When you're ready to serve up a few drinks to visiting friends, you don’t want to have to wander here and there around the house to get all the items you need to create their favorites. You should have everything accessible, in one space, in the liquor cabinet.
Liquor cabinets have been around for some time. They were a location to be able to find all the liquors and accessories necessary to serve up a cocktail or two without breaking up a conversation.
Many people who have them today, prefer liquor cabinets to bars. The reasoning is that they can have a more elegant and understated look, while still offering the storage and serving space that a bar does.
Initially liquor cabinets were meant as a way to hide alcohol. In the 1920s alcohol was outlawed in the United States. Many people who were against Prohibition, and wanted their spirited drinks, invested in liquor cabinets.
They looked like other pieces of furniture and blended in with the room, but the homeowner knew the innards of the furniture also contained the sweet nectar they wanted to indulge in at the end of the day.
After the days of Prohibition, people weren't going to get rid of their liquor cabinets, they remained a part of the home furnishings, and likely the subject of stories about how they broke the law to have the drinks they wanted, at a time when they weren't supposed to.
Over the course of the 20th century, the liquor cabinets lost their trendy position in the world, and many people started changing them out. Today having a full-blown bar is more popular than having the subdued liquor cabinet as your home's alcohol center.
