Secret Sauce

Downtown's retro cocktail craze finally reaches Main Street in Santa Monica at the come-as-you-are Basement Tavern, a hidden subterranean bar largely free of summer tourist throngs and Finn McCool's chowderheads.

Speakeasy? More like a big basement rumpus room in '70s style — the 1870s, actually. Hidden beneath The Victorian wedding venue, this cool, cavernous dark room is full of taxidermied heads, chalkboard walls, oversized club chairs and candle-cradling chandeliers.

Cocktails steer southern. Bourbon's a big ingredient, but there's the standard complement of bottled beers if the bartender's backed up and you need something stat. And starting tomorrow, you'll be able to order Italian snacks from La Vecchia Cuchina.

How to find it: Swing around the back parking lot of the Victorian and hold your nose — you'll need to go serpentine past trash bins, alongside a loading dock, and then down a flight of stairs by an open kitchen.

Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Ray Liotta?