“Let’s go,” Svetlana Shmulyian said as she led me down an unmarked staircase on the Lower East Side.

“We’re at the back alley that leads to the speakeasy called The Back Room,” she added.

She knocked on an unmarked door and told me not to worry she knows today’s password. Tonight it was “down and under Norfolk Street.” But it changes every night.

And on Monday nights, Shmulyian and her band, The Delancey Five, bring this historic speakeasy to life.

Shmulyian grew up in Russia and was known as “the girl who sings.”

“Part of why I’m in here doing what I do is because, in a way, it also helps bring joy to me, you know, and I’m a refugee,” Svetlana explained during a break in her performance. “I’m Jewish and Jews were a persecuted minority.”

Shmulyian came to the United States on a student visa in 1995. As a Russian Jew she was able to get refugee status and stay.

She earned multiple graduate degrees and a PhD from Columbia University before working as a top management consultant and continuing to perform intermittently.

A decade ago, she decided to make music her career.

“I was kicked out from another venue because that’s how it is in New York,” Shmulyian said. “I just started going down the street from bar to bar and saying, ‘hey, I have a band and I have an audience.’”

Now they’re celebrating 10 years at the Back Room. The space dates back to the Prohibition Era and you still need the password to get in. Although, I’m told being very nice to the doorman can help, too.

The club was flooded during Hurricane Sandy and closed during the pandemic, but it’s once again packed with patrons excited to be back out on the town.

“We just love any opportunity to like, get in the spirit of, you know, the roaring 20s and be fancy and wear good things," said Eric Gottshall who, along with his wife Emily Silver, not only dressed in period attire but also took to the floor with some lively swing dancing.

“It’s just great to actually be together again, said manager Megan Bones.

Of course I had to ask why all the drinks were in coffee and tea cups.

“Yeah it’s tea alright,” winked Svetlana. “Actually during prohibition times they did drink tea — I mean, whiskey — from tea cups. So if the police came in, they just place it down and dash out."

Before the pandemic, Svetlana considered returning to Russia for the first time to perform there, but says because of its invasion of Ukraine she will not and does not think she will ever go back.

The violence and chaos are all another reason why this swinging music that originated in the speakeasies continues to resonate with her.

“Because people, you know, during the Great Depression and prohibition, were really looking to escape the harshness of the world. I think I’m as transported by the night as everybody else who comes here,” she said drinking a sip of her tea.