Jul 11
31
During my last trip to Las Vegas, I stayed Downtown two nights at the Golden Nugget. On my first day there, I wandered down to Fremont East to check it out. My mistake was doing so during the day, when it was a virtual ghost town. (What was I thinking?) I am now kicking myself for not going back at night, when foot traffic and entertainment options pick up considerably. Today’s guest blogger Tim Dressen fills us in on the creative and entertaining Fremont East bar scene that I foolishly missed out on.
Fremont East
When most Las Vegas visitors consider downtown, their thoughts begin and end with the hotels, casinos and attractions nestled beneath and adjacent to the Fremont Street Experience canopy. However, recent developments just a couple blocks away make venturing beyond the Fremont Street Experience worthwhile—especially if you enjoy a good cocktail.
Located just a block beyond the Fremont Street Experience, the Fremont East Entertainment District is a growing arts district featuring a collection of vastly different and interesting bars. They include:
Downtown Cocktail Room
This mixology bar features an amazing (and frequently updated) specialty drink menu. The bartenders are true cocktail experts, so simply telling them the flavors you like will result in off-menu concoctions customized for your palate.
Downtown Cocktail Room
The Griffin
Known to attract a young hipster crowd, The Griffin features a swanky old-school lounge setting, including two fire pits and a great jukebox.
Insert Coin(s)
One of Fremont East’s newest bars, Insert Coin(s) is a video gamer’s dream come true. In addition to classic arcade video games from the past, the bar features recent games on systems like Xbox and PlayStation.
Insert Coin(s)
Vanguard Lounge
A mixology bar in the tradition of Downtown Cocktail Room, Vanguard features the added bonus of sidewalk seating on Fremont.
Beauty Bar
Another hipster magnet, Beauty Bar features live bands, DJs, karaoke, movies in its backyard beer garden and other interesting theme nights throughout the week. Unlike neighboring bars, Beauty Bar also sometimes requires a cover charge, so you may want to scope out its website before going.
Don’t Tell Mama
A piano bar unlike any other, Don’t Tell Mama features bartenders who double as entertainers. They are all talented vocalists with the ability to pull off a classic from Dean Martin or a recent hit from Lady Gaga. They make a mean cocktail too.
The Griffin
Visiting bars can be intimidating for solo Las Vegas travelers, but a few of these joints are especially well-suited for going it alone. Check out Downtown Cocktail Room, Vanguard Lounge or The Griffin early in the evening and you can easily get a seat at the bar and likely some great conversation with the bartenders. Once things pick up later at night, bar seating is still the way to go. If you’re not shy about jumping into a neighboring conversation, it won’t be tough to meet some interesting people.
If you tend to be more introverted, and conversation with other random bar patrons isn’t your thing, Insert Coin(s) is the way to go. A pocket full of quarters is sure to keep you entertained for hours.
Tim Dressen is producer and cohost of Five Hundy by Midnight, the Original Las Vegas Podcast, and creator of FremontStreetBars.com, a guide to the bars on and around Fremont Street.
Photos by Tim Dressen.
Great article, just a shame that the secret is out now. The variety of bars and lounges is great here, and has less of an “Identikit” feel to it than many other areas. And the security staff are *generally* more human and friendly than many bouncers on the Strip. After a few nights of frequenting one bar on this list, the bar staff remembered our names and our drinks of choice. What more could you want?
That’s what we all look for, Paul–a bar where “everyone knows your name”.
Great phrase, “identikit”! I know exactly what you mean. So many of the Strip bars could be lifted from their host hotels and relocated to almost any other hotel on the Strip and you’d never know the difference. It seems as though all of them are marketing themselves to the same damn target audience, and if you aren’t part of that target audience, it’s hard to find one that feels like a good fit.
Absolutely – I love bars with character, bars that dare to be different and are prepared to take a risk and appeal to something less than the broadest demographic group possible. I go out of my way to visit a bar that fits that category, even if the bar staff insist on calling me “Norm”
[...] trouble, as Paul of VegasNotes and I were discussing earlier this week, is that so many Las Vegas bars are interchangeable, practically identical–what Paul referred [...]