After a bit of indecision on Halloween night, my friend Sarah and I decided to get into the spirit of the night by stopping by Sin City Tattoo and getting her nose pierced. On the way, we passed the Freakin' Frog Beer and Wine Café on Maryland Parkway, which seemed like a good place to stop for some liquid courage before Sarah got an extra hole poked in her nose.
The Freakin' Frog is one of my favorite bars because the owner, Adam Carmer, who can usually be found behind the bar serving up drinks, knows a lot about his wares and keeps a huge beer list. Adam is more than happy to guide customers through an afternoon (or evening) of sampling new, unusual or hard-to-find brews, and he always has something new and tasty for regulars to try. He ordered us two bloody snakebites, a very smooth, friendly blend of Harp, cider and framboise, a raspberry beer Adam keeps on tap. Except for Adam, no one else at the Frog was in costume, but the atmosphere was still festive. A little self-conscious about our costumes, which were supposed to be Sugar and Spice from Batman Forever but ended up being something like overdramatic hussies (which is probably about the same thing, anyway), we quickly finished our first round, only to discover Adam already had the second round waiting. After throwing those back (they went down like juice), we headed to the piercing shop, and then on to the Hard Rock for some serious Halloween people-watching.
Though the Hard Rock's main bar-casino area is usually too packed and out of control for my taste, it seemed the perfect place to go that night. The casino floor was nuts and the Circle Bar, which is always pretty much a gauntlet, was almost impossible to navigate. After meeting a few more friends, we tried to get through to the bar but gave up when it became apparent there was no way we were all going to get through together, or with costumes intact. We waded through the crowd to the side bar, where there was a little more hope of actually getting drinks, and ended up there for about half an hour.
The most interesting thing about Halloween at the Hard Rock was the friendliness of the crowd. Most of the time around town, even off the Strip, it seems like people stay with their own groups, rarely branching out and talking to strangers, unless it's to hit on you. Without a doubt, the fact that most of the people there were in costume probably helped loosen some nerves, because everyone everywhere was stopping each other to comment on costumes, take pictures, or talk about where they were from.
After a few more hard-earned beers and lots of photos, including a guy in a full-on Pooh Bear costume and the dolls from A Nightmare Before Christmas, we hit Mr. Lucky's. The crowd in the 24-hour restaurant was rowdy and friendly, too, with people climbing over tables to take pictures (we got snapshots of our waiter who was dressed as The Matrix's Neo and a group of guys dressed as SNL's "Da Bears" guys) and toast people in clever costumes.
By the time we left Mr. Lucky's, it was almost 3 a.m. and the crowd in the Hard Rock actually seemed to have grown while we were in the restaurant. As Sarah, our friend Chris, and I waded through, a particularly drunk guy threw an arm around me (mostly to hold himself upright, I'm sure) and slurred, "That's the best costume ever … what are you?" Before I could answer, his friends came to get him, and as they half-carried him away, he yelled, "It doesn't matter what your costume is, I want to go home with you!" We laughed, took a look at the bar, which had to be up to a half-hour wait for a drink, and decided we'd had enough of the Hard Rock, for one night, at least.
Maria Phelan sets a new bar for drinking. E-mail her your favorite watering hole at [email protected]