Once upon a time, Las Vegas was a land of make-believe. People could sleep in hotels that resembled Arabian palaces, gamble at casinos designed as spaceships, and eat in restaurants that looked like a mermaid’s living room. But over the past decade or two, much of that personality has been smoothed over as once-extravagant properties dwindled into neutral-toned meh.
But there’s one kind of place where imagination is still considered a draw for customers: the bar. From tiki joints to dive bars and beyond, theming remains in play. “It’s escapism,” says Jerad Jay of Viking Mike’s Alpine Yurt Bar, on Main Street. “You can kind of go all-in on a concept and shoot for the stars.”
For instance: Guests entering his place are confronted by a wall of mule deer antlers and a blast of freezing air before walking through a room with a stone bar and into a round wooden yurt. The theme carries over to the menu, with more than 10 kinds of mead, and cocktails such as the Valkyrie. Jay explains the bar’s guiding principle: “We created a fictional character and a place in time, and we structured (the bar) around it. There’s a little bit of Viking, a lot of Scandinavian, a lot of alpine influence.”
Other bars have their own takes. Dark Sister, also on Main, creates a boho, witchy vibe: dark walls cascading with greenery, crushed velvet upholstery on curvy Victorian chairs, and a drink menu that includes cocktails named for ghost stories and Zodiac signs. Near UNLV, the Hofbrauhaus’ dedication to serving pilsner and a particular aesthetic extends from the bier hall setting to the schnitzel menu to the chick on the bandstand playing tuba in a dirndl.
Museums get in on the act by giving visitors the opportunity to wallow a little longer in the subject of their fascination. The Mob Museum’s Underground displays gangster photos and memorabilia while pouring Prohibition-era cocktails and hosting live jazz acts. The Punk Rock Museum’s Three Star Punk Bar is covered in stickers and graffitti, serves drinks in Pringles cans, and has punk bands.
Other bars’ personalities may not be as easily summed up but still carry their own distinctive style. Red Dwarf, on East Vegas Valley Drive, is a hybrid punk-tiki joint with blowfish lamps and a wall of vintage concert posters, while Henderson’s Grey Witch is a laid-back, pagan rock ’n’ roll bar with taxidermy, stained glass, and creepy artwork, as well as an alchemist’s library-style speakeasy accessed through a fake fireplace. Bar owner Russell Gardner explains that the unusual atmosphere is as much of a draw as the beer and pizza. “You want to feel like it’s something you don’t get to go to every day,” he says. “That’s why people go to Disneyland, that’s why people go to Universal Studios. They kind of want to be immersed in a different world for a little bit.”
The idea of the bar as immersive venue is taken to the next level at Area 15’s Oddyessy Manor, which is part bar, part club, part theatrical experience. “More than creating a narrative, I wanted to build an environment,” creative director Mallory Gracenin says. The manor is a sprawling space where patrons can lounge in a red velvet boudoir, watch burlesque dancers in an indoor garden, or sip gin cocktails poured from a bathtub faucet. There are actors moving throughout the space in a narrative loosely based on The Odyssey, but guests can choose their own adventure.
Gracenin says, “If you’re inclined, you can ask questions, engage in a conversation, have a cheers. But if you’re on a date and want to sit in a beautiful, unconventional room and have bathtub gin all night long, there’s no right or wrong way to do it.”
Echoing Jay’s comment about escapism, Gracenin says she wants to create “an environment you can really dive into and then come back to life after having a little rest.” Jay agrees, pointing out that people are stressed and need breaks. Themed places let them “be in a different world and have an experience that takes them out of reality” — even if only for a drink.
