Downtown Boise bar to close soon, reopen in spring after building a ‘cave’

A quirky downtown Boise bar will close temporarily after this weekend.

If it was anywhere but Gatsby, 280 N. 8th St., the reason might seem odd.

“We’re transforming our back room into an abandoned mine cave ... ” Gatsby explained on Instagram.

Of course. And naturally, the “cave” will lead into more marketing magic: a liquor-tasting room.

Opened in 2022 as an alley-entrance, speakeasy-style bar, Gatsby requires an ever-changing password to enter. (Zero customers will enter March 3 through April 2 while it’s remodeling the new space.)

Gatsby strives to transport guests to the 1920s with craft cocktails, throwback fashion and old-timey music. Except when it occasionally doesn’t. For several weeks beginning last mid-November, Gatsby morphed into Mistletoe Magic, a “holiday pop-up bar.”

After customers make their way through the faux mine shaft this spring, they’ll enter a temperature-controlled tasting room, Gatsby wrote, “filled with bourbon, whiskey, tequila and gin.”

And if you shiver after downing a shot of 80-proof evil? It might not be the alcohol. Gatsby is aiming for its tasting-room temperature to be 58 degrees. (SoCal transplants be damned!) The new space will welcome seven guests at a time in 30-minute increments. Reservations will be accepted soon through Gatsby’s website.

“This is not some boring wine tasting,” Gatsby bragged, “but a swinging good time where you throw on mink coats / hats while drinking and learning about Prohibition boozes!”

(Booooring? Idaho Wine Commission: Permission to be triggered.)

(Miiiink? PETA: ditto.)

In the meantime, cave dwellers, would you prefer your cocktail with a stalactite or stalagmite swizzle stick?