Bar Vauté (beneath Brasserie La Banque)

The story

In 1853, architects Edward C. Jones and Francis D. Lee designed the Italian Renaissance brownstone at 1 Broad Street for the State Bank of South Carolina. Because Charleston sits at sea level on marshy soil, standard basements were an invitation to flood. The architects dug out a rare below-street floor anyway—building 11-foot ceilings and placing iron grates over sidewalk window wells to let natural light reach the bank clerks working beneath the street. That subterranean bunker survived Civil War shelling and the 1886 Charleston earthquake before eventual conversion into what the operators call a "bar clandestin."

Because of the city's high water table, true subterranean bars in Charleston are nearly nonexistent. Above ground, tourists stream toward Rainbow Row across the intersection of Broad and East Bay without realizing a bar exists beneath their boots. Down below, Art Deco sconces cast amber light across leather banquettes, dark wood, and low ceilings.

You don't need a secret password or a fake phone booth to get in—you just need to know which door to open. A side entrance on East Bay Street leads straight to the building's original 19th-century staircase. Descending the steps drops you beneath street level, where street noise fades into clinking coupe glasses, chilled oysters, and French cocktails.