Aces & Ales owners Ryan Johnson and Keri Kelli first met at Las Vegas’ now-defunct Pink E’s pool hall sometime in the late ’90s, where they fostered a friendship over a mutual love of craft beer and rock music.
Kelli, an active guitarist known for playing with the likes of Alice Cooper and Night Ranger, and Johnson, a career ticket broker and founder of Rebel Tickets, proceeded to launch the first Aces & Ales gastropub in 2009, followed by a second in 2013. All the while, they dreamed of someday adding their own brewery to the mix.
Evolve Brewing’s Wisconsin cheese curds
More than a decade later, as Evolve Brewing at The Bend gears up to host its first anniversary celebration on January 31, the pair takes great pride in the legacy they’ve built in the Valley.
“We didn’t know anything about the bar or restaurant business when we first started, we just took a leap of faith because we wanted to bring great beer to Las Vegas,” Kelli says. “Here we are 17 years later, and it’s still so rewarding to know people are enjoying it.”
Even on a seemingly low-key Tuesday night with no marquee sports matchups playing, Evolve’s sleek and cozy 8,000-square-foot taproom is bustling with patrons sampling two dozen beers from the mind of head brewer Josh Kunzli, who took up the gig after several years of cutting his teeth at microbreweries in Austin, Texas, and Chicago.
His handiwork runs the gamut from IPAs like In Juice We Trust—a citrus-laced New England hazy-style triple-hopper—to potent stouts like Caffeine and Chaos, the result of a collaboration with Mothership Coffee Roasters that channels the latter’s Ballast Espresso blend for a creamy, malty sip.
Elevated by a playlist blending ’80s hits with more contemporary jams, I dig a little deeper with heavy hitters like the Dark Arts Peanut Butter and Coffee, a bold and flavorful 11% ABV pastry stout, or The Crushed Souls of Our Enemies, a satisfyingly bitter West Coast Black IPA created in partnership with Stone Brewing founder and musician Greg Koch.
The beers alone are worth the trip to The Bend, but it wouldn’t be complete without a robust scratch kitchen menu designed by local chef Krystal Meza. My personal favorite is the prime rib French dip ($23), which comes with a delectable pairing of au jus and a bangin’ basil horseradish sauce and pairs well with some Wisconsin cheese curds ($14) and deep-fried jalapeño bacon bombs ($15).
Evolve Brewing
Over some hand-tossed California-style pizza, Johnson and I talk sports and music until he has to head out to catch a show on the Strip. He offers me a growler to go (yes, please), noting that the goal for Evolve’s second year is to expand its brews to more than 100 bars across the Valley.
And while there’s still plenty of potential left to tap, Johnson’s approach to its continued growth remains firmly grounded in the fundamentals.
“People say we’re kind of the OGs of craft beer in this town, and I take great pride in having that associated with our name,” he says. “But we didn’t get into this to make millions of dollars. We did it to make good beer and offer people a great experience. That’s always going to be the most important thing to me.”
EVOLVE BREWING 8680 W. Sunset Road #100, 725-735-5663, evolvebrew.com. Monday & Tuesday, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.; Wednesday & Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
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