You walk in the barbershop and look in the mirror. Then you open the two-way mirror like a door and enter an elegant room with tables, chairs, and a bar.
A speakeasy.
This is Barons, a functioning barbershop that becomes a speakeasy after 4 p.m. The “rons” disappears and the “bar” appears, says Alex Rasmussen, an owner along with Richard Smith, Chris Landers, and Dara Vongphrachanh. The intimate bar can seat 40 people.
This new spot, where you can get the hair of the dog or a haircut, is slated to open in mid-August at 704 South Mendenhall between Half Shell and Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken.
“We want this to be a unique place hidden behind the barbershop,” Rasmussen says. “If you know, you know.”
He describes Barons as a “gangster-hangout speakeasy-type place, where you feel like you’re something when you’re in there. We’re creating this level of escapism where you feel like you’re someplace you’ve never been, but you definitely don’t feel like you’re sitting in the middle of Memphis.”
It’s “that Capone gangster hideout kind of style. Think high-end Chicago, New York, San Diego-type bars.”
Rasmussen looked at speakeasies “all over the world,” but his favorites are in Chicago, New York, and San Diego. “I found this bar in San Diego called Youngblood, and it was the most amazing craft cocktail experience I ever had. It’s hidden behind what looks like a restaurant deep freezer. You open the door and walk into this palatial, amazing place.”
The bartender, he says, “walks over to you and asks you questions about your personality, your life.” And, he says, “They craft a cocktail experience around you.”
Rasmussen liked the place so much they hired the bartender from Youngblood, Zach Sheldon, as a consultant to help them craft the cocktail menu at Barons.
Cocktails people can expect to see include “Peanut Butter Old Fashioned,” which, according to the menu, consists of “peanut oil-washed Tennessee whiskey, Amaro Sfumato, creme de cacao, chocolate/mole bitters, and pecan smoke or cacao butter garnish.” And “Butternut Squash Mai Tai,” which is made of “brown butter fat-washed aged rum and cognac, butternut squash orgeat, Mandarine Napoleon, and cinnamon served over pebble ice.”
The barbershop will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the speakeasy from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. “We wanted to create a place for the discerning individual to go. A place where they can have caviar, a nice steak slider, a chicken skewer, a vegetable skewer, edamame.”
They’ve “worked with top local chefs in creating the menu,” Rasmussen says.
Barons will be open for members only at first, he says. “Members will have a key fob so they can come in and out of the back door.”
They “welcome diversity,” Rasmussen says. “We want a diverse crowd that embodies Memphis.”
He wants the speakeasy to attract “the business owner, socialites, high-network individuals.” They want to create that mystique of “You want to get in there, but you can’t get in there.”
He says, “If you’re the type of person who wants to get in there and start a bar fight, you’re not going to fit in.”
There is no dress code. “Come as you are, that’s for sure. We really want people to feel like this is their home away from home. A place they can escape the hustle and bustle of the city, but still be five minutes from home. It’s only a 12-minute drive to Wolfchase. It’s literally accessible from anywhere.
Barons is done in “dark deep reds, greens, and then natural wood throughout,” Rasmussen says. “The first thing your eyes are drawn to are the really nice bar chain curtains that shimmer light through the window. Then you walk through and your eyes are drawn to the beautiful gold ‘owner’s cabinets.’”
They’re similar to the cabinets near the entrance of The Capital Grille down the street, he says. “A beautiful brass wall of cabinets where you can keep your $2,000 bottle of Pappy Van Winkle or Caymus cabernet.”
They want to open more of these speakeasies, including, at first, throughout the Southeast. “They won’t all be the same,” he says, adding each speakeasy will “be an homage” to wherever it’s located. Memphis is patterned after the gangster image because, Rasmussen says, “We like to think of ourselves as a little rough around the edges.” Whereas, South Florida might be an “ultra lounge cigar bar. Think Havana, Cuba-type style. Then Scottsdale, Arizona, maybe a very deluxe ice cream parlor. A place that’s cool to escape the heat.”
A native Memphian, Rasmussen is owner of Neon Canvas, a marketing agency.
But Rasmussen plans to spend a lot of time at Barons, which will be — for him as well as the guests and members — “an elevated experience of escapism.”
