Tag Archives: bar exam

It’s Lovely at the Top

Viewing Deck of the Stratosphere (NOT Level 107 Bar)

READ MY BAR COLUMN HERE!!!!!!!!

It took two tries to find the perfect Stratosphere bar. Most people wouldn’t give the Stratosphere that many chances. But that is why most people aren’t bar columnists.

AND HERE!!!!

Models Cavort at Level 107 Lounge atop the Stratosphere

As you can see in the above photo, the Level 107 bar was more than worth the exploration.

OR HERE!!!!

Check it out. And read my stuff. And remember, if you’re drinking, you won’t have to pay to get to the top. How’s that for a deal?

New Year, New Bars

Mericia & I at the "Friendly Bar" at Sahara Hotel & Casino

Contrary to what you may be thinking, this is not one of those cheesy New Years Resolution blog posts. As for resolutions, I haven’t gotten around to making any yet. Instead, I encourage you all to continue a vice in 2010. Vices have a much higher success rate than resolutions, thus promoting a higher self-esteem. I suggest that you choose the vice of “drinking in sundry Vegas bars.” If, for whatever reason, this vice is not available to you, then I suggest you do the next best thing and read my bar column.

My most recent bar adventure happened at a wonderful little nook in the otherwise down-trodden Sahara Hotel and Casino. Their main claim to fame is their Dollar Beer/Shot/Hot Dog menu and one really awesome bartender. This may not seem like much, but having been to many many Vegas bars, I tell you, it beats the hell out of novelty bars.

READ ALL ABOUT MY BARXPLOITS HERE!

That’s Not the Alcohol, You’re Really Seeing Mermaids

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Only in Vegas can you find a bar with real, live mermaids. And shark and stingrays and fish, lots of fish…

Read about my trip to Mermaids Lounge at the Silverton Lodge in the latest installment of my bar column for the Las Vegas Weekly.

And I took this photo from the bar. Huzzah!

More Adventures in Seedy Las Vegas Bars



Hey, who you calling seedy? That’s what the imaginary Davy of Davy’s Locker would say if he were a real human capable of reading blogs instead of a mythical pirate. In Las Vegas (as opposed to under the sea), Davy’s Locker refers to a spirited little dive bar. As an example of this spirit, note the halloween tree in the corner.

Read all about it in the latest edition of my bar column for the Las Vegas Weekly.

New Bar Exam: Rockhouse Las Vegas

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Read all about the joys of playing the booze guitar in the latest installation of my bar column for the Las Vegas Weekly. Also, could somebody in Vegas please pick up an extra copy of the Weekly for me as I am still in Texas. Thanks!


The Many Joys of Writing a Bar Column in Las Vegas

Journalist Aaron Thompson helping me research the Red Hawk nachos.

Journalist Aaron Thompson helping me research the Red Hawk nachos.

For those of you who don’t yet know, I write a bar column for the Las Vegas Weekly. The premise is simple. Every other week, I seek out the new, the weird, the unusual and the forgotten. And alternately, the popular, the ritzy and the well-trodden. I try to mix it up, going intermittently on and off the beaten path.

Here’s the best part, the editors give me a very long rope with which to hang myself. They encourage creativity, and I, in turn, thank them by testing the limits of their leniency. For example, I think my editor nearly killed me when I turned in a recent column in the form of a movie script. Read it for yourself HERE and decide if the results are worth all the grief I put my editors through.

Or you can read this week’s Bar Exam HERE. After the craziness of writing a script, my editor kindly suggested and I graciously agreed to do something a little more normal. I wrote about a nice little bar in Henderson called Red Hawk.

What do these two articles have in common? The assistance of my friend and journalist Aaron Thompson. Sadly, he’s leaving the country in a few days. Emily, my first “research assistant” moved to Texas. Now Aaron’s leaving, too. Why does Vegas have to be so dang transient? Anybody want to help me research bars in Vegas?

Not So New Bar Exam: Bill’s Gambling Hall

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I’m here today to advertise the newest installment of my bar column. Except it’s not so new, because the story came out about two weeks ago.  As I said, I’ve been busy.

In a fit of high school photo class nostalgia, I took this picture on the exterior wall of my story’s subject.

Is the symbolism too heavy?

Meh, who cares? It’s Vegas, you can get away with all sins, even those of bad writing.

Speaking of bad writing, read this wonderful example of good writing right here: Bar Exam: Bill’s Gambling Hall

Bubaloooo! New Bar Exam: Florida Cafe

This is what powers my column

This is what powers my column

Yes, folks, it’s that time again. I can’t really give you any top secret, behind-the-scenes stories from the making of this Bar Exam, because I put all the juice in the article. Nothing to see here, move along. Go directly to my story and read it.

Wait a second, there is one interesting tidbit for ya. I took the photo for the background of my Twitter page in the lobby of the Downtown LV Howard Johnson hotel on my first trip to the Florida Cafe.

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my Twitter background/Downtown LV HoJo

Behind the Bar Exam: Horse Around Bar at Circus Circus

The Famous Emily & I

The Famous Emily & I at the Horse Around Bar

People have been telling me that I have the best job on earth with my Bar Exam column for the Las Vegas Weekly. Generally, it goes like this: “What? You have to go to bars and write about them? That must be the best job on earth!”

If the job paid a million dollars a year, perhaps it would be. But since it doesn’t, I settle for the priceless joy of creative expression and tax write-offs. Sometimes, I even get to indulge myself with well-placed (if I do say so myself) Hunter S. Thompson quotes. As I did in last week’s edition of Bar Exam, which focused on Fear and Lothing in Las Vegas‘ famous Merry-Go-Round Bar.

The above photo captures my first trip to the famed bar. The famous Emily, who appears in 90% of my LV Weekly articles, is radiant in red. She is holding an empty container of pink cotton candy (popcorn not pictured).

Read it here: Horse-Around Bar at Circus Circus