1. Sounds of Silence
Vegas-scene fixture Dirk Vermin may have painted the Fiji Mermaid mural on the wall immediately to the entrance's left, and his band, The Vermin, may haunt the thrash-and-trash-stocked jukebox on the back wall. But you'll never see his punk three-piece remove articles of clothing at the East Coast location. The bar is not a "venue," so live bands aren't licensed to throw down five nights a week.
2. The Crowd
Greasers, Hollywood scum, rockabilly bandits and corporate marauders in three-piece suits intermingle in Vegas' boxy expanse. Double Down NY plays host to more traditional Lower East Side types: junior literary execs, freelance graphic designers, unpublished poets and others composing the City's hipsters-in-denial population.
3. Nose Candy
4640 Paradise typically reeks of hops, hair gel, hormones, tobacco and lube (in a good way). New York's stricter-than-Vegas smoking ban puts the nix on any atmospheric haze of cigarette exhaust. A small wooden patio out back offers nicotine fiends respite, but it's flanked by apartments and other businesses' back walls. Thus there's no view, and patrons must keep revelry in check.
4. Puritanism!
The framed bands-and-derby-girls posters are the same. Stains discolor the pool table. Sharpie scribbles defile the bathroom walls. Weird-ass videos drone overhead. Yet the video-poker consoles are conspicuously absent, and unlike the 24-hour booze-athon that is the Vegas version, the DDE shutters its doors from 4 a.m. to noon. Then again, the two-for-one happy hour (noon to 7 p.m.) provides a longer timespan for twice the drunkenness.