Culture

Beloved dive bar Davy’s Locker has been sold, and change is coming

Image
Davy’s Locker at Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn Road in Las Vegas.
Photo: Steve Marcus

Davy’s Locker, the beloved dive bar on the corner of Desert Inn and Maryland, has been sold, according to the bar’s current owner Cindy Slight. The bar will be closed for remodeling starting March 31. Slight wouldn’t disclose the spot’s new owners, but she says the bar will keep the Davy’s Locker name.

“I will miss it very much,” says Slight, who'd been the sole owner of the local pub since 2010. “It’s just an every-day, all-day-long kind of job for one person. I will miss it very much, but I look forward to the grand reopening and to be able to come in as a customer. I look forward to it continuing on and on and on.”

Late World Boxing Hall of Fame referee Davey Pearl, who oversaw the famous 1978 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks at the Las Vegas Hilton, originally owned the bar. And while the opening date of Davy’s Locker is unknown, the building was built in 1968, according to public record.

“A lot of people don’t know how important [Pearl] was to Las Vegas. He’s in the Boxing Hall of Fame … he ref’ed some very famous fights. I’m happy that the bar is going to stay open and stay under Davy’s Locker,” Slight says. A former UNLV assistant athletic director, Pearl is also rumored to have influenced Jerry Tarkanian into coaching UNLV’s Runnin’ Rebels basketball team.

Located in a small, run-down strip mall, Davy’s Locker was far more welcoming than its storefront would lead customers to believe, and over the years it became known for its cheap drinks and hospitable bartenders—not to mention its iconic neon sign beckoning adventurous (read: not easily frightened away) drinkers. More recently, the bar started hosting trivia and open mic nights, as well as dance events with left-of-the-dial DJs spinning underground soul, frat-rock and French pop.

Bartender Chris Tadifa, who originally posted on Facebook about the bar’s closure on March 23, has worked at the bar for the past five years and was a customer for nearly 11. “I knew about Davy’s since I was in high school,” Tadifa says. “The history of Davy’s alone, that’s the reason why I’m still drawn to it. It became a family … I’d be totally sad if it did change. I don’t want it to be like Dotty’s. I just want to keep something Old Vegas in that area.”

As for the fish sign, Slight says she believes the new owners intend on keeping it, but if they don’t she would like it to go to the Neon Museum. And although she’ll miss the bar, she’s excited about the future. “I’ve been in here for many years, seven days a week,” Slight says. “I’m ready to dream a new dream.”

Share
Photo of Leslie Ventura

Leslie Ventura

Get more Leslie Ventura
Top of Story