Freeman Alley is a dead-end passage off Rivington Street on the Lower East Side with no street address. At the end of it is Freemans, a restaurant that opened in 2004 in what was described at the time as an unused alley, with the goal of building a rugged colonial American tavern that felt like it had been there forever. It more or less succeeded.

The main floor is a restaurant serving rustic American food with a bar program that holds its own. But upstairs, behind an unmarked door, is Banzarbar: a 20-seat cocktail bar inspired by early 20th-century explorers, with a tasting menu that pairs food with low-ABV cocktails. The combination of an already-hidden restaurant with a further-hidden bar inside it creates a layered version of the speakeasy concept that feels genuinely earned rather than theatrical.

Getting to Freemans requires knowing the alley exists, which creates a natural filter on who shows up.