In True Speakeasy Fashion, Amazonia Surprises and Gives Plenty of Reasons to Return

Like the phrase “hidden gem,” the term “speakeasy” is offered these days with reckless abandon. In truth, there are precious few of either thanks to the ubiquity of social media. But Amazonia in Lakewood deserves the latter label owing to its byzantine method of ingress, which involves walking through a taco restaurant, traversing a small courtyard, and entering a separate structure through a rear door. The true delight of any good speakeasy, as one knows, is the payoff – the scene that awaits guests on the other side of that door, or phone booth, or secret bookshelf. Again, Amazonia more than fits the bill.

It’s extraordinary to see how far the Vergara family has journeyed since 2011, when Juan and his father Carlos introduced many of us to the joys of a freshly made arepa. Well, figuratively distant anyway, not literally; Barroco, that tiny café on Madison that started it all, stands just 500 steps from Amazonia, a full-circle expedition that now encompasses multiple brands, concepts and locations.

Expedition, as it turns out, is the theme of this new speakeasy. Vergara’s meticulously crafted tableau presents the sort of annals, artifacts and spoils with which an adventurer might return home following a trek to the deepest, darkest jungles of South America. It’s all neatly arranged in a dimly lit den-like space that feels like a local chapter of the Explorers Club. After crossing that shadowy threshold, guests are immediately thrust into a tightly packed barroom, where a host outfitted with a radio earpiece plays air traffic controller.

“Every cocktail tells a story,” says our server as he hands over the “Book of Potions,” aka the cocktail menu. Expect to take some time digging into the tome as if it were a dusty grimoire filled with artfully illustrated incantations. Long before that first sip hits your lips, you can deduce that Amazonia takes its cocktails very seriously.

Order the Smoke Signals ($17) and you’ll wonder if you slipped into an ayahuasca ceremony. A plug of Palo Santo, a holy wood from Ecuador, is lit like incense, filling the immediate area with whiffs of vanilla and spice. The herbaceous beverage is a riff on the Paper Plane, with the subtle addition of coconut-washed bourbon. No shortage of digital ink has been spilled on the Heart of the Rainforest ($18), the cocktail starring edible ants. Rising out of the cup is a gnarled twist of wood covered in black bugs that appear mired in resin. It takes a little finesse to nibble the ants off the stick, but there isn’t much flavor or texture in the end. There might be no prettier cocktail than the Flora & Fauna ($15), an ombre-like elixir that shifts from orange to purple. Credit goes to beverage director Gabrielle Swafford, who puts thought into every detail, from ice to glassware to garnish.

When held up to the theatrical nature of the setting, and the sophistication of the beverage program, the food has trouble competing for attention. It’s snack food, gussied up with polished plating and presentation. That’s perfectly fine, as Amazonia was never billed as a restaurant, but rather a craft cocktail bar. And the food program here is still miles above that found at most bars. Sticking with the globetrotting theme, the items on the menu represent trips taken, miles traveled, experiences lived.

Slow-cooked beef birria ($16) is tucked into a trio of soft, puffy flour tortillas and topped with bright, crunchy slaw and a zippy pepper sauce. Tidy, compact pulled pork sliders ($16) are easy to handle without even having to put down your drink.
They are sweet, savory and faintly spicy. Chicken tinga ($16) is reworked into a chunky dip that is served cold alongside a stack of crunchy tostadas. Vergara recently took a pizza-making junket to Naples to learn how to operate his Italian-made wood-fired pizza oven. The resulting pies, while not quite at virtuoso level, are easy to enjoy. Ours, a special ($18), was topped with fresh sauce, spicy thick-sliced salami and a honey drizzle.

Perhaps it was another odyssey – the one from the downstairs kitchen to the upstairs dining room – that resulted in some temperature issues. An otherwise flavor-packed bowl of cream of mushroom soup ($9) arrived tepid at best, and the meat in the tacos and sliders could have been hotter as well.

To warrant a return, a great speakeasy must offer its guests more than that initial joy and jolt, for those sensations diminish with each passing visit. Even without all the pageantry, Amazonia deserves attention and praise for its atmosphere, cocktails, small plates and next-level service.

Amazonia
1640 Hopkins Ave., Lakewood
216-712-6745
amazoniabar.com

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This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 12, 2024.