From the moment you walk in, you feel like you’ve been there before. You look around and spot your favorite barstool, your favorite table by the stage. But Vic’s Las Vegas, a stylish, 8,560-square-foot jazz club and Italian restaurant named for Downtown’s iconic neon cowboy, opened just this month adjacent to the Smith Center in Symphony Park. It only feels like it’s been here the whole time.
And that, says Porchlight Hospitality CEO Chris Lowden, is by design.
“I wanted this place to have that 1970s vibe, but contemporary,” he says. “The initial image in my brain was my dad’s office at the Hacienda in the early 70s—lots of suede, walnut, mirrors, brushed brass.”
Vic’s crisp half roasted chicken
The Lowden family have strong Nevada roots. Paul Lowden Sr. once owned the Sahara and Hacienda casinos, built the casino now known as Santa Fe Station, and is a musician and bandleader. His wife, Sue Lowden, is a former Nevada state senator. Their son Chris, a professional stock car driver, owns popular Town Square spot Stoney’s Rockin’ Country. Vic’s lounge, a cozy space with long couches and handsome fire features, is chockablock with Southern Nevada history—photos of the Lowdens with luminaries such as Ray Charles and Liberace, a keno board rescued from Laughlin’s Pioneer Hotel & Gambling Hall and even some original “one-armed bandit” slot machines.
Vic’s main room is a warm, wood-paneled midcentury space. It’s anchored by a low stage with tables radiating outward from it, and the walls are lined with dark brown, u-shaped banquettes. Sound-dampening touches are artfully concealed; the glass wall that separates the main room from the bar area is gently sloped to reduce slapback, and even the tabletops are lightly padded, to mitigate the noise made by plates and glasses being set down.
National headliners will be peppered into Vic’s live entertainment mix—drummer and vibraphonist Chuck Redd played last week with his quartet—but on most nights, the stage will feature players from the Las Vegas Academy’s acclaimed jazz studies program, headed by Pat Bowen. Chris Lowden, who’d watched the students perform a couple nights before, was blown away by their skill: “Frankly, they’re better than most professionals.”
“They didn’t know they were kids,” adds Porchlight vice president Paul Lowden IV.
What all that means is that you can walk into Vic’s, order a round of drinks and enjoy some great jazz. If you’re not feeling up to sitting in the main room, the bar area, with its 15 gaming machines, is comfortable and smoke-free. As the evening continues, you might order some dishes from chef Miguel Magana’s kitchen—perhaps the Italian sausage, pickled peppers and onion-laden Noble Pig sandwich, or the Shrimp Fra Diavolo, sauteed in olive oil and sofrito and served in a pomodoro sauce over spaghetti.
Vic’s neatly embodies one of the original ideas that built Las Vegas—that nightlife shouldn’t be sequestered away behind speakeasy doors and velvet ropes, or patterned after what you might find in other cities. It’s a jazz club built by musicians for musicians, inside a restaurant built by Las Vegans for Las Vegans.
“If we started out two years ago and said, ‘Okay, we got to design this place for profit,’ then it probably wouldn’t have turned out like this. Instead, it was, ‘Let’s design this for my parents,’” he says. “My parents are such serious, straight jazz fans, that it makes all the sense in the world.”
VIC’S LAS VEGAS 355 Promenade Place, vicslasvegas.com. Daily, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5 p.m.-midnight; lounge and bar 11 a.m.-2 a.m.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
