Psst! Can you keep a secret? The giggle water served in the secret juice joint at the La Salle Hotel is the cat’s meow! To say that in 21st century speak, the drinks served in the secret bar at the La Salle Hotel are on point.
Inspired by the fact that the La Salle Hotel was built during prohibition, Downtown Bryan is now home to a speakeasy called 5 Knocks. If you use the right knock on the right door in the La Salle’s basement, you just might find yourself in the midst of a 1920s-style bar complete with crystal glasses filled with authentic prohibition cocktails.
Dustin Batson is the mastermind behind 5 Knocks. Batson saw a need for craft cocktail bars in Bryan College Station while working as a barback at Daisy Dukes. A customer’s request for an old fashioned, a drink Batson did not know how to make, inspired him to become a self-taught bar chef. After mastering his craft, he opened West End Elixir. The success of his first bar led to the expansion of his business in Downtown Bryan. He is now a partial owner of Downtown Elixir & Spirits Company and 5 Knocks.
“You come here for the drinks,” Batson says about the three bars he runs. “There’s bartenders and pretenders. Anybody can pour a whisky coke or Bud Light, but not everybody can tell you what ingredients are going into your drink or why they’re the way they are.”
Just as slang in the 1920s was different from what it is today, the drinking culture at 5 Knocks is different from what you’ll find at other B/CS bars. A primary difference that sets 5 Knocks apart is the fact that you don’t have to be bent to have a good time, Batson notes.
“It kind of changes the drinking culture to where people aren’t just trying to get drunk off of Bud Light and whiskey cokes,” Batson explains. “They’re actually enjoying their drinks now.”
Gin is the hooch of choice in most cocktails on the speakeasy’s menu, but unlike drinks served in the 1920s, the gin used at 5 Knocks is not made at home in somebody’s bathtub. Other ingredients, however, are made in house according to David Young, the bar’s general manager. Making their own ingredients like ginger beer adds an extra something special to their cocktails. “It’s the same reason making a burger at your house is better than getting one at the drive-thru,” Young says.
Craft cocktails now make a bar swanky, but this was not the original reason craft cocktails were created, Batson shares. “It was homemade liquor, so it was rough,” he says. “It was hard to drink, so they had to incorporate other ingredients just for it to be palatable.”
Most cocktails on 5 Knocks’ menu were carefully selected from The Savoy Cocktail Book, which was published in the 1930s. These cocktails were all widely known during prohibition. Batson and Young are both partial to a drink called “The Last Word.” Made with gin, green Chartreuse, Luxardo, and lime juice, this floral and tart drink touches each part of the palate and sends taste buds on a keen trip.
In addition to nifty drinks, 5 Knocks offers a craft cocktail bar experience that’s uniquely different from Batson’s other bars. “With the other bars it’s taking in the cocktails and enjoying them whereas 5 Knocks is a piano bar and you’re coming in here for the live entertainment.”
Brandon Xavier Jackson, a former football player at Texas A&M University, is the copacetic pianist who plays at the bar each Friday and Saturday night. Batson says the piano music adds to the fun atmosphere and creates an experience similar to a 21st century bar’s piano night. Entry to 5 Knock’s is $5. All the dough taken at the door goes to the musicians at the end of the evening.
If donning your glad rags and getting all dolled up for a night of drinking with friends is your idea of fun, 5 Knocks may be the bar for you. “The Bar doesn’t have to be loud and in your face,” Young says. “The drinks and service can speak for themselves.”
