damnlines.comdamnlines.comA Prohibition-style Chelsea speakeasy hidden behind a coffee-shop door, built around a copper bathtub, with nightly burlesque, jazz, and DJs.
Bathtub Gin is a speakeasy, so there is no sidewalk queue to photograph. The entrance is the back of Stone Street Coffee at 132 Ninth Avenue; The Infatuation and the bar's own site both describe a hidden door with a bouncer out front. The wait, when there is one, is the bouncer deciding whether the room has space — the bar's own site says walk-ins are 'admitted as capacity allows.'
Timing decides everything here. One first-hand account (Wine Wilderness Wanderlust) reports walking in on a Monday at 7pm without a reservation, and warns that 'weekends are a different story'; the same writer notes the bar 'books out during busy nights.' The bar's own site 'strongly recommends' reservations, and says walk-ins are welcome only as capacity allows.
The workaround is a reservation. The Infatuation's advice is blunt: 'you can pretty easily grab a reservation on OpenTable to avoid any issue' at the door. Burlesque nights (Tuesday and Sunday) and the Friday–Saturday resident-DJ nights, per the venue's own schedule, pull the biggest crowds, and the bar recommends booking a table if you want a view of the show.
No camera here yet — but these lines are on camera right now:
L'industrie Pizzeria · 14 min walkclosedSalt Hank's · 16 min walkclosedJohn's of Bleecker Street · 16 min walkclosedThe bar's own site strongly recommends reservations and says walk-ins are welcome but 'admitted as capacity allows.' The Infatuation notes you can 'pretty easily grab a reservation on OpenTable to avoid any issue' at the door.
There's no long sidewalk line — it's a hidden speakeasy. The bottleneck is the bouncer at the Stone Street Coffee door deciding if there's room. Per the venue, walk-ins get in as capacity allows, and it books out on busy nights.
Through Stone Street Coffee at 132 Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, between West 18th and 19th Streets. Multiple sources describe a bouncer out front of the coffee shop; give your name and you're brought through to the speakeasy.
First-hand accounts say early weekday evenings near the 5pm open are the calmest for walk-ins, while weekends and anything after ~7pm are much tighter. For those, the venue and The Infatuation both point you to a reservation.
Per the bar's own schedule: burlesque on Tuesday and Sunday, live jazz Monday, a resident live band Wednesday, and DJs Thursday through Saturday. The venue recommends booking a table on show nights for a view.