Today the History Channel aired a 2-hour program titled Secret Passages. About 65 minutes into the program, Stephen Shlopack, the proprietor of Chumley’s Pub in New York, relates some info about the establishment.
During Prohibition, the pub was a speakeasy. Shlopack claims this number was used as a code that police informants used to let the pub know a police raid was about to occur. The pub would then tell their preferred clients to leave before the raid.
Shlopack claims that “86” comes from the address of the pub, which is 86 Bedford Street, New York, NY 10014.
I can corroborate that, sort of. Last year while visiting Manhattan I took the Greenwich Village Literary Pub Crawl, which includes Chumley’s. The crawl includes Chumley’s (and also the White Horse Tavern and McSorley’s), and we were told the above story. The secret exit (disguised as a bookcase) does indeed lead out of the pub through the door with “86” over it.
But I say “sort of” because the crawl included other “facts” that were boldly, spectacularly wrong. Most glaringly, the guides claimed that Margaret Mead never went to Polynesia at all, and wrote her famous book about Samoa in a booth at Chumley’s. As if! So take the “86” story with a grain of salt.