50 things we bet you didn’t know about Las Vegas’ nightclubs:

June 28, 2007

A CONFOUNDING COMPENDIUM OF NIGHTLIFE ARCANA!

By: Xania Woodman, Justin Jimenez and Jack Colton

You are a savvy nightlife aficionado. We know that you know that Mix, Foundation Room, Moon and Voodoo are all rooftop clubs. We’re willing to bet that you know Rumjungle serves rum; Tangerine and Forty Deuce both offer burlesque; and we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what an “ultralounge” is. But we’re also willing to bet there’s a lot about our Vegas party palaces that you may not have known. These are our 50 favorite little-known gems.

1. According to a man who says he had a paper route that included Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street, the space that Beauty Bar now occupies has been a check-cashing location and also, 45 years ago, was an Orange Julius.

2. A signature element of Beauty Bar, the vintage bonnet hair-dryers had to be detached from the backs of the chairs as people kept getting a little rough with them after a few drinks. The “Salon of Beauty” sign that hangs outside came from a salon in Trenton, New Jersey.

3. Among the many things left behind at Tabu after closing, the staff has found condoms, ladies’ underwear, shoes, blow-up dolls and “chicken cutlets.” (Guys, these are the plastic bra inserts that you are not supposed to know about or see.)

4. Just in case you have a little extra change lying around, Tryst sells a Millennium Louis Roederer Cristal jeroboam (four bottles of bubbly) for $50,000.

5. Cherry’s signature cherry statue is said to be worth over half a million dollars and was designed by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, internationally renowned for his handbags and other products for the Louis Vuitton fashion house. The statue has since been moved behind the scenes to prevent damage from overly enthusiastic club-goers.

6. If you ever find yourself inside Mist and suddenly hear the record skip, don’t be too quick to blame the DJ. Every guest host gets to DJ for exactly 15 minutes, and if they do not know how to, the real DJ teaches them.

7. Prior to his career in food and beverage and nightlife, Drai’s owner Victor Drai lived a whole other life as a Hollywood movie producer in the ’80s and early ’90s, producing The Man With One Red Shoe, The Woman in Red, and Weekend at Bernie’s and its sequel. In the Weekend At Bernie’s films, Bernie’s corpse wears a pair of signature black sunglasses throughout the film; they belonged to Drai.

8. Empire Ballroom was known as the Roxbury for two brief months at the end of 1995, before Utopia was born in February 1996; prior to that, it was known as the Metz in 1989. Utopia was home to Spiritworld’s John Huntington and Damien Sanders’ first-ever Pimp N’ Ho event in Las Vegas on Halloween 1996.

9. Empire Ballroom’s sound system was once the award-winning sound system at Ice Las Vegas.

10. Strike! The very first 300 game bowled at Lucky Strike Lanes at the Rio was accomplished on the high-end lanes’ opening night by John Madson, a porter at Pure.

11. The Crystal Method’s “Busy Child” video from the Vegas album was filmed at Utopia.

12. The statue of the Jain god Mahavir that greets you when you get off the elevators at the Foundation Room was originally destined to be placed in a temple in Asia, but had a tragic crack in the marble and was rejected.

13. The acrylic window in the Ghostbar deck floor is tested and replaced annually; it can withstand 7,500 pounds at its center.

14. The space that has been home to the Downtown Cocktail Room since it opened in January was formerly a themed wedding chapel that closed circa 1997. While bringing the building up to code, excavation revealed old wooden water lines. Obviously, the DCR is not making use of them.

15. All of the artwork inside the Downtown Cocktail Room was done by local artists, including Steven Spann’s reproduction of Picasso’s “Trois Femmes,” which hangs behind the bar. The “Trois Femmes” painting was originally meant to be the namesake of the lounge, but the possibility of confusion and mispronunciation of the name led owner Michael Cornthwaite to opt for the current name instead.

16. The new Asia Nightlife & Dining boasts that it has in Steven Geddes the only master sommelier in world who is also a working chef (that they know of).

17. If you are too lazy to go to the DMV, but still want to take advantage of the promotions that OPM offers to local residents, simply bring in a utility bill and they will accept it as proof of residency. Although if it says “CUT-OFF NOTICE” in big red letters, your “baller” status might suddenly come into question.

18. The giant martini glass inside the doorway at Seamless features a “straw” that feeds hot water into the glass whenever a topless female sits in it.

19. The moon that hangs over the DJ over the Studio 54 dance floor once hung in the original Studio 54 in New York City, which was open from 1977 to 1986.

20. Rumjungle’s Rum Wall consists of more then 200 bottles from over 20 countries, ranging from Jamaica to Canada. The only “Rummeliers” in the city are always on hand enticing guests to indulge, so you will never have to ask, “Why is the rum gone?”

21. Suspended over Rumjungle’s dining room are four “rain chandeliers” made of aircraft wire and small metal tubes that form a 10-foot-diameter cylinder, up-lit from the lower rim. At night, go-go dancers populate the cages.

22. The Voodoo Lounge sells an average of 150 Witchdoctors a day - that is $1.5 million in revenue annually. Rich little witches.

23. The staircase connecting Voodoo’s patios on floors 50 and 51 weighs 40 tons. The symbols on the staircase stand for money, power and success.

24. Evergreen Productions, a company out of New York City that works on Broadway shows, helped Polly Esther’s build its fleet of themed replica transportation. The Back to the Future DeLorean was actually found on eBay from upstate New York, and the VW Bug and Partridge Family Bus were found in a junkyard in Pennsylvania. Both the Purple Rain motorcycle and OJ’s white Bronco were found in New York City.

25. When The Red Room Saloon opened, owners Rick Barcode and Michael Taing never received keys. It is touted as the only 24/7 flair bar in the world.

26. The Red Room Saloon was not the original name of the flair hotspot. When it opened as the Red Rock Room the same month as a well-known Station Casino, the owners’ lawyers suggested a name change, and they wisely dropped the Rock.

27. Rocks to be rolled: The slate wall outside of Revolution was all carved in one piece from a mountainside in Quebec; it was numbered on the back, disassembled, shipped and reassembled here.

28. There are more than 30,000 pieces of dichroic glass on Revolution’s ceiling, which is a visual interpretation of the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

29. MIT scholars exclusively developed Revolution’s seven interactive tables, which feature new technology, for Cirque du Soleil. Each table cost $150,000.

30. Fire and ice. The flame effect system at Rain uses natural gas. In five and a half years it has burned 148,900 cubic feet of gas. It also goes through about 450 gallons of fog fluid each year. The fluid is manufactured in Denmark and is shipped here in 200-liter druns.

31. The lighting truss at Rain weighs more than 2.5 tons and moves at 32 feet per minute. It originally moved at 64 feet per minute but had to be slowed because it was destroying the lighting fixtures from pure inertia. If the trussing in Rain is off-position by more than five centimeters, the flame effect system is disabled. Phew!

32. The water system in Rain uses the same pump fire trucks use to put out burning skyscrapers.

33. Thirsty? Pure reports that it goes through an average of 700 bottles a night, and Coyote Ugly reports serving up to 100 gallons od daiquiri each day.

34. The 14,000-square-foot terrace at Pure was only accidentally discovered after walking the space; it was originally used to house air-conditioning and refrigeration units. Pure Management Group relocated all of the units at a cost of more than a million dollars.

35. The projected signage inside The Rockhouse reads: “Our bartenders do it on the first date, tip well.” According to head honcho Jonathan Fine, it’s mostly true. “To be honest, you don’t even have to take them on a date.”

36. In the creation of Jet nightclub, Light Group spent an estimated $1 million for a lighting and sound system that includes the one-of-kind LED ceiling panels that are seen throughout the main room.

37. Whether they are stolen, hidden, or simply thrown away, Jet replaces an average of 48 unbreakable plastic drink glasses each night the club is open.

38. We know celebrities are known for their occasional unusual requests, and while our lips are sealed as to whom it was for, Jet nightclub claims that the strangest one thus far has been, “Hey, can you get me a pair of boxers?” We’re guessing this actor was in a rush and dressed rather Spartan that evening.

39. You can set your watch to it. To open or close Moon’s retractable ceiling takes exactly 91 seconds.

40. The Playboy Club’s ceiling features four limited-edition Baccarat Crystal chandeliers, which cost a staggering $250,000 each. Only 10 exist in the United States, and it is rumored that heiress paris Hilton has one hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom.

41. In lieu of simply using a can of paint and calling it a day, the designers of Playboy and Moon opted to apply unique textured patterns, tiles, mirrors and mosaics to the walls of each of their venues—all of them. There isn’t a painted wall anywhere.

42. One of the most frequent visitors to Ice House Lounge is none other than Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Bartenders assure us that our fearless leader wouldn’t be caught with any other drink than a dry Bombay Sapphire martini.

43. Steve Wynn originally planned the space in Bellagio now occupied by Light as a tram platform that would conveniently transport customers to and from the Fashion Show Mall. The original escalators from tjis endeavor still provide a grand entrance into the club.

44. While club operators will argue to the death over which was the first venue to offer bottle service, it goes without question that Light was the first in Las Vegas to require customers to purchase bottle service in order to be seated in a VIP section.

45. Making way for a new nightclub venue to soon take its place, Lure Ultralounge will close for six weeks starting July 7 to be completely gutted and renovated.

46. While we aren’t sure just how wrinkly their toes get, the beautiful models inside of Tao’s decorative bathtubs are switched out every 30 minutes so that the water can be replaced with fresh warm water. Tao pours approximately 2 pounds of fresh rose petals into its infamous bathtubs each night. Then it adds approximately one or two girls.

47. If you truly want to put your money where your mouth is while at Triq nightclub, you can drink away $165 in a heartbeat by ordering the most expensive shot on the menu—Hennessey Richard.

48. Depending on how enthusiastic people get—the staff included—post-Sunday night repairs on the Parlor at Body English can run upward of $5,000 to fix holes in the walls and ceiling, broken chandeliers and blown speakers.
 
49. All the chandeliers at Body English are made of Baccarat crystal. The main chandelier is worth $250,000 and each of the surrounding chandeliers are worth $75,000. So don’t swing from them.

50. Working the velvet ropes at Rehab, official Hard Rock Tastemaker Jack Lafleur says the craziest thing anyone’s ever said, trying to talk their way in, was: “Jack and I are really tight. Can you let him know I’m here?”

Jack Colton is a contributing writer for Las Vegas Weekly, and also operates the nightlife website www.jackcolton.com. Xania Woodman is the Weekly’s nightlife editor www.thecircuitlv.com

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City of Nightlife: Glossary

August 30, 2007

by Xania Woodman

by Jack Colton

The very definition(s) of clubbing in Vegas

Nightlife has a language all its own, and not everyone is privy to the many subtleties between, say, a VIP host, a casino host, a security host and a door host. As a public service, we’ve prepared this nightlife lexicon so you’ll be ready when you encounter your first drink whore or witness a spincident. Grab a cocktail napkin and take notes—there may be a test.

Any excuse: Quite literally, any excuse to throw a party. Birthday? Throw a party. Mole removed? Throw a party. Christmas? Dick in a box.

Bachelor: A soon-to-be-married male who plans on absolutely “tearing up” Las Vegas with his five best friends from college. While not entirely foolproof, their ingenious plan of attack is to have everyone wear matching blue- and white-striped collared shirts, get drunk off Budweisers and Long Islands and hit on poor defenseless women up and down the Strip until the sun rises and they pile back into the hotel room they share. Gosh, Vegas will never be the same.

Bachelorette: A soon-to-be-married female who, while she may conduct herself in a totally professional manner in the outside world, feels it entirely necessary to use this as an opportunity to submit to her so-called friends’ entreaties to don blinking plastic penises and make a complete jackassette of herself in public. Why? Because she can.

Bar: (a) The centerpiece of everything; (b) a system of determining what one will be drinking on a given evening. Sponsored bar: The sponsor decides which liquors, wines, beers, etc. are free. Usually one particular product or brand. Hosted bar: Everything that the host in question decides (up to and often including premium, usually) is free. Open bar: Everything (except for super- and ultrapremium liquors, usually) is free. No-host bar or cash bar: Nothing is free.

Bottle service: Though none of the actual contents of the bottle has changed, through the miracle of nightlife, a $35 one-liter bottle of Grey Goose is magically transformed into $375 worth of privilege, real estate, status and sex appeal (gratuity not included).
Buzzed: When you don’t want to admit that you’re drunk, but you damn well aren’t good to drive; the midpoint between sobriety and complete obliteration. (See also: faded, getting there and feeling good.)

Celebrity: These days, everyone. Local celebrity: Everyone else.
Cocktail waitress: The one you want to take home, but never, ever will.
Crawl: To hit multiple venues in quick succession; i.e. a bar crawl, pub crawl or club crawl.
Crunk: Like drunk but waaaaay cooler. See also: Lil Jon, Yeyah!, Crunk Juice.

Dance floor: The place where even the worst of dancers feel like they are starring in a music video once they’ve got a couple of drinks in them.
Decks: A disc jockey’s turntables. See also: rig, ones and twos, wheels of steel, helm.
DJ: Obscure to some, legendary to others, the DJ holds in his or her talented (we hope) hands the ultimate control over the mood of any nightclub. He will go home with the cocktail waitress; you won’t.
Drink whore: A person whose sole purpose for the evening is to obtain free drinks from you at the bar or, even more sinisterly, to work their way into your VIP table just long enough to pour themselves and their 10 friends a drink from your bottle and disappear.
 
Drunk: The point in time when people begin asking, “You a’ight?”; when it seems like a fantastic idea to pull out your phone and text your ex; when you get the distinct feeling that the bartender is giving you the evil eye when you attempt to order your 10th Jack and Coke. “I was so drunk I looked blurry to others!”
Fashion showcase: Classed-up term for a fashion show.
Fauxdentity: An assumed name, occupation and back story created to woo strangers into bed for one-night stands under the auspices of the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” law of sexual gravitational pull. See also: bachelor, bachelorette.
Geriatric: Age is just a number, and no number is too old to keep you from passing into a nightclub. But when you get to the point in your life when even the drink whore is looking at you in disbelief, you’re geriatric.
Go-go dancer: In 8-inch fuzzy platform boots, this entertainer is responsible for setting the tone of the dance floor and for proving to the world that it is entirely okay to dance around to 50 Cent clad in a glitter-covered bikini.
Gratuity: In almost all cases, how interactions with staff members such as cocktail servers, bartenders and VIP hosts should conclude.
The grenade: Often seen in a group of fairly good-looking females, the grenade is the not-so-pretty one of the pack that an unlucky member of a group of guys is elected to pounce on—or in this instance, hit on—so the rest of the team has a chance of scoring some action.

Guest: Anyone not employed in a nightclub on a nightly basis; the most overused word in nightlife marketing. Guest host: A guest of any kind contracted for one night to lend their image to a party; celebrity hosts may also sing, models may get sloppy drunk and make out with their girlfriends; in both instances, having a cell phone handy is recommended. Guest DJ: Either a nonresident DJ or a resident DJ contracted to spin monthly who is said to be a guest anyway in the hopes that we have forgotten that he or she was here four weeks ago. Invited guests: Famous people who will most likely not be coming to an event.

Host: The guardian, the sentry and one of the three that make up the Holy Trinity of nightclub personnel—host, bartender and DJ. VIP host: Usually an independent contractor signed on to work exclusively with one nightclub to bring in a certain amount of bottle sales, a guest list and ladies. Can include the titles of junior, senior and lead hosts as well as VIP services directors and managers. Independent host: A VIP host who does not work for one particular nightclub; often found outside clubs, walking in parties or drinking in their client’s booth, hitting on their client’s girl. Casino host: Employed by a casino to attend to the needs of a gambler; often requiring VIP booths and entrances into nightclubs for a gamer. Door host: Checks ID, mans the velvet ropes; often bearer of the guest list. Security host: Usually huge in stature, black-suited and wearing an earpiece; looking for troublemakers, drunks and cat-fights. Bouncer: Old English term for a combo of security host and door host. Still found in small bars, pubs and the city of Boston.
Izod Squad: The polo shirt-wearing VIP, security and door hosts at pool parties such as Rehab.
Line: Larger clubs will very often employ a general-admission line, a guest-list line and a VIP table-reservation line. Locals and industry personalities invariably ignore all three, proceeding right to the front to be either admitted instantly or directed back into one of the aforementioned lines. See also: ego.
Line pass: The ability to skip a line and proceed directly into the belly of the beast … after paying cover; not to be confused with a comp, which is a free line pass.
The list: The guest list of comps, line passes and VIP table reservations. “I’m on the list. Don’t you know who I am?!”
Liquor: The three (at minimum) categories of booze are well, call and premium. Well: The default pour hidden behind the bar. Call: The good stuff just behind the bartender that you must ask for or call by name. Premium: Also called top-shelf for its often being located higher up in a bar display; the better stuff. Super-premium: Costs more than premium. Quality is rarely taken into consideration here so much as image. Ultra-premium: The zenith of liquor snobbery and therefore “the best.”
Local: A card-carrying (driver’s license) Las Vegas resident.
Making it rain: The act of throwing your money into the air in an effort to prove to the world that you are accomplished enough in your life that you can afford to. It is considered low-class to actually retrieve the fundage rained—plus one risks severe personal injury.

Midwesterner: The one in the club who most often goes from being incredibly reserved to bumping and grinding on the dance floor after having a measly two drinks. The oft-slurred excuse: “Hey, whathappenzinVegasstayzinVegas, baaaaaaby!”

Nightclub photographer: The one who makes his or her way through crowds of drunken revelers in order to meet their picture quota for the night—usually for a website-based company—so that the rest of us can wake up to a small glimpse of how stupid we were the night before. See also: blackmail, proof, divorce.
Opening: The commencement of business, usually initiated in stages; antonym: grand closing. Soft opening: Also called play days or friends ’n’ family days, this is an invite-only dry run for staff to perfect service. Media opening: A boozy pre-opening party where media is invited en masse; usually held from 7-9 p.m., far earlier than any nightclub would normally be open and therefore known to result in glowing reviews that say nothing of the vibe or clientele of the real nightclub. Grand opening: The real deal, when the club allegedly opens to the public; usually so closely guarded an event the public can’t get in, just lots and lots of celebs. The public might get to go the second night.

Photog: Shortened industry jargon for photographer; lets the people around you know that you are the shit. Period.
Premier: A masculine adjective indicating the best-ranked, the top-notch; in fact, better than everyone else’s version of the exact same promotion or idea simply because they say so; often employed in fliers and press releases. “Yet another example of Las Vegas’ white-hot status as the nation’s premier nightlife destination.” (Often used incorrectly by promoters, premiere with an E means “first,” or “debut.”)

Promoter: One whose sole purpose in life is to tell us where we should be partying in the coming days. A promoter works long hours, isn’t afraid to talk to anyone and is responsible for passing out more UV-coated fliers than anyone this side of the Rockies.
Real estate: A VIP booth or table; what you are really paying for when you buy bottle service. Also, standing room at the bar. “I’ll buy the first round if you’ll look around for some real estate.”

Scenester: One who lives and dies by the nightlife circuit; in a week, present at the clubs more often than absent. Known to hit upward of three parties in one night, have a liver of steel and know everything about everyone in a room.
S.I.N. Night: Service Industry Night; Old English for Industry Night. Historically, casino IDs meant free entry into a club. Today, most industry nights accept local ID, operating under the assumption that if you are a local you must work in the industry somehow.
Spincident: (a) When the DJ has recklessly slammed two conflicting songs into one another; see also: train wreck; (b) when a DJ plays the entirely wrong song for a particular moment or crowd, like Lionel Richie’s “Still” in the main room of Jet on a Saturday night.
Surprise guest performer: Club speak for “We’re still working out the contract details but the promoters needed to get the flier to the printer.”
Team Dude: Three or more males with matching hairstyles, cocky attitudes, collared shirts and a serious plan of attack for getting laid. See also: bachelor.
Tippery: Not quite a tip, but not quite a bribe.
Velvet rope: The not-so-imaginary line that ultimately separates you from the action.
VIP: Overused term evoking the illusion of being more important than the next guy. VIP for some is simply not having to wait in line; for others, nothing less than 20 bottles of Cristal to dump on the hoards of eager women hanging on their shoulder will suffice.
VIP admission/pass: Deceptive use of a once-powerful word; often used on promotional fliers and VIP passes to entice tourists to either wait in line and enjoy free or discounted entry or grant the bearer a swift entry … straight to the cash register.
Wannabe baller: The asshole wearing sunglasses inside a dark nightclub, attempting to get action by making it rain … with $20 in singles.
Wingman, wingwoman: One’s partner in crime; one who runs interference. See also: the grenade.

Jack Colton is a contributing writer for Las Vegas Weekly, and also operates the nightlife website www.jackcolton.com. Xania Woodman is the Weekly’s nightlife editor www.thecircuitlv.com

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