The Vault, the subterranean bar at The National hotel downtown, is located in what was the vault for the bank that originally occupied the Art Deco tower—the first skyscraper in Oklahoma City upon its completion in 1931. When it re-emerged as a hotel in 2022, the vaulted bar was The Library of Distilled Spirits, but following a mission to connect deeper with its history, it was recently rebranded and reborn as The Vault.
“We wanted to establish who we are, and that meant creating an actual identity for the space, and tying it into the hotel and its importance within the hotel,” explained Zak Lindahl, beverage director at The National. This meant highlighting the bar’s unique location as an immersive backdrop for a bespoke cocktail experience that feels like traveling in time, right down to cocktail “survey” cards where guests fill out their preferences, and bartenders customize drinks from scratch. While that’s happening, Lindahl said, guests are free to explore the vintage safety deposit boxes, which contain historic letters left behind from its bank era.
The Vault’s new drink list and decor sports just as much showmanship. “We’re not spinning bottles around our heads, but we’re elevating everything, from the decor to the artwork to the visuals of the cocktail,” Lindahl noted. “We stepped up our cocktail presentation game, and got a little creative with recipes.” Such as the Enter: Dragon, a gin-based holdover from the Library of Distilled Spirits days, which now comes billowing with “dragon’s breath” smoke out of a black martini glass. Other standouts include Barrel O’Monkeys, which uses Angel’s Envy Rye that’s barrel-aged in-house, and paired with banana-infused bourbon, molasses, walnut bitters and maplewood smoke.
Along with elevated food and decor, which includes oysters with smoked trout roe and brand-new artwork in an ambient space bedecked with cozy lamps and leather-bound cocktail books, it’s all part of a contemporary glow-up designed to celebrate the past. In lieu of happy hour, for instance, The Vault offers “banker’s hours,” which implement those “survey cards,” customized cocktails and safety deposit boxes for a bold new spin on tradition.
“I’ve come from places that were the cocktail destinations of Oklahoma City,” recalls Lindahl. “It was a smaller market back then, and now with The Vault, I don’t want to be just the best place to have a drink; I want to be the place where you have the best experience overall, like you just stepped into a piece of history in downtown Oklahoma City, and that you’re a part of history for even a moment.”
