The Elbow Room

Likely a speakeasy during Prohibition, the network of basement rooms accessed by the alley door at 759 North Front Street was known as the Tunnel Inn by the early 1930s. At that time, however, its address was listed as 754 North Front Street. In 1944, the Tunnel Inn moved north up the alley to 779 North Front Street—the building that now houses the spy-themed restaurant, the Safe House. The original location at 754 reopened as The Elbow Room and featured jazz groups such as the Jimmy Dudley Trio and the Scat Johnson Trio. Scat continued performing there into the 1960s. The jazz format ended when it became Whiskey-A-Go-Go in 1964.