When I am looking for some creativity in the Orange County nightlife scene, I rarely look to Mission Viejo for inspiration.

No offense intended, but when the hottest restaurants in town are chain outlets, one tends to stop looking for innovation.

Click here for a photo slide show of 221 in Mission Viejo.

However, I was a little encouraged when Dan Lauriano moved from Fullerton’s Rockin’ Taco Cantina to open The Derby in the Kaleidoscope shopping center. With a casual and raucous dueling-piano concept, The Derby is a place where birthday celebrations thrive, and the pastrami is just about as good as it gets in Orange County.

The building that houses The Derby always had a back bar that Lauriano never seemed to know what to do with, even though I always found it to be a nice, quiet place to converse amid the chaos.

Well, the restaurant owner finally figured out what to do with the room. He turned it into a speakeasy. No, seriously.

Starting with the New York City theme of The Derby, he expanded the concept to bring a Roaring Twenties vibe to a room he calls 221 (the name has to do with the address of the building – that’s all I could get out of him).

You gain entrance to the speakeasy by using a secret password that is changed daily and posted on the restaurant’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Once inside, you can buy $500 worth of chips for $10, and then hit the tables. There is a craps table in the middle, and blackjack tables scattered around the room.

Let me get to your first question. This being California, and not Nevada, you cannot gamble for money. Whatever you win is banked into your account, which makes you eligible for a monthly raffle in which exotic vacation trips are awarded. If you lose, you can get more chips for $10.

Mostly, 221 is a place to have some fun pretending that you’re gambling. I shot some craps, and experienced the same bad luck I had on New Year’s Even in Vegas. It was more realistic than I liked.

But there is also a separate bar in 221, and plenty of comfy sofas to share.

The staff dresses in period costumes, and each employee has been given a character name (my favorites are “Knuckles” and “Sweet Lips”) and a personal history.

No food is served in 221, so if you’re interested in happy hour, you’ll have to start your night in The Derby, and then check out the speakeasy when it opens at 8 p.m. (Fridays and Saturdays only).

There may be hope for Mission Viejo after all.

Photos and article by Barry Koltnow, the Orange County Register.

Contact the writer: 714-796-5051, ext. 1110 or bkoltnow@ocregister.com

More O.C. Nightlife:

• Slide Show: Professional Bull Riders take over Honda Center Saturday night
• ShoresCrew’s Zombie Party gets wild at La Cave in Costa Mesa Friday night
• Lord Huron kicks off the 2012 Off Center Festival in Costa Mesa
• Slide Show: Marc B goes acoustic at the Copper Door in Santa Ana
• Orange Pop: I Hate You Just Kidding gets serious
• Citizen Cope gets intimate with fans at the Coach House Wednesday night

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