Summer 2026
A short, very unofficial summer list of places we love — hidden rooms, strange theaters, playful spaces, and unexpected stops built for "Wait, how did you find this?"
Explore the listNot a definitive guide. Not a ranking. Just a handful of places that feel like the beginning of a great story.
A 49-seat theater with 176 speakers built into the walls, floor, and ceiling. The lights go completely dark and sound moves around the room like a physical object. It has been running since 1967 and still somehow feels like a secret. Everyone who goes remembers it.
Visit siteA jazz lounge and supper club in a historic Printers Alley basement, open since 1948. Live jazz every night, burlesque Thursday through Sunday, craft cocktails, serious food. The kind of place that feels like Nashville before Nashville became a bachelorette destination.
Visit site100,000+ consoles, games, and artifacts — and you can play most of them. Nostalgia hits everyone differently, which is exactly what makes it interesting for a group. Nobody walks out talking about the same thing.
Visit siteFlying trapeze, aerial silks, acrobatics — no experience required. Groups leave with something they didn't expect: the feeling of having done something that scared them a little. That's a different kind of shared story.
Visit siteA former apartment converted into a speakeasy, hidden behind a false wall inside the kitchen of Bodega on High Street. Low lights, serious cocktails, and the satisfaction of knowing where it is.
Visit siteHidden down an alley in Belltown with no sign and no obvious entrance. The bar is built inside the former boiler room of a 1920s apartment building. Craft cocktails, dark wood, brick walls, and the particular pleasure of finding something most people walk right past.
Visit siteHidden behind an unmarked laundromat in Andersonville. Close-up magic performed at your table, then a full stage show. The entrance alone changes the mood before anything happens.
Visit siteFootball meets bowling. Two teams, ten pins, one football — throw it however you want until someone clears the lane. Invented at an Indy 500 tailgate in 2001. Now a full warehouse with lanes, a bar, and the particular energy that comes from doing something competitive that nobody in the group has done before.
Visit siteA 19th-century Frank Furness bank building in Old City, vacant since 1985, transformed into a six-story immersive art experience. Six floors of installations, kinetic objects, secret passages, and rooms named "Asset Liquification" and "Loan Forgiveness." Weird, theatrical, and very much not just another dinner reservation.
Visit siteA homemade 100-square-foot room of absurd participatory activities in East Austin. Light, sound, strangers becoming teammates. Impossible to explain, easy to remember. The less you know going in, the better.
Visit site14 artist-designed immersive installations in a 23,000 sq ft warehouse space. Each room is a different world. It's the kind of place where everyone finds a different favorite corner, then spends the rest of the night comparing notes.
Visit siteAn 18-hole artist-designed indoor mini golf course inside a former factory in St. Paul, with vintage arcade games, live music, and boozy malts. Every hole was designed by a different artist. It sounds simple and delivers completely.
Visit site