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?”