Empire Plush Room at the York Hotel, San Francisco
This was the bar in our hotel. There were these lights on the sidewalk outside. We didn’t hang out there but had to get a picture anyway.
During the late 1920’s at the height of Prohibition, the hotel quietly and most illegally opened its now renowned Empire Plush Room Cabaret theatre. Merry-makers found their way through a maze of underground passageways, which still exist, to reach the secret cabaret. The San Francisco socialites gathered nightly to enjoy the illegal spirits and to hear the top entertainers of the era perform.
As prohibition faded into history, the Empire Plush Room once shrouded in secrecy, became one of the area’s most popular cabaret clubs. Young torch singers, comedians, dancers, and pianists flocked to the Empire Plush Room hoping to be discovered.
Today the York Hotel and the Empire Plush Room continue to keep the tradition of cabaret alive by hosting entertainers like Rita Moreno, Andrea Marcovicci, Sam Harris, and San Francisco’s own Paula West.
[York Hotel]
[Empire Plush Room]
San Francisco Travel Guide [HotelsByCity]
