Hush on Main: New ‘speakeasy’ brings nostalgia to downtown Evansville
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A new bar and restaurant in downtown Evansville is transporting patrons back to the 1920s. Hush on Main, a modern speakeasy, opened at the end of March at 323 Main St. The establishment, which is open mostly evenings from Tuesday to Sunday, is the brainchild of Brendon Meier.
“You walk down these stairs to a patio,” he told Inside INdiana Business. “We built a 1920s ticket booth window. When you enter, it looks like you’re going into an old subway system in New York. It does not look like a bar whatsoever.”
Meier enlisted his brother, Nick Duffy, and his friend, Staci Eddington, to help turn his idea into a business. Duffy contributed to the food and beverage plan while Eddington worked with Meier to design the space.
“Every design of this bar, everything from the wallpaper to the little ornamental things on the wall and whatnot. He’s such a detail-oriented person that this is a legitimate step back in time when you walk into this bar,” said Duffy.
“Some people just let you go. You get an idea of what they want, and then you just do it,” added Eddington. “But [Brendon] wanted to be a part of it, so it was fun. He’s fun to work with.”
Meier compares walking inside the speakeasy to a scene from The Wizard of Oz.
“As soon as you open the door, it’s like the scene where it goes from black and white to color. It’s very soft and burlesque and a different vibe from one side to the other,” he said.
‘Something about the nostalgia’
The building that houses Hush was formerly home to an arcade. Meier visited the property when he heard it was for sale.
“I looked at it, and it was just this beautiful space covered by video games. It was these beautiful brick foundation walls that had these gorgeous arches in them. But then there’s Donkey Kong machines, Street Fighter games and pinball machines in the space,” he said. “I started thinking about the possibilities of what I could do with it.”
Meier said the speakeasy idea came to him because he was drawn to 1920s nostalgia. In the Prohibition era (1920-1933), the 18th Amendment banned the production, transportation and sale of alcohol, which led to illegal bars that were dubbed speakeasies.
“The speakeasy concept comes from a bar that’s hidden, that the police can’t find. There’s a secret you have to find, usually a password or something to be able to get in. And you would speak quietly upon the entry,” Meier said.
Meier wanted to create an authentic replica of a speakeasy instead of the 1920s tributes he’d seen in modern establishments.
“You’re looking at pictures of Al Capone on the wall, which he never would have put this picture of himself on a wall in an illegal bar. It would be incriminating. I look at some of these other ones, and I’m thinking, ‘We’re going to give people the experience that they walk in here and they actually walk into the 1920s,’” he said.
When Meier told his brother about the available building, Duffy read his mind regarding the concept.
“I was like, ‘What a cool idea for a speakeasy down there.’ And he’s like, ‘Dude, that’s what I’m thinking!’” said Duffy. “Not just the 1920s look, but also the taste in the cocktails and the food as well.”
Food and beverage
Meier brought Duffy into the Hush project because his brother used to own Duffy’s PubHouse and now operates a food truck called Rock-A-Burger.
“My brother had the idea for the speakeasy, but he didn’t know anything about food service and the bar industry. So that’s where I came in,” said Duffy. “Especially in this particular location, because the kitchen is incredibly small. And with my food truck background, I was like, ‘I got you.’”
Duffy said he took the space into account to maximize the speakeasy’s food and beverage workflows.
“I had a lot of input on the kitchen flow. And the flow of the bar, where to put everything. With a small space like that, you’ve got to do the McDonald’s concept where every step means something. Every hand, every extra step is extra time,” he said.
The speakeasy’s underground location also affected what types of food could be served.
“There are many food options you could do in a place like this, and it would go over. But there are so many restrictions because this is the basement. There’s no hood. There’s no vent fan. We can’t do anything with grease. Can’t do anything with open flame. Can’t even boil water. So to be able to figure out how to do these things in a safe, restricted environment was a little bit of a challenge,” said Duffy.
The food menu includes baked goat cheese dip, burrata salad and Italian meatballs, while the drink list features unique and hard-to-find bourbons with a classic flair.
“We have a simple menu. People can expect to have fun in an environment they don’t normally get to visit. And they’ll get great service, great cocktails and great food with great people,” Meier said.
Design and decor
Meier recruited Eddington to help with Hush because she has a design company. The owner of Motif said she did a lot of research on 1920s speakeasies to recreate the century-old style for the new bar and restaurant.
“I did a walkthrough and wanted to make sure that I maintained as much character of the building as I could and incorporate that in with the 1920s vibe. I visited several establishments to make sure I had a good handle on the look that we needed to come up with and started from there,” said Eddington. “I went through 50 wallpaper books.”
The pair also traveled together to find the right decor for the speakeasy.
“We visited several antique stores. We went to resale shops to find some items because we needed specific things. A lot of that you don’t buy at the home store,” Eddington said. “We went to Louisville and Nashville. We even walked the railroad tracks one day looking for certain things that we wanted to use.”
Meier, who’s worked in real estate and construction for years, said converting an arcade to a speakeasy in a basement was challenging.
“It’s a lot of boards to carry up and down the stairs. It’s been hard keeping on weight because I’ve been burning 5,000 calories a day deep in construction up and down those stairs so often,” he said. “And trying to [redesign the space] while you’re building a brand new business from the ground up in the service industry, there’s a lot of moving pieces and regulations.”
Eddington said working with a basement was also complicated from a design perspective.
“When someone opens the door, you want them to have a sigh of relief, like ‘I’m here to let my hair down.’ And when I walk in this place, I want to feel that. I don’t want to feel that I walked into a basement brick with brick walls,” she said.
In the end, Eddington’s work exceeded Meier’s expectations.
“You’ve got to figure out what they have in their mind and then bring it to life,” Eddington said. “Brendon said, ‘I had something in mind, but you brought it way above what I even had in my mind.’ And that was the biggest compliment I could have ever gotten.”
Spreading the word
Before opening Hush, Meier posted updates about the speakeasy on social media. Word spread even faster after Brian Buxton of the Fingers, Fork, Knife & Spoon Evansville social media accounts mentioned the coming attraction.
“He had posted about it, and it just went crazy all across Evansville. It had thousands and thousands of interactions. I think it reached 45,000 people in the first 20 hours because there were so many shares, likes and comments,” said Meier.
That publicity—plus a series of soft openings leading up to the grand opening in March—helped market the speakeasy.
“We didn’t have to do any self-promoting. People came in, took pictures, they were excited to be here. They posted it on their social media sites,” Meier said.
Meier continues to use social media to post pictures of guests and highlight downtown Evansville events. He also plans to incorporate passwords for entry to special events.
“The way that the password system is designed to work is that it will be on our social media sites. If some would like to enter, they can go to our Facebook or Instagram page, pull the password and give it to a person who will let them in,” said Meier.
For Duffy, being able to help his brother execute his speakeasy vision is rewarding.
“My brother’s done a lot for me over the years, and I’m glad to be able to give back something, to help out. Usually, he’s the guy that’s got everything handled, so when he came to me, it was humbling,” said Duffy.
Eddington believes Meier’s dedication to the project is evident in his thorough preparation to open the bar and restaurant.
“He has overthought everything through. It’s been that big of a deal to him that he makes his customers happy. He’s done everything he could possibly do to make a place that people will enjoy,” she said.
“My whole life, every business that I’ve owned or operated, I’ve always provided something that people needed me for,” added Meier. “This is the first time I’ve been able to own a business where it’s the place that people go because they want to.”