Vegas, Baby
Las Vegas can be as tough on your beer-loving palate as it is on your wallet. The city’s culinary scene has exploded in recent years, but many bar managers have been slower than their counterparts in the kitchen to embrace a market that’s demanding quality. Beer is rarely the primary draw, and even when it is, slots and video poker are rarely absent. Architecture is sprawling, oversized and over the top, and there’s little authentic culture to speak of—not for your touristy, conventioneering eyes, anyway. Still, in this desert wasteland, there are evangelists spreading the gospel of good beer to the darkest corners of Sin City. So read up, and when business (or a bachelor party) comes calling, you’ll be ready.
Be sure to scratch up (or win yourself) some cab fare, because Vegas’ best brewpubs lie a few miles outside the Strip/downtown/convention center nexus. Big Dog’s Draft House, the Chicago Brewing Company and Tenaya Creek are all more than worthy and provide welcome respite from the city center’s oppressive glitz.
There’s also good drinking to be found around the Strip’s temples of greed, if you know where to look. The Yard House’s 160 taps, right next to the airport, provide the most welcoming welcome you’ll find anywhere. Some of the big casinos are also starting to see the light: Mandalay Bay, New York New York, and Planet Hollywood all house eminently solid beer bars. A block off the Strip, the Ellis Island Casino mixes old-school Vegas atmosphere with some surprising house-brewed beers. And if you’re willing to make the two-mile trek to the UNLV campus, there are 750 bottles waiting to reward you, at the Freakin’ Frog.
Chicago Brewing Company
This warehouse on the western edge of town is overflowing with beery goodness. Pizzas and filet mignon sliders pair beautifully with a rock-solid Belgian Dubbel, IPA or Irish Stout. CBC also maintains a small taproom inside the Four Queens casino downtown.
Sin City Brewing Company
The flagship location of Vegas’ signature microbrewery speaks volumes about the city’s brewing culture: Sin City is less a beer bar than a mall storefront pouring beers in the shadow of Planet Hollywood. Their Stout and Amber shouldn’t be missed.
Big Dog’s Draft House
Big Dog’s Draft House, nestled in the northwest corner of town, is ground zero for Las Vegas’ Packers fan base. Non-Cheeseheads will find a great Doppel Weizenbock, Strong Scotch Ale, Barleywine and Double IPA.
Triple 7 Restaurant and Brewery
The Main Street Station Casino’s house brewery is one of the most pleasantly surprising finds in downtown Vegas. Brews range from Porters, Barleywines and Double IPAs to Belgian IPAs, Mango Cream Ales and Black Cherry Stouts.
Tenaya Creek Brewery
This brewpub’s distance from the strip ensures that the only conventioneers you’ll bump into are rabid beer geeks—the only kind of conventioneers worth your time, anyway.
Gordon Biersch
Gordon Biersch’s Vegas incarnation, sandwiched between the Strip and the UNLV campus, features the chain’s reliably solid pub grub and specialty pints. Seasonals reign triumphant here.
Barley’s Casino and Brewing Company
A casino and brewery. As in, walk in, weave through rows of slots, pass the sportsbook and grab a stool near the taps. Portland, Ore., it ain’t.
Ellis Island Casino and Brewing Company
Chances of finding Steve Wynn at the bar of this dark, old-school brewery/casino hybrid? Zero. Chances of sucking down some solid, dirt-cheap beers and enjoying a $6.99 off-the-menu steak special? Those odds look good.
Rosemary’s Restaurant [closed]
Sitting in the middle of a strip mall, next to a discount clothing shop, Rosemary’s pairs soulful fine dining with a serious beer menu. Only in Vegas.
Freakin’ Frog [closed]
Billed as the largest beer selection in the West, the Freakin’ Frog advertises a bottled stock of 750 beers. Plus 15 taps—for, you know, variety’s sake.
Burger Bar at Mandalay Place
Again, a bar in a shopping mall—this one runs between Mandalay Bay and the Luxor—but capitalism isn’t exactly a stranger to this town, is it? And besides, Burger Bar’s one of the best, with management committed to good beer and absolutely killer burgers.
Crown and Anchor
This British pub and restaurant on the outskirts of the UNLV campus serves proper pints and authentic fare (bangers, Cornish pasties, meat pies and curry) to a motley mixture of locals, students and expat gamblers.
Pour 24
Pour 24 isn’t the most spacious bar, but it has, by far, the best beer selection on the Strip. Two dozen taps, two dozen bottles, open 24 hours a day.
Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas
No, you’re not in Munich. Or even Disney. You’re very, very much in Vegas. But if you can ooo and ah at the desert atop a fake Eiffel Tower, you can certainly down some tasty sausages and a couple liters of Hofbrau and enjoy yourself just fine.
BJ’s
Great pizzas and fresh beers in Summerlin, on the western edge of town. Across the street from the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa, and not much else.
Yard House
A new beer bar on the extreme southern end of the Strip, the Yard House serves yards. Lots of them. From nearly 160 taps, to be exact. ■
