Rotgut.org Blog

#1928 - Downtown Cocktail Room, Las Vegas - 10/10/2012

Try the: Pumpkin Spice

The Downtown Cocktail Room is a swanky, mellow alternative to the Fremont Street Experience right around the corner. One of the most highly regarded craft cocktail stops in the city, you can barely spot it from outside, particularly by Vegas standards. The sign is small and the door is virtually impossible to identify.

Inside they serve a range of inventive, original cocktails, from a menu that provides a numbered scale to denote complexity. The decor is romantic and lounge-y, the music ambient, and the crowd mellow (the web site includes an enumerated list of rules of decorum). You don't see much of the blaring seen outside -- except for through the one-way glass in the restroom.

For cocktail lovers and swank lounge lovers, DCR is definitely one of the top stops in the city.

111 S Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89101 - (702) 880-3696
Web site: thedowntownlv.com
Reviews: vegaschatter - fremontstreetbars - vegas.com - theminty - drinkspirits - bestclubsin - yelp

#1927 - Dino's Lounge, Las Vegas - 10/10/2012

This is one of my favorite Vegas bars. It's lively, it's divey, it's old, and it has a classic Vegas pedigree. It has been Dino's since 1962, when Rinaldo Dean ("Dino") Bartolomucci bought the place, then named Ringside Liquors. The owner of Ringside was mobster Eddie Trascher, "who used the back room for big-money pool hustling, kept the beer refrigerator stocked with stolen jewels and furs, and once pistol-whipped a patron so viciously that he incurred the wrath of the entire plumber’s union." (lasvegascitylife) It has been run by Dino's family ever since, continuing with his two sons and now run by his granddaughter.

Dino's bartender Josette, "like in Dark Shadows"

Dino's today has the "Last neighborhood bar in Las Vegas" painted across the side of the building, and in neon over the door, just to make sure you get the message. It gets a nice cross-section of patrons, several of whom compete for Dino's "Drunk of the Month" title (the winner gets their picture on the wall and use of a special parking space). If a patron impresses the management enough, they get an invitation to play in the weekly card game of 99, which has been going for 50 years by invitation only (now hosted by current owner Kristin).

One of the painted ceiling tiles at Dino's, Las Vegas

Dino's is a great, gritty alternative to the bars on the strip.

1516 S Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89104 - (702) 382-3894
Est. 1962
Previous bars in this location: Ringside Liquors
Web site: dinoslv.com (great old photos of Dino here) - facebook
Best articles: lasvegascitylife - lasvegasweekly - vegas.com - yelp