The amount of alcohol that flows through Las Vegas on any given day is almost unfathomable. Between drinks in the casino, bars, restaurants, and night clubs, Vegas probably does in one day what most cities do in an entire month. Much of this alcohol is delivered in the form of a top name brand vodka, over ice, with some soda water.
While vodka will probably be king for the foreseeable future in Las Vegas, a movement is afoot among a dedicated group of bartenders, mixologists and beverage program managers to bring quality cocktails to Las Vegas in a big way.
One of the most significant cocktail bars in Las Vegas is Vesper hard rock hotel and casino hollywood Bar at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. Beverage Director Andrew Pollard has put the craft cocktail front and center with our pick for the top cocktail bar in Las Vegas.
Vesper Bar is an oasis at The Cosmopolitan Hotel, away from the buzz of the casino, with a fair sized lounge as well as a nice large square bar with plenty of seats. hard rock hotel and casino hollywood The bar is very well staffed with exceptional mixologists who have a deep passion for spirits and cocktails. The drink menu begins with the signature James Bond inspired drink The Vesper , and then journeys through a mix of classic cocktails and modern standards. It s one of the few bars in Vegas where the bartenders offered to improvise or make things special for us from off the menu.
The Vesper Bar combines fantastic ambiance with precision crafted cocktails, and a superb bar staff who are both great mixologists as well as great bartenders. Add to all that the sheer volume that they do at this bar and you realize that The Vesper is more than a fantastic hard rock hotel and casino hollywood bar, it s a shining example of the future of craft cocktails, done with high quality in high volume.
Savile Row is a unique hard rock hotel and casino hollywood fusion of speak easy and night club. This fusion results in vodka sodas being poured next to Green Chartreuse based cocktails. Bar Manager Ray Srp is Las Vegas cocktail royalty: he took over for Tony Abou-Ganim (probably the world s best-known bartender) at the Petrusian Lounge at the Bellagio. Ray was set with the task of trying to follow in the footsteps of a giant and he managed to make it happen.
Here at Savile Row, he s put together a cocktail menu that ranges from the sweet and easy to the more complex, and he does it all with ease. Great bars aren t great without great bartenders, and Ray embodies the craft of hospitality that equals his phenomenal mixology skills. While it s a little difficult to get into Savile Row, it s well worth the effort. The vibe inside is dark, sexy and hip, and, combined with some of the best cocktails in town, it s easily one of our top picks for the best cocktail bars in Vegas.
Downtown Cocktail Room is off the strip and a stones throw from the Fremont Street Experience, but once you walk through the doors, you enter another place and time. The Downtown hard rock hotel and casino hollywood Cocktail Room feels like a great secret with its intimate corners and small bar. There is no back bar sea of liquor bottles here, so as you sit down, your attention goes to the bartender rather than scanning the back bar for your favorite bottle of spirit.
While Downtown Cocktail Room has its roots in classic cocktails, it isn t a classic cocktail bar. Mixologist Jeremy Merrit is an absolute hard rock hotel and casino hollywood savant when it comes to making cocktails and is constantly hard rock hotel and casino hollywood drawing inspiration from seasonal ingredients, new spirits, the bar s vibe, and his customers. Downtown Cocktail Room has a unique rating scale for all their drinks to indicate how approachable they are. This is a great tool to help the casual drinker safely explore hard rock hotel and casino hollywood the world of cocktails while having an experience that matches their tastes.
Jeremy Merrit thrills hard rock hotel and casino hollywood in asking his customers to pick a few bottles from the lower back bar and then improvises hard rock hotel and casino hollywood a cocktail around them. While we were there we picked Averna hard rock hotel and casino hollywood Amaro, Woodford Reserve Bourbon and Los Nohales Mezcal. Jeremy added New Castle Ale, whipped cream and nutmeg, and turned it into an instant masterpiece. hard rock hotel and casino hollywood There s a feeling in the Downtown Cocktail Room that something significant is happening behind the bar, and although it s not on the strip, its influence hard rock hotel and casino hollywood will surely be felt there soon.
Bar Moderno at The Aria Hotel is located hard rock hotel and casino hollywood across the City Center from The Cosmopolitan and it shares some of the same commitments to fresh ingredients and craft cocktails with Vesper. Beverage Manager Mark Thomas hard rock hotel and casino hollywood has a distinctly unique view of cocktails and has crafted a beverage program with roots in the culinary world.
hard rock hotel and casino hollywood Heavily influenced by food, some of the drinks at Bar Moderna feel like meals, including the trio of Bloody Marys which each pull from progressively hotter peppers and are garnished by a trio of peppers. Classic cocktails get a spin with drinks like the Prickly Pear Pisco Sour, Caramelized Pineapple Side Car, and the Cucumber Collins.
hard rock hotel and casino hollywood On the surface Bar Moderno doesn t seem like it would be one of the top 5 bars in Las Vegas, but even a casual exploration through their cocktails makes it amazingly clear why something very special is going on here.
Herbs and Rye seems to revel in cultivating the mood of an old-time Las Vegas gangster bar. It s the kind of bar you could imagine Bugsy Malone sitting at sipping at some whiskey. The deliciously dark and leathery bar has one of the deepest dedication to pure classic cocktails that we ve seen. Bar Manager Neetaly Mendoza has put together a cocktail menu that is a journey through different ages of drinking (ie. Gothic Age of American Drinking, Golden Age, Old School Age, Prohibition and The Revival).
Although it s not a speak easy, Herbs and Rye definitely captures the spirit hard rock hotel and casino hollywood of one and if you knock twice and speak softly you may or may not be able to sample some unique and hard-to-find spirits. There s just something about how Herbs and Rye feels that sets it far apart from everything else, it s easy to get lost inside this amazing bar, as time and space seem to slip away as you are enveloped by the soft leathery darkness of a fantastic cocktail bar.
A very special thanks to Tony Abou-Ganim ( The Modern Mixologist ) who was our virtual tour guide through the bars of Las Vegas. The fact that there is even a list of 5 great cocktail bars in Las Vegas is a direct result of the work Tony did at the Bellagio, which helped set all of this great cocktailing hard rock hotel and casino hollywood in motion!
One down off your list. Seriously, 20 minutes and counting for my drink at vesper. Actually timing it. Vegas will never be able to do cocktails in this environment. Screw your list. Don t order cocktails here.
Nice top 5 list. People do need to know that Vegas has superior drinks and not just the ones you get for playing $20 at a machine. I rate bars by how well they make my lemon drop martini. Not too many 10s but more here than in other cities.
I have to disagree about Vesper Bar. We asked or some thing with vodka tha was not sweet. They used flavored vodka. Lots of the right stuff around like handmade syrups etc. but no one that knew how to use any of it. Las Vegas is not e craft cocktail sorta place. A lot of places act like it but no real winners.
hard rock hotel and casino hollywood When we named Vesper Bar #1, Andrew Pollard hard rock hotel and casino hollywood was the bar manager. He has since moved on to become the key mixologist for Wertz Beverage. We ve revisited a couple hard rock hotel and casino hollywood times and have had mixed results. The top list will probably get a complete update next year.
Great article. I read it before our recent trip, and since we were staying at Aria we stopped at Bar Moderno right after checking in. It was mid-afternoon and the bar was empty except for two people at a table and one person at the bar. I should have known something was wrong when the table sent back their just made drinks. The bartender kept saying, I make the best drinks in Vegas, so I gave it a shot. Long story short, he doesn t make good drinks. Tried my favorite, a rye manhattan, and it was bad. Despite having an empty bar, the bartender acted like the place was packed and he was rushed. hard rock hotel and casino hollywood It was a really bad experience. Ended up just ordering a draft beer and getting out of there. Vesper and Downtown Cocktail Room are great, but Moderno isn t even close to their league. I probably caught an untrained bartender during a slow time, but at $19 for a manhattan you best get it right every time.
Sorry to hear of your poor experience at the Aria. The unfortunate thing about Vegas is that ALL hotel and casino bars are union workers and it s common for someone to be posted at a bar who simply does not give a crap. Sounds hard rock hotel and casino hollywood like that s what you got. Glad you loved the Vesper. It went through a rough patch when the main bar manager left, glad to hear it s possibly back on the right track.
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