Cally & Rich Conyers - Prohibition

On this week’s episode of The Sauce podcast, host Lauren sits down with Cally and Rich Conyers, owners of Prohibition, a hidden speakeasy tucked beneath a historic 150-year-old building in St. Louis’ Lafayette Square.

They share how a fire-damaged, nearly demolished building was transformed into one of the city’s most immersive nightlife experiences—blending history, design, and storytelling into a moody, jazz-filled escape. But what truly sets Prohibition apart is its mission: honoring the rebellious, trailblazing women of the 1920s who defied the law, ran speakeasies, and helped shape the Prohibition era without recognition.

From cocktails inspired by real historical figures to carefully curated artifacts and archives, every detail of the space is designed to bring these untold stories to life. Cally and Rich also dive into the evolution of the concept, the challenges of restoring a historic property, and how they’re creating a one-of-a-kind experience in St. Louis.

The conversation explores the rich history of Prohibition, the resurgence of speakeasy culture, and how Prohibition STL is blending past and present through live jazz, curated menus, and interactive storytelling.

From hidden entrances to powerful stories, this episode highlights how history, hospitality, and creativity can come together to create something unforgettable.

In this episode:
 - Transforming a condemned 150-year-old building into Prohibition
 - The inspiration behind honoring women of the 1920s
 - Real stories of female bootleggers, owners, and activists
 - Designing an immersive speakeasy experience
 - The hidden entrance and atmosphere behind Prohibition STL
 - Jazz nights and bringing music history back to St. Louis
 - Expanding the cocktail menu and upcoming food program
 - Future plans for tastings, performances, and storytelling

Come for the conversation. Stay for the culture. 🌿

 ✨ Presented by SWADE Dispensary, with 12 locations across Missouri. Learn more at swadecannabis.com. Our other podcast sponsors are 4 Hands Brewing Co. and LHM.

🎧 Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify and all major platforms.
 📅 New episodes drop every Tuesday.

Transcript

Intro Hook + Sponsors

SPEAKER_01 0:00

She was arrested over 50 times and never spent more than a couple hours in jail. She was bailed out over time and never convicted.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Our podcast sponsor is Suede Dispensary with 11 locations across Missouri. They are debuting a new passport membership program where you'll be able to collect stamps as you explore new Delhi style strains and unlock monthly travel stipends, exclusive swag, and free flour along the way.

Welcome + Prohibition Speakeasy Concept

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Head to your nearest Suede location for more information or visit suedecannabis.com. Hello, welcome to the Sauce Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren, and I am here with the owners of Prohibition, the new speakeasy down in Lafayette Square or downtown West. It depends on who you ask. This is a rich and Cali Connors. And can you guys just tell us about your concept?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Thank you for having us. We are a new speakeasy, like you said, and our bar is Prohibition inspired. So it's very dark and moody. We have a lot of jazz music playing. Sometimes we have live music, and the whole bar is a tribute to women from the 1920s.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

I know it's so cool in there. And I feel like the speakeasy thing is kind of trending right now. And I don't want to give too much away, but what you guys really have going for you is it's just like it's kind of a huge cavernous space in a basement, which is like amazing. I think you just they're normally really tight and closed in, and yours just it just feels different. So I really like the vibe down there. Thank you. So um, can you tell me about what inspired this tribute to women during Prohibition?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

When

History of the Building & Renovation Story

SPEAKER_01 1:43

we bought the building, um, it's 150 years old, it starts 150 this year, and it was part of a brewery complex that operated through Prohibition. You can probably speak more into the history of the building.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yeah. So the Schneider Brewing Complex, it was originally there and it was part of the Compton Hill drawing, which is this famous drawing from the St. Louis area. Um, that brewery is all but gone. There were about seven buildings at different times, and everything has been torn down except this building. And when we bought it, it was actually condemned to be torn down. And um, Paul's uh broker reached out and said, We really don't want to see this building go away. Would you guys come and renovate it? And so we walked through it and initially said no way because it's huge and it was post-fire, but uh eventually we decided we were gonna go for it.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

I think it's really an iconic building for that neighborhood. Um, and I know you're sharing a home with extra wavy, um, which is Tim Wiggins' new spot. Um, and you also have quite a bit of event space in the building, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Yeah. So we have six event spaces um and as well as prohibition, and then we have some office space there as well, in addition to three apartment units and extra wavy.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Okay. I just think it's it's such like the vibes are good when you go in there, you know. And maybe I'm a sucker for old buildings. And actually, Lafayette Square used to be where the sauce office was. So I used to walk by that building every day like I could see it out the window. So, but the building, um, so it burned down in a fire several years ago, didn't it? What happened with that?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, so the rooftop caught fire. Somebody had thrown a cigarette in a planner and been to set. Yes. Um so hours later, the the roof caught fire. Um, the fire damage wasn't incredibly substantial. It was mainly required a replacement of the roof. Um, however, the fire department dumped so much water at the building that they completely flooded the building and we had to take it all the way down to the studs, which was why it was condemned at the time. Um, so when we got there, everything got redone and brought up to date and new codes while honoring the historic nature of the building. We did do a historic tax credit on the project.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

So Okay, really cool. I'm glad you kept it alive.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

We are too.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Now

Cocktail Menu & Tribute to Prohibition Women

SPEAKER_02 3:54

tell us about the menu.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, so the menu is again a tribute to the women. So all of our house cocktails are inspired by one of the women that we feature throughout the bar, as well as a classic cocktail menu that is really incredible. And I chose the specific women that we have um for the way that they kind of defined that era um without getting a ton of credit. So I think we're now kind of understanding the impact that women have had throughout history with movies like Hidden Figures and things like that. And so these women did so many incredible things, did so many illegal things that helped shape that time period. And you've probably never heard of most of them, if any of them. And so I purposely picked women that were against the alcohol ban. Um, I toyed around with that for a while because there's a lot of really incredible women that were for the ban. Yeah, it's no fun. Some of them were really fun. There was a woman that used to come in with a baseball bat and like break speakeasies as a way to boycott them. But in the end, I decided that sometimes it's a little bit easier to go with what society wants, to go with laws, to go with what the government wants. And these women all went against it in really incredible ways. So some of them were business owners, speakeasy owners, bootleggers. And then we even have one woman who started the national campaign to get rid of prohibition. Oh, really? So who's that? Her name is Pauline Saban. Okay. She has a drink on our menu called Lady of the Law.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Oh. It's great. Okay, that's really cool. Yeah. And now you have like art up on the wall or like old newspaper clippings. Tell us about it.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, we have a portrait of all the women that we've chosen to feature. And then we have either some artwork that pertains to them, some novel covers, or we have arrest records or newspaper clippings, almost all of which come from the St. Louis Post Dispatch Archives, the Chicago Tribune, or um a few from Kentucky. So we try to keep it local as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Our podcast sponsor is Forehands Brewing Company, which is celebrating 10 years of citywide here in St. Louis. The 10th anniversary celebration will feature collaborations with fellow iconic St. Louis companies, including Sauce on the Side, High Point Drive-In, Sugar Fire Smokehouse, Gus's Pretzel Shop, Fritz's Root Beer, Blue City Deli, STL Toasted, Strange Donuts, Peacemaker Lobster and Crab Company, Clementine's Ice Cream, Strange Donuts, and more. How many speakeasies do you think were operating in St. Louis back in the day? I mean, I know it's hard to quantify since they were illegal, but it must have been quite a lot.

Speakeasy Culture & St. Louis History

SPEAKER_00 6:46

There are a number of different estimates and they range pretty widely. Um, but there are people who have collected enough documentation that they think there were more speakeasies in the St. Louis Metro than there are bars today.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Now that's when you also count people's houses and apartments and things like that. But Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Wow. What is that figure?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Um, it was very large last time I looked. I'd have to go back and check the exact number.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

And brothels were a big um driver of alcohol at the time. So we do have a brothel owner on our wall from Lexington, Kentucky. Um, she was really amazing and made a lot of money during that time, but you'd have to figure in some of the brothel numbers. Yeah. Because they also operated as bars. I gotcha.

Inspiration Behind the Concept & Design Experience

SPEAKER_02 7:29

So, what was it about this time period that drew you to it and made you want to build your business around it?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

So the building itself, as Kelly mentioned, turns 150 this year. So it's called the Centennial Malt House because it was built on the hundred-year anniversary of the United States, 1876. Um, so there's a lot of history in that building and went through multiple life cycles and it survived prohibition itself. So it was a malt house for a brewery that went through prohibition and had to change how it operated, what it produced, moved into ice and other things, um, and then had another life as a car showroom and and other things throughout throughout time. And so the building itself kind of, you know, lasted through this time, but it had that historic nature of if we were going to bring kind of a hospitality environment to um the area and really look at what the previous owners did and how well they did it. One of the things we looked at was how do we keep something that kind of takes you back in time as part of the concept?

SPEAKER_02 8:25

And it totally does. And the music in there sets the scene and just like the the candle lit glow is cool. I don't I don't want to give too much away, but I just feel like the entrance into the bar is really fun too. Can I say? Can I tell people what happens? Yeah, absolutely. So when you come downstairs, which it it is kind of tricky to find, but you know, if you follow the signs, I just think it's really well done the way you've done it. But as you're walking down the hallway, like these little lights, the motion sensor lights, turn on. And I think it's just such a fun, creative touch. Great job.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Thank you. We we tried to make it feel like a speakeasy, even though no bars are true speakeasies anymore. Um, so we wanted it to be difficult enough to find that it felt authentic and fun, but not so difficult that nobody could find it. So we've been kind of towing that line a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Last time I was there, there were some people like looking around, like, where's the bar? Where's the speakeasy? So we had to point them in the right direction. But it's also a huge building. It is. And I think it's so fun because I don't I like to have extra way before dinner and then go have a little nightcap downstairs. So I think that that's just like a really cool thing that's come to life in that building that we thought, you know, after it burned down, we didn't know what was gonna happen. Because that was what? There was Vendicette and PW Pizza. Was there something else in there?

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Mulan Events was there previously. And then uh Paul and Wendy had office space in there as well. Um, so yeah, there were a lot of things going on. And then 21st, which started as 21st Amendment, and then we're told they couldn't use that as a name. Oh, really? Ironic. Um, they also happen to be on 21st Street, so they changed it to 21st Street Brewery.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Um, and that's uh one of the locations downstairs. Okay. They were a tenant of Paul and Wendy's.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

And did the Hamilton still have some stuff open down there?

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Um, not in this building, but they do adjacent. So yeah. So they um have done some transitions with ownership and things like that. Obviously, they started 1111, uh Hamilton Steakhouse, Winnie's Wine Bar, Ron Rum Club. Like they they have a lot in that area that's really brought something special to the Lafayette Square and downtown West communities.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

It's a really special neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

It is. Okay.

Live Music, Atmosphere & Entertainment Plans

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Now I know that um you've been increasing your live music. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, we started with a jazz night and kind of tested that out. St. Louis used to be a huge home of jazz, and there's definitely still a community here, and we wanted to help kind of increase that presence and bring some of that history back. St. Louis is such a cool historic city. And so we have a couple of musicians that we bring in and we're looking to expand that. So right now, Jazz Night is the third Sunday of every month, but we are looking to incorporate a blues night as well. Blues also has a big presence in St. Louis historically, and we are looking to bring in more female musicians and singers, of course.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

That seems fitting.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Okay. Anna, what about your menu? I I hear you have some additions coming.

Menu Expansion: Cocktails, Food & Tastings

SPEAKER_00 11:26

We do. So our base menu, in terms of our cocktails, does a couple of things. Um, we have classic cocktails that have the original builds and recipes from the time. Some of them are modernized for ingredients and things like that. Um, but the house cocktails are really our twists on cocktails that were made famous in that time period. And we're continuing to expand that. We're continuing to try to create more opportunity and more exploration. So we're breaking down the menu into different time periods and letting people understand a little bit more of the history of these cocktails and the backgrounds behind them. We do have a non-alcoholic section as well, and a fairly curated back bar that has some pretty unique gins and bourbons and tequilas and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Okay, that's fun.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

But in addition to that, we are also um curating a new food menu that will be available and that will come with a few different things. One is uh we're talking about introducing charcuterie, and that's kind of in the works. Some different cold options. Um, and then eventually we will be rolling out a semi-tasting menu of sorts that lets you kind of walk through things that pair well with cocktails. A lot of people are used to wine tastings, and we'll have some of that as well. But we really want to create kind of a new experience for people to try stuff that they're not really used to dipping their toe in.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

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Researching History & Bringing Stories to Life

SPEAKER_02 13:26

fun?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Working, serving drinks. Um I mean, the cliche answers the bar is a lot of fun. It's a lot of work. Um and we are really heavily involved in the day-to-day operations, but just getting to research those women and kind of bring attention to them has been so much fun for me. I I love doing that stuff. Reaching out to different universities and even trying to track down some relatives.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

That's been so, so much fun and so rewarding. Yeah, it's hard. A lot of them either were married several times, got divorced several times, or never had children because they were unconventional in many, many ways. So it's been tricky, but I've reached out to many professors at different universities. I've gone through a lot of archives and I find all of that super fun. And I love talking about them with customers that come in. Um, and we have a few things coming to help hopefully kind of get the community more involved in and make it more of an interactive experience as well. It is coming, um, but we are hoping to do more of a performance in the bar every once in a while where we have actors portray these women. And um, Rich alluded to kind of a tasting menu. So looking at ways to highlight them even more. They were really special women, and we want to make sure that they're always at the forefront of what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

I think that's super cool. Do you have a favorite historical woman?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

I

Favorite Prohibition Stories & महिला Influence

SPEAKER_01 15:01

love all of them. Um, but my favorite is probably Texas. That was the nickname that she had. Um, she has two drinks on her menu. She's really special to me. She was the first woman that I really, really wanted to feature and dove in really deep. And um, she was arrested over 50 times and never spent more than a couple hours in jail. She was bailed out and she pulled the time and never convicted. And thousands and thousands of people went to her funeral when she died because she was so incredible.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Why she was just operating a speakeasy and getting oh in New York.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yes, that were all raided many times, some of them multiple times a week.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

So it's pretty impressive that she was never convicted of anything. Yeah. And she did go to trial.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Wow. How do you think she got away with that?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I think she paid a lot of law enforcement, which you know, there was a lot of men doing that at the time. Yeah. That was there's a lot of gangsters and mob bosses that are really revered from that time. There's entire movies and TV shows about that time period, and she was operating like a man and it worked for her.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

I love that. What is it about these women though? Like, why do you relate to them? Do you feel like you would that would have been you in a past life?

SPEAKER_01 16:15

I think everybody hopes that they would have been the person that was courageous and stood out in history. I don't know that most of us would have been. But when we were buying the building and developing the concept for the event spaces and settled on the Gatsby theme, I mentioned to Rich um that there's a rumor that F. Scott's Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, actually wrote The Great Gatsby or inspired large parts of it and didn't get the credit for it. My mom's an English teacher, and so she told me that in high school while I was reading the book. And that just kind of sparked the idea of how many other women had a huge contribution to this time period and developed art and were these great performers, and either didn't get the credit or men got the credit for it. And that was where the whole idea was born.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Very cool. And Rich is on board with this, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Dragged

Personal Insights & St. Louis Food Scene

SPEAKER_00 17:11

kicking and screaming. No, I'm I'm definitely um definitely on board with a conversation of um everybody being able to kind of have these independent opportunities and go make their mark. And and I think um there's a lot of people who didn't get the chance to really have their day in the sun or have the same opportunities, and they were digging out of a place that, you know, they were starting 20 feet, 30 feet behind the starting line compared to a lot of other people who did show up in the news. And I think it's really impressive that they were able to do all of this stuff, um, legal or not, depending on your who makes the rules.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Well I do know.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

So no, I I I think it's one of those things that it becomes more impressive when the people who didn't have the head start end up being able to pull something like this off.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

For sure. Okay. And now when you're not in your own bar, uh, where do you like to eat around town?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Uh I mean, we we love trying all the new places as they come up. Um, we we've really enjoyed like Robin and when Endo and Sato were coming on the scene, and um obviously we go to Yellow Belly from time to time. We're kind of uh tied to them a little bit. Um, but we we really like to try the places that people don't hear of as often. And so that's one thing we're always looking for is like what's the new place that didn't kind of come out and have this big announcement. And so um, you know, places in South City and things like that, especially local spots, uh sometimes unique and ethnic are really fun for us.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Okay, anywhere in particular?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Um, not right now. We were actually just talking last week about looking for some new spots because with opening everything that we've had recently, that's been kind of the focus lately. But we're we're looking at uh getting into a little bit more exploration again.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

That's fun. I enjoyed that.

unknown 19:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Is there anything

Closing + How to Visit

SPEAKER_02 19:02

else you want people to know?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

We are open Thursday through Monday. Um, weekdays we're open at four, and then on the weekends we're open at five. Um yeah, come see us. We can read about all these women on the menu. All right. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you. Thanks, Lauren.