With the simple addition of two new venues in the last 18 months, the Venetian and Palazzo resorts have accomplished a lot in changing the vibe in their casino spaces and transforming into a cocktail culture hotbed. Coming soon to the Palazzo to complement those venues is Electra Cocktail Club, a dynamic new nightlife option.
Like the Dorsey at Venetian and Rosina at Palazzo, Electra was conceptualized by thinking beyond the creation of a new Las Vegas Strip casino bar and lounge.
“It stems from the vision we had three years ago when we took stock of where things were going in nightlife and felt there was a void in the market for smaller-scale venues,” says Patrick Lang, vice president of global nightlife and restaurant development for Las Vegas Sands, which operates the twin Strip resorts. “We saw customers coming to Vegas and getting left behind because they didn’t want to stand in line and wait to [go to a club] and pay thousands of dollars for their own space and yet not having the best experience or the best cocktail. It was about looking for more upscale and intimate but fun venues where you can have a more sophisticated experience. That’s the idea behind these three bars.”
Sands collaborated with New York City nightclub and bar fixtures David Rabin and Sam Ross to open the Dorsey in December 2016 and the smaller Rosina a year later. Electra, located just off Palazzo’s lobby, will have 127 seats and similar sophisticated vibes when it arrives in late August. A grand opening is planned for September 7.
“Cocktail culture has really caught on in Las Vegas recently but we also take what we see in other major, trend-setting markets globally to establish ourselves as a bit of a cocktail hub,” Lang says. “We want to create bars and venues and experiences that stand on their own, whether they’re on a casino floor in Las Vegas or dropped on a street corner in Hong Kong or Singapore or SoHo in New York City.”
Electra is expected to continue the cocktail creativity established at its sister bars, featuring a diverse selection of spirits with a focus on rums, agricoles (French Caribbean cane sugar rums) and mezcals. Ross conceptualized the drink menu, which includes the Penichillin, a frozen play on his new classic Penicillin with lemon, ginger, honey and Scotch; and the Age of Aquarius with mezcal, passionfruit, lime and Campari.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Lang says. “If a customer comes in a Manhattan drinker or Old Fashioned drinker, we’ll talk about trying this version and these are tweaks we make and the different combinations of flavors that work and maybe get them to branch out a little bit. People come to Las Vegas to get something unique. But we want our venues to be very approachable.”
Designed by Simeone Deary Design Group under a consulting agreement with Gensler & Associates, Electra incorporates luxury materials such as brass, granite, etched metals and a chandelier with more than 1,200 points of light, as well as large plush sofas and custom leather-and-metal lounge chairs and a 40-foot-long Carrara stone mosaic and black absolute stone bar. Two design elements certain to stand out include a 40-foot digital display featuring original artwork in 70 million pixels—the highest resolution video display in Las Vegas—and a VIP corner banquette wrapped in a stack of ten 14-foot diameter bracelets with different metal finishes.
“It’s definitely an Instagrammable design feature if you’re walking by or inside the bar and we do think that will be the most desired seat in the house, this big wrap-around banquette with these gold bangle bracelets,” says Lang. “We haven’t seen it done anywhere else.”
