Craft cocktails, intimate spaces, and luxury touches define the new supper club boom
Even before COVID, Las Vegas nightlife was ready for a change. For more than two decades, mammoth-sized, big-name, high-priced clubs dominated, but the scene was beginning to lose steam: Consider Kaos at the Palms, which opened with a multimillion-dollar bang in April 2019 and closed with an empty-wallet whimper less than eight months later. Clubs had become places you endured visiting mostly so you could tell everyone that you went.
What has been doing brisk business as we head toward 2022 are supper clubs. Places where people can enjoy intimate spaces and unique decor rather than dark, cavernous rooms, where they can share well-crafted cocktails and conversation rather than slapdash bottle service and deafening DJs. It seems that the newest way to party in Las Vegas is a throwback to how they swung at the Sands and the Sahara 60 years ago.
The Wynn’s supper club, Delilah (right), is one of the most glamorous rooms in the city. It’s a lavish Art Deco space with big-entrance staircases and golden palm trees, where marble, chrome, and inlaid wood gleam at varying degrees of luminosity and you half-expect to see Myrna Loy or Jean Harlow slinking across the dance floor. The entertainment is jazz bands and torch singers, which makes for a lovely atmosphere, but it is just atmosphere. The menu leans into new twists on classic dishes, like a short rib and scallop surf ’n’ turf or Caesar salad with king crab. The bar program, put together by the Wynn’s resident alchemist, Mariena Mercer Boarini, likewise zazzes up tradition — the Film Noir gives a spicy kick to the Old Fashioned, while the Stepford Wife hits a French 75 with flavors of strawberry and lemongrass, as well as tongue-tingling edible glitter. Even if you’re not up to the full menu and full show, Delilah’s Bubble Bar with its celebrity caricatures and cruise-ship vibe is worth a trip. (702-770-3300, wynnlasvegas.com)
If Delilah is the 1930s, the Bellagio’s Mayfair is the 1950s, featuring decor that blends blush and aqua tones with undersea motifs for a sort of mid-mod baroque — coral branch lamps, etched-glass jellyfish mirrors, and fountain views. The club recently hosted a residency by Lío Ibiza, a full-blown production with a dozen entertainers, multiple costume changes (all sequinned), songs, impressions, a dance-off and a Madonna tribute replete with voguing: It’s a show that is très Eurovision but, in its over-the-top shimmy and glitter, also feels very Vegas. The regular Mayfair show is more intimate, more jazz than pop, with several performers singing, dancing, and playing a white baby grand. The space and the shows are delightful, but the food menu lacks the same style and panache — a set menu of sushi, steak, and other standards offered up without particular flair. ( 702-693-8876, themayfairlv.com)
Operating in its own orbit is the Cosmopolitan’s Superfrico, the first restaurant from Absinthe creators Spiegelworld. The setting and the floor show have the off-kilter, acrobatic sensibility of the company’s shows. The dining room glows with psychedelic art and neon colors alongside a space capsule-sleek bar that flows into the adjacent Opium show space; there’s also a “secret” bar with a ski lodge theme — all stone walls, wood beams and taxidermy. However, Superfrico’s menu is gimmick-free, and takes its interpretation of classic Italian dishes seriously. The chicken parmesan is cheesy, saucy comfort food and may be the best in town, while an array of pizzas are topped with everything from house-made mozzarella to pistachio pesto with mortadella and stracciatella. The cocktails lean more to the “extra” of the decor than the mama vibe of the food but, from a selection of Negronis to the now-ubiquitous espresso martini, they’re elegantly done. Superfrico has no stage or live band, but a series of acts that pop in, hop on a banquette, and dazzle the audience for a few minutes. It could be a juggler, a magician, a tap dancer, a quick-change act, or all of the above, but they all share the flashy wit for which Spiegelworld is known. ( 702-534-3419, cosmopolitanlasvegas.com)
If you prefer your act to have a bit more class, it doesn’t get classier than the NoMad Library, a deep-toned, high-ceilinged space in Park MGM that’s adorned with giant chandeliers and 80,000 books from the Rockefeller family’s private collection. The Library has begun offering late-night entertainment in its restaurant space, which actually works very well as a venue — there’s plenty of room for a bandstand at one end and a banquette-flanked elevated runway down the center of the room accommodates trumpet solos and burlesque routines. Or both, as is the case when Brian Newman, band leader for Lady Gaga Jazz & Piano, brings his own show to the room as bandleader/horn player with guest spots by his wife, former Miss Exotic World Angie Pontani. With a crack band backing on Frank Sinatra tunes and dueling each other on Charlie Parker numbers — as well as a few showgirls in cute, trumpet-themed outfits — it’s the sort of gig one could imagine playing the Casbar Lounge at 2 a.m. back in the day. The NoMad late-night menu isn’t as lavish as their dinner selection of shellfish towers and wagyu for two, but the chicken fingers and French fries are at the same level of plate-licking deliciousness. ( 702-730-6785, nomadlasvegas.com)
But not all of the action is on the Strip: A mile or two off of Las Vegas Boulevard is the Vegas Nevada Rooms, whose opening is part of the rebirth of Commercial Center and the return of authentic, old-school Vegas. There’s a small cabaret room, a larger showroom and a piano bar, all decorated by showgirl/choreographer/costume designer Mistinguett. The calendar is booked with veteran Las Vegas acts, including Jimmy Hopper, Vita Drew, and Bobby Brooks Wilson. One of the highlights is the weekly “Sit In with Kelly Clinton,” during which the engaging singer/comedienne hosts a string of special guests who keep the room applauding for hours — the performers might have just come from touring with a full orchestra or a shift in the emergency room, but all are impressively talented. ( 702-500-1813, vegasnevadarooms.com)
After so many months of having to experience the world through a screen, we want to be in the same room where the musicians are playing, the dancers are dancing and the corks are popping. We want to be in a room that’s full of people, but doesn’t crowd us together. Hell, we’re ready to wear real pants and shoes with heels! Sin City’s newest nightlife trend may be a return to its golden age, but supper clubs makes everyone feel a little like a movie star — or the chairman of the board — and that never goes out of style.
Delilah: Courtesy Delilah