By: Sebastian Baez
Tucked between two businesses and hiding behind red curtains, Jacksonville’s Volstead Bar is opens Snipps Barbershoppe in the mornings Snipps Barbershoppe, then later in the night it turns into a speakeasy. Rico Combs, owner of Snipps, describes the process.
“It was kind of a long process. Something that we’ve kinda been working on for almost 12 years. Timing was right, and me and the new owner decided that it was a good relationship, and so we just came together. We had a few problems with the city but we worked those things out, and we got it all taken care of,” said Combs.
When prohibitionists banned the production and sale of alcohol through the 18th Amendment, speakeasies rose to prominence as a place to grab a drink under the radar. The Volstead, considered a “retro-style” bar, hopes to replicate that history through aesthetics and cocktails.
“I think the beauty of a speakeasy is that they all are taking a different approach to capturing that kind of playful ‘getting away with something’ kind of feeling that comes with walking into a bar that is at least styled to mimic those that were actually getting away with something. It’s exceptionally fun at the Volstead because we nod that historical grounding and we nod to those historical concepts and the development of craft cocktails as its happened over the last century,” said James Veek-Wilson, bartender at the Volstead.
During Prohibition, Jacksonville was a major gateway for rum-running, or alcohol smuggling. Posters of protesters fill the walls, and figures like William McCoy are memorialized here.
“Well, I think one of the beautiful things about this establishment is that the bar tries to pay homage to that era and has a feel of that era, and we’ve tried to do the same here at the barbershop in order to match,” said Combs.
“The Volstead Act was named for the senator that put it forth, Andrew Volstead, and I think naming the bar after not only the act responsible for Prohibition, but also the gentleman who championed it… it’s kind of an irreverent, a little bit in-your-face, cheeky, laugh at what we do here. I think it reflects heavily in the way we treat our craft,” said Veek-Wilson.
The Volstead is located on West Adams Street and continues to remind the city of its Prohibition-era themes and drinks.