Billed as the only bar in the world inside a haunted-attraction space, The Haunt is a speakeasy tucked in the…
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Inner Space — ZeroBody Dry Float & Salt Lounge
A 6,000-sq-ft clinical 'gym for your insides' whose strangest offering is the ZeroBody Dry Float: you stay fu…
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Good News, Darling
A tiny, moody, no-signage cocktail parlor hidden directly behind Hello, Marjorie. With only 26 seats and its…
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Ken's - a not so secret speakeasy
Named for 1920s Des Moines society bootlegger Kenneth Sonderleiter, Ken's hides in the basement under the Iow…
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Alleged Lee's
A funky little East Village speakeasy decorated with art from Iowa's Prohibition years and anchored by an orn…
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In Confidence
A blind-tiger speakeasy in the basement of the historic Hotel Fort Des Moines. The entrance is the trick: a c…
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Valley Junction's Hidden Red-Light History (5th Street)
Today's tidy antique-and-gift district along 5th Street was, after its 1893 founding as a busy railroad switc…
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Heartland Sound Healing (Gong Bath)
A roving sound-healing practitioner who stages immersive gong baths using a symphonic gong plus Tibetan and c…
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Huston Cemetery
A tiny pioneer graveyard of about 11 graves, established 1847, that became locally legendary for sitting maro…