Old Sacramento speakeasy Hawthorne’s Hideout opens with story-first experience
While he attended Sacramento State in the 1990s, Troy Carlson spent a semester interning at Walt Disney World in Florida, where he learned, “You start with the story.”
That aphorism appears to have inspired Carlson’s latest venture in Old Sacramento: an underground speakeasy called Hawthorne’s Hideout. The bar, decked out in dark interiors, movie memorabilia and Tiki-inspired kitsch, opened to private parties in recent months and became available for public reservations through OpenTable last month.
Getting inside is part of the experience. Guests enter through Carlson’s shop, Stage Nine Entertainment & G. Willikers Toy Emporium at 102 K St., descend into the Underground Vault, which sells Disney and other film-themed art, and then insert a wooden token into a wall slot to open a hidden sliding door to the speakeasy.
The windowless speakeasy blends cocktails with movie-themed performance art. The space resembles a mashup of “Up” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” with actors who stay in character as they interact with guests.
A photo behind the bar depicts Elias Hawthorne, the fictional adventurer said to have inspired the space. A ski lift is on display, with speakeasy personnel suggesting Walt Disney once shared theme park plans with Hawthorne during a ride.
“We wrote a whole backstory of Elias Hawthorne,” said Carlson, who also operates a West Sacramento-based business that creates museum displays. “Well, who was he? Where did he live, where did he travel? Who did he meet?”
Carlson added, “So all of those clues in his story helped us design exactly what the space would be that he lived in and everything on the walls that … he would have collected, because it all points back to his adventures.”
Inside, figurines appear to shoot darts and a newspaper on the wall commemorates the sinking of the Titanic.
References to classic films are woven throughout the space — some subtle, others unmistakable. When a reporter commented that a photo looked like a scene from “Back to the Future Part III,” an actor replied in a mid-Atlantic accent, “You’ll fit in well in there.”
At least four props or photos reference the “Back to the Future” franchise, including a replica of the 1950–2000 sports almanac that helps Biff Tannen alter history in the second film.
Reservations cost $95 for a two-hour visit, which includes a shot, two drinks, Dole whip and immersive character interactions. The price hasn’t deterred early visitors, including three Hyatt Regency employees who visited Thursday.
“It’s different than what I thought it would be, way more interactive than I thought it would be,” said one of the Hyatt Regency employees, Natalie Karnegis. “I’m truly blown away by everything that’s crammed into this space.”
Karnegis’s coworkers who were with her, Crystal Vazquez and Caitlin Temple, each also spoke highly of the speakeasy.
“I think it’s amazing,” Vazquez said. “I would suggest this to anyone that would ask me about what to do in Sacramento.”
To Temple, there was some potential for hoteliers to benefit from the speakeasy’s presence.
“It’s something we can see a lot of local groups and traveling groups take advantage of,” Temple said. “So it’s really not your typical team-builder, icebreaker-type outing.”
Carlson and his team launched Hawthorne’s Hideout amid the long-term work by the city and others to revitalize Old Sacramento and the waterfront.
Mike Testa, president and CEO of Visit Sacramento, welcomed the addition. Although he had not yet visited the speakeasy, Testa said he’s known Carlson for over 20 years and said he has great sense of what would work in Old Sacramento.
“I’ve not seen Troy do anything that fails from a business standpoint,” Testa said. “So I think I would give a tremendous amount of faith that he’s building something that’s going to be unique and cool for Old Sacramento.”
