Walk around New York’s meatpacking district and you can’t help but stumble on a speakeasy.

The prohibition-era inspired venues might be hidden behind innocuous-looking doors or barber shops but nowadays they can advertise their existence without fear of prosecution.

Not since 1933 have the joints really been a necessity, but Americans have taken to embracing the secretive, moody atmosphere once more.

“They are fashionable again,” says Lee Nicholson, operations director for hip bar and restaurant group, Eclectic Bars.

He’s been in the entertaining industry long enough to know a trend when he sees one. His company runs Polynesian-themed Lola Lo in East Street, Brighton, and took on Coalition in King’s Road Arches eight months ago. It also owns the Moroccan-inspired Po Na Na and Fez Clubs across the country, as well as Embargo 59 (named, ironically, after the year Fidel Castro took control of Cuba) in the King’s Road in Chelsea.

He travels to the places which inspire the company’s bars to get the authenticity right. The day after we chat Nicholson is heading to Bruges to source Belgian beer for a flagship bar in Covent Garden called Lowlander.

It’s the same with his latest project in Brighton, Dirty Blonde, which is named after a cocktail popular in New York’s meatpacking district, which he discovered on a recent recce to the East Coast city.

“In America everything is going back to its roots,” he says, as we sip drinks in Dirty Blonde’s plush surrounds on a site which was formerly Madame Geisha’s.

“It’s all about small plates, social food and sharing. We had a great cocktail called a Dirty Blonde, hence the name, and the speakeasy and prohibition trend seemed to be quite prominent over there still.”

Dirty Blonde (with Sauza Hornitos, Drambuie, lime juice, agave syrup and amaranth seeds, £8.95) is now its house speciality cocktail in a bar which has preferred to keep its marketing campaign low-key, just as the original speakeasies would have done.

“Speakeasies were always about speaking quietly so the police wouldn’t hear. Back in the 1920s and 1930s there was always something different as a front, it might be a launderette which gave birth to swinging places like the Cotton Club, and that is why we have a pawn shop at the front.”

It might be a facade but Dirty Blonde is a genuine retail space. The vintage items in vitrine displays are all for sale. A 1966 gold Dunhill lighter priced £300 has just been added to one of the glass cabinets downstairs in the bar. Selling the ornaments means the decor is constantly changing and the place continually evolves.

The permanent fixtures and fittings for the 300-capacity bar and restaurant – which aims to end the idea that dinner and drinks are separate entities – cost more than £1 million.

With DB embroidered into yellow Italian-made seating in the private booths and crystal-cut glasses to drink one of ten varieties of champagne on offer, it’s a no-expense-spared affair.

“In England you might go for some food and then go home. It’s rare to go for a meal and stay for drinks after. Here your food gets taken away then the premium vodka might come out and you can stay drinking and dancing until 2am.”

Upstairs – past a large downstairs bar where they claim to be able to make any cocktail, as well as their own 35 pouring specialities – is a cosier room with an open restaurant and the plush booths.

You’ll need to stick £200 on the drinks tab before you can hire one of the six-to-eight person tables but, according to Nicholson, you’ll be in the company of high rollers.

“We had a few Brighton footballers in last week celebrating the play-off success,” he reveals.

The food also takes inspiration from The Big Apple.

“It’s based on the four corners of New York and is primarily meat-driven.”

The idea is to nibble through the night on dishes including Maryland crab cake (£5.95), lobster tacos (£6.50), giant veal meat balls (£5.95) and mac ’n’ cheese lollipops (£4.95).

“It’s about having fun all evening rather than breaking the night up with a heavy meal. It’s finger food really so you can still enjoy drinking.”

  • Dirty Blonde, East Street, Brighton, 01273 727494
  • Open Monday to Wednesday 5pm to midnight, Thursday noon to 1am, Friday and Saturday noon to 3am, and Sunday noon to 11pm