The bar scene is smoking hot (especially in the summer months!) in Las Vegas. These days on the Strip, it seems that every casino resort has not just opulent lobby and restaurant bars but also hidden cocktail dens (from high-class, vintage-spirits focused The Vault behind the Bellagio cashier’s cage to no less than four speaks at the Cosmopolitan!). In a city where you can drink 24-7, here are some stellar spots, focusing on the current hot zone to the north of the Strip to the local-favourite neighbourhoods beyond. With all the concerts and entertainment coming up in the desert, there are plenty of reasons to beat the heat inside a cool bar this summer.
Collins
Named for the style of tall highball glass and the original Fontainebleau Hotel’s Miami location, this glittery lobby bar at the new Fontainebleau Las Vegas landed on the Esquire’s Best Bars in America 2024 for its glam vibes and stellar cocktails. Feel like an old-school Rat Packer as you munch on high-class bar snacks like spiced nuts and signature bow-tie-shaped crackers while sipping smartly tweaked modern classics and listening to daily live piano music (from 5 p.m.). Equally good, with superior people-watching, is glittery Bleau Bar under a giant chandelier in the middle of the Fontainebleau Casino.
What you’re drinking: At Collins, a Gold Digger made off bellflower-infused bourbon, lime, peach, bitters and gold dust; at Bleau Bar, Pancakes + Dopamine, with rum, banana, dark sugar, lime and cinnamon.
Liquid Diet
Also on Esquire’s Best Bars in America 2024 list but off-Strip and low-key, find this chill cocktail lounge in a former garage, behind glass doors in the alley between the Art District’s Commerce and Main Streets, south of Imperial (marked by a dramatic black-and-white imbibing mural on the Commerce side). There’s no menu, but seasonal drinks like a juicy Bourbon Mandarin are posted on pieces of kraft paper hanging over what looks like a restaurant kitchen. There’s no back bar of bottles, and from the prep area you might just see chips flying as co-founder Bret Pfister carves hand-hewn clear cubes.
What you’re drinking: A Date Old Fashioned, a just-sweet-enough, earthier riff on the classic.
Velveteen Rabbit
Just a few blocks away in the Art District, the outline of a neon bunny beckons. With decor is heavy on feminine vintage furnishings and pastel hues, this woman-powered bar (founded by two sisters) serves serious drinks. The current seasonal menu is an “Alchemy Cabinet” volume of complex elixirs and antidotes. Or select from several cocktails on tap, including a daily punch, the Hibiscus Paloma or a gin-based Queens Cup (cucumber-and-tea gin, raspberry and pomegranate fizzed with ginger ale).
What you’re drinking: The Crucible, with burdock-infused rye, Amaro Montenegro and house lemongrass bitters crowned with a dramatic smoke-filled bubble.
Oak & Ivy
Towards the quieter end of party-hearty Fremont Street, a cluster of shipping containers has been reimagined as an adult playground, with shops, live entertainment, mini golf and food stalls. At the back, near the stage, find Oak & Ivy, a whisky bar with just eight seats inside (but aurrounded by a large, cooled and misted patio). A wild whisky list (try American gems like the bottled-in-bond Leopold Bros. Maryland-style Rye) offers hundreds of opeiont by the ounce, including some single-barrel bourbons and bar exclusives. Signature drinks include the Smoke & Spice & Nothing Nice, a brown-sugar Old Fashioned with smoky bitters in a smoked glass, with a licking-good barbecue-spice rim, and an Apple Pie Harvest, a whisky sour garnished with a deconstructed slice of pie.
What you’re drinking: A Rye Shake, a daiquiri-style drink substituting whiskey.
Downtown Cocktail Room
Promising “cozy vibe + proper cocktails,” DCR kicked off the craft cocktail renaissance in Las Vegas almost 20 years ago, and this dark, moody room just off Fremont Street is still notable and innovative. A huge menu includes thoughtful, made-fresh mocktails like an Amar “No” Spritz and group-serve punchbowls (half-off during the 5 to 8 p.m. happy hour along with beer and well spirits, and some cocktails for $10). Signatures include Circe’s Kiss, with gin, absinthe, chamomile and coconut milk crowned with aquafaba foam and freeze-dried raspberries. It operates a second, more intimate speakeasy-style bar, the Sip’N’Tip, that you enter through a door in the Art Alley around the corner
What you’re drinking: A spicy flower and Szechuan pepper-infused-bourbon Marigold Rush.
Herbs & Rye
The only Las Vegas bar currently on the North America’s 50 Best Bars list, this way-off-Strip, dark and woody steakhouse gives frontier vibes and a history lesson in American cocktail culture at the bar. The menu is divided by eras, from the advent and heyday of 18th-century American drink inventions through Prohibition to disco drinks (the Grasshopper!) and the modern era. Steaks and some other food items are half-price daily from 5 to 8 p.m.
What you’re drinking: The Ward 8, a refreshing rye and citrus classic.
Peppermill’s Fireside Lounge
Weirdly wedged between the opulence of the Wynn and the new Fontainebleau, this 40-year-old Vegas institution (it’s frequently used as a movie set) is popular with locals for huge food portions, starting with breakfast. Bypass the restaurant and hit the 1970s-vibe Fireside Lounge (complete with fireplace-enhanced conversation pit and digital gaming screens embedded in the bar) daily during a 3 to 6 p.m. happy hour, for cheap beer and snack and $6 Martinis.
What you’re drinking: The Scorpion, a 64-ounce fishbowl sharesies drink containing two shots of rum, vodka, cherry brandy and an elaborate fruit-and-umbrella garnish.
—by Charlene Rooke