To enter, you must knock on a prison door.
But once inside The Poison Cabinet, owner Aldo De Giorgi says there are only two words you will utter.
“Oh wow”.
The swinging subterranean speakeasy is perhaps Newcastle’s most secretive bar.
Hidden under Pilgrim Street’s Bierrex, for three years those in the know have been able to enjoy late-night posh cocktails with a prohibition era-twist.
But now the secret’s out of the bag.
“It is a funny one,” admits Aldo.
“It isn’t that you don’t want anyone to know about it, but that is part of its appeal.”
Even if you find the door, salvaged at auction from Clarkinwell Prison, there’s no signs to hint at what is inside.
But Aldo admits: “It improves the sense of discovery when you do find it!”
According to bartender Lucy Aubrook, when they do, they don’t tend to leave.
Up to 60 pack it out at a time and Aldo claims there’s a reason why his has worked while others have failed.
“They try and market themselves too massively in the early days, and they end up having a very shirt lifespan.”
And if anyone knows how to make a bar work, it is him.
Besides Bierrex and the adjacent Ray’s Backroom Bar, Aldo’s mini-empire includes Nighthawks and Dat Bar.
His father, an Italian migrant who started out selling Italian produce from the back of a van, took over Don Vito’s in the 70s and worked in nightclubs.
Nightlife is in his blood. He was brought up at the same site he now owns, spending his Sundays as a seven-year-old cleaning the kitchen.
And before it became Bierrex, he ran the original incarnation of the beloved Popolo there before ultimately selling the brand.
“To follow in the footsteps of Popolo was quite a challenge,” admits the 49-year-old.
“The timing of Popolo was just perfect.
“To see front bar cocktails made in front you is now normal - prior to that, you would ask for a G&T and the bartender would wonder off and turn their back on you.”
However business is booming. Aldo says the students help, as has the Great Exhibition of the North.
But so does having three very different bars all under the same roof, and Aldo admits: “This incarnation of Bierrex now is the best version we have done,”
