I'm a fan mainly because of the drinks! I thoroughly enjoyed my Old Fashioned drink. The bartender even put a tiny bottle of bitters upside down in my drink which slow released as I was sipping and hanging out with friends for a birthday celebration. My friends ordered more unique coctails with extraodinary ingredients. It would be difficult to replicate some of these drinks since it would be difficult to find the exact ingredients. It's entertaining to have the drinks prepared in front of you. What makes it different from pouring just drink mixtures together are the unique ingredients. One of the drinks being made looked like fire was being poured back and forth between two coctail shakers. Maybe since the drinks are so expensive, plan on eating less downstairs to make up for it?..
I get that people find the whole going to the back side of the restaurant and up some stairs guided by a bouncer was a little corny, but so what? The bouncer, host, or whever you call him (I can't remember his name) was very friendly, nice and informative. He made suggestions about good drinks to try and was down to earth and helpful. (Helpful hint: they usually don't like parties bigger than 6 upstairs. 2-4 is preferable)
I guess I should have known by the ambiance of Citizen Public House Restaurant that the "speak easy" would be just as trendy looking. I pictured an actual "old school" speak easy stuck in my head beforehand so I was surprised to see little conversation set couches by a fireplace. Even though I was not totally impressed by the "living room-looking" speak easy, it was still a fun and different way of getting drinks, so I do recommend at least trying some of their drinks once, because they serve different drinks upstairs from the ones down in the restaurant. I haven't found that many places like this either in Arizona yet ("yet" is the key word).