Nightlife

SLS tests a new summer party with Bazaar on the Roof

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Photo: SLS Las Vegas / Courtesy
Jason R. Latham

It’s risky business hosting an outdoor event on one of the hottest nights of the year (so far), but Las Vegans seemingly have no qualms about the heat when they’re hungry. How else to explain the blazer-wearing fellow standing next to a pig roaster at SLS’s first Bazaar on the Roof pool party?

Featuring a greatest hits menu from Bazaar Meat by José Andrés and neatly arranged around the resort’s third-floor Retro Pool, the June 22 micro food and drink festival proved that poolside parties in Las Vegas can be more than just a big-name DJ and indulgent bottle presentations.

“We wanted to put on our own little homage to what we do,” explains Bazaar Meat general manager Christopher Bugeya. “Really, everyone who thinks about Bazaar thinks about open flame and fire.”

It’s true, that sweet, smoky smell is inescapable if you’ve ever trekked to the restaurant off the SLS casino floor, and though the scent evaporates much faster in the outdoors, the flavor was tempting enough to draw lines of eager patrons getting their fill for a $75 all-you-can-eat-and-drink ticket.

While the kickoff event didn’t feature an actual whole pig roast (the suckling pig was pre-sliced), guests repeatedly came back for servings of stuffed piquillo peppers, albondigas and piping hot paella.

“Our hope is that we can make this, at the very least, into an annual event,” Bugeya says. “If this is a success we’re definitely planning on growing it and moving it out to the larger [Foxtail] pool.”

Upgrading the venue is the next logical step if Bazaar on the Roof gets a sequel. The secluded Retro Pool has a capacity of about 350 people, according to Bugeya. That means long lines at the half-dozen serving stations on one side of the pool and—with daybeds and recliners removed to make room—fewer places to have a seat or mingle with friends.

But for a test run, the event pushed all the right buttons: bite-sized signature dishes in an Instagram-worthy setting at a price that seems generous for a Friday night in Las Vegas. That’s worthy of another taste.

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