An insider’s user-friendly guide to gay nightlife for the Las Vegas visitor

BY STEVE FRIESS

One of the few reasons why Las Vegas gets a bad rap among gay travelers is that the gay nightlife resembles that of a much smaller city. Just some 15 bars for a community of 2 million people that greets 40 million tourists a year? Disappointing. And the fact that not a single one of those bars is geared primarily to lesbians is especially galling.

That said, on any night of the week gay men and lesbians have plenty of choices. Those 15 bars do, after all, span a remarkable diversity of interests, from the fuzzy-sweater preppy crowd to the chaps-wearing country line dancers. And the Strip these days offers gay-friendly environs in some of the hottest nightclubs there, most notably Pure at Caesars Palace, LAX at the Luxor, Mix atop THEhotel at Mandalay Bay, and Rain at the Palms. They’re not pick-up joints, but gay groups can feel comfortable dancing and chilling together there.

Also, it ought to be mentioned that folks looking to socialize with a more professional, more local crowd would be wise to sign up for notifications of the weekly Sin City Q Socials (www.sincityqsocials.com, 702/622-4085), LGBT gatherings interesting alternative locales such as the Liberace Museum or the downtown Art Bar, for instance, rather than only at gay clubs.

First, though, a little orientation. While there’s no Castro or Village in Vegas, there are two primary off-Strip clusters of LGBT nightlife—and a whole bunch of on-offs here and there. So this guide is broken down in that manner.

1. Commercial Center

This shopping center about one mile east of the Strip off Sahara Avenue (technically 953 E. Sahara Ave, although some in this section have other addresses) is a compact, diverse center for LGBT nightlife, complete with the city’s Gay and Lesbian Community Center, four bars, Vegas’ only two bathhouses, an alternative theater, and a sex-toys shop.

Las Vegas Lounge (900 E. Karen Ave. 702/737-9350) A surprisingly large, surprisingly nice club that caters to transgender people, transvestites, and their admirers. Note that many men in the club are actually straight, both among the crossdressers, and their suitors. Video poker, dancing, shows, and video games. No cover. Open 24/7.

Spotlight Lounge (957 E Sahara Ave. 702/696-0202) The standard-bearer in Vegas for the neighborhood gay bar, the Spotlight, owned by queer elder statesman Jack Novick, who avails the place to any charity that asks and is always first in line to sponsor LGBT and HIV/AIDS causes. There’s nothing frilly about the joint; a jukebox plays shit-kicking country and rock, the air and carpet are soaked in smoke, the snaky bar is one of those places where everyone wants to chat and the beer is always cheap. The crowd tends to be older. No cover. Open 24/7.

Apollo/Entourage Spa and Health Club (953 E. Sahara Avenue, A19; 702/650-9191; www.apollospa.com) As this issue goes to press, the Apollo bathhouse, long in disrepair and poor sanitary condition, had been sold to new owners who were promising a new name, Entourage, as well as a dramatic upgrade and remodel. Once done, it sounds like it’ll be a significant improvement. No word on expected closures in anticipation. The place is located in the northwest-most corner of the Commercial Center. Non-members $25 locker or $30 room fee. Open 24 hours.

Hawks Gym (953 E. Sahara Avenue, Building 35, Suite 102; 702/731-4295; www.hawksgymlv.com) A large, popular bathhouse whose major innovation is a 1,200-foot dungeon complete with a 7-foot chain spider web and that all-important spanking bench. There’s also an aerobics and meditation room, though it’s unclear how much that or the actual gym equipment gets used. $7 for day membership, $13 for locker and towel, $23 for room. $15 for 3-month membership. Cash only.

The Male Bag Vegas (610 E. Sahara Ave., #13; 702/474-6253; www.themalebagvegas.com) Offers a variety of male clubwear, plus DVDs, lube, and sexy underwear. Open Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

The Rack (953 E Sahara #16; 702/732-7225; www.theracklv.com) The Rack, owned by the folks from Hawks, sells an extensive collection of sex-related items as well as clothes and other rainbow-clad sundries. Open 24/7.

Onyx Theater (953 E. Sahara #16 www.divinedecadence.com) This 100-seat theater has become the go-to place to screen obscure gay films and to stage plays like Torch Song Trilogy among others. Plus, dress-up showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show every first and third Saturdays!

2. The Fruit Loop

The primo bar corridor about a mile east of the Strip and a mile north of the airport is so named for its circuitous traffic pattern. The gay developers of the area started calling it that in jest, but never came up with anything else and it stuck. Despite the potential offensiveness of the moniker, even the local newspapers occasionally use it and nobody much minds.

The Buffalo (4640 Paradise Rd.; 702/733-8355) A smoky tavern for the Levi/leather crowd with video poker, pool tables, darts, and music videos. It’s popular among both tourists and locals for its low-key atmosphere, especially compared to the attitude that prevails at higher-brow bars nearby. No cover. Open 24/7.

Freezone (610 E. Naples; 702/794-2310; www.freezonelv.com) This all-purpose nightclub has a large dance floor that’s crammed on the weekends, when 10 p.m. drag shows bring out raucous crowds. Tuesday is Ladies’ Night with female go-go dancers and an 8 p.m. – 1 a.m. “Beer Bust & Lick Her Bust” event. Daily happy hours from 4-8 pm when all well drinks are $1. Video poker. Restaurant open Mon.-Wed. 6 p.m.- 2 a.m. and Thu.-Sun. 6 p.m. – 3 p.m. for late-night eats. Website offers free e-mail newsletter. No cover. Open 24/7.

Gipsy (4605 Paradise Rd.; 702/731-1919; www.gipsylasvegas.com) The grande dame of Vegas queer dance clubs, the Gipsy consists of a large central dance floor playing club favorites and showing off go-go boys; a quieter bar room is partitioned by colorful glass. Gipsy tends to attract the stand-and-pose crowd, the hotties with attitude, as well as those just looking for good dance beats. Cover charges vary, none on some nights. Free valet parking. Open daily 9 p.m. to early morning.

Piranha/81⁄2 Ultra Lounge (4633 Paradise Rd.; 702/290-3583; www.piranhalasvegas.com) With a whopping $4.3 million, the owners of Gipsy built what’s easily one of the nation’s most elegant gay bar/lounges, as evidenced by sighting of Paris Hilton, Janet Jackson, and Pamela Anderson. All that money really did buy a transformative experience, a club with plush banquets and booths, flat-panel TVs, and earth-tone stonework. The two-in-one club concept works, allowing loungers to enjoy the relative quiet and elegance of 81⁄2 while hard-driving partiers can jam to music in the huge room past the piranha-filled aquariums. Plus, there’s an outdoor patio with gas-burning fireplaces and waterfalls, depending on the season. Both open 9 p.m. nightly. Cover charges apply on certain nights and times.

Get Booked (4640 Paradise Rd # 15., 702/737-7780; www.getbooked.com) In addition to the usual fiction and non fiction books, Get Booked also carries a respectable collection of queer-related DVDs and other knick-knacks. When gay authors come to town, they read and sign here. It’s also a one-stop shop for picking up all the region’s LGBT publications, including papers from Reno, Phoenix, and L.A. Open Mon.- Thu. 10 a.m. – midnight, Fri. – Sun. 10 a.m. - 2 a.m..

3. One-off Wonders

Backdoor Lounge (1415 E. Charleston Ave.; 702/385-2018) Aimed at Latinos and located in a Hispanic neighborhood about two miles east of downtown, the bar features a large space with a pretty aquarium, a fireplace, a dance floor, and a performance stage for live entertainment. The bathrooms can get cruisy, with a peephole in one stall wall, and the place tends to draw lots of guys in cowboy hats. Video poker, pool table, dancing, and shows. Cover is $5 on Fri. and Sat. after 9 p.m. Open 24/7.

Charlie’s Las Vegas (5012 W. Arville; 702/876-1844; www.charlieslasvegas.com) A great surprise, this is a country-western bar where attitude is checked at the door and the music is low enough to converse with friends. Sun.-night $5 beer-busts and dances are a local gay community ritual, with line-dancing lessons. After, many walk over to the café at the Orleans Hotel-Casino for dinner. Thu. at 8 p.m. is busy, too. Open 24/7.

Escape Lounge (4213 W. Sahara Ave.; 702/364-1167; www.escapeloungelv.com) This locals gay sports bar about 4 miles west of the Strip offers darts, pool, and table-shuffleboard, plus food. Daily two-for-one happy hour from 5-7 a.m. and 5-7 p.m. Video poker. Open 24/7.

Flex (4371 W Charleston; 702/385-FLEX; www.flexvegas.com) A small corner club about 6 miles northwest of the Strip, Flex hops after midnight on Saturdays. The bathrooms are cruisy as the stalls have no locks. A friendly, if horny, locals crowd frequents the joint. No cover except after $5 on Sat. after midnight. Video poker. Open 24/7.

FunHog Ranch (495 E. Twain; 702/791-7001; www.funhogranchlv.com) A former straight watering hole has been commandeered by queers! It’s a little early to say how this place will fare, but its location within walking distance of the Wynn Las Vegas and the Venetian-Palazzo resorts should bring over some high-brow LGBT tourists to a place that seems geared to bears and leather boys. Open 24/7.

Goodtimes (1775 E. Tropicana Ave.; 702/736-9494: www.goodtimeslv.com) An expansive 4,500 square feet of queer-bar space right next to the Liberace Museum, itself a Mecca for gay tourists. There are stripper and drag shows now, videos, a dance floor, and a digital reader that displays the names of the barbacks each day, a nice personalizing touch. Video poker. Pool. Wireless Internet available. No cover. Open 24/7.

Las Vegas Eagle (3430 E Tropicana Ave.; 702/458-8662) Like every other city, Vegas has an Eagle, a smoky joint catering to men who love hair and leather—and the men who love them. This one’s about 3 miles east of the Fruit Loop, tucked into a strip mall that also includes a bank and several ethnic restaurants. Video poker. No cover. Open 24/7.

Snick’s Place (1402 S Third St.; 702/385-9298; www.snicksplace.com) Las Vegas’ longest-open gay bar—it turned 30 in 2006—is a cute downtown Las Vegas locals establishment with cheap drinks and a big-screen TV on which “Monday Night Football” is played by ritual. On the side of the building is an elaborate gay mural painted by the community in 2005 as part of the Las Vegas Centennial Committee’s murals program. Fair warning: The neighborhood’s a little creepy. Video poker, pool. No cover. Open 24/7.

4. Late Night Snacks

You’re out into the night and you get the munchies. What to do? Your casino-resort probably has an all-night café, but here are a few classic Vegas options:

Bootlegger Bistro (7700 Las Vegas Blvd S. 702/736-4939. $$) About a mile south of the bottom of the Strip is this gem, a 55-year-old bistro owned by the family of the former lieutenant governor, herself a former lounge act. It’s open 24 hours, has excellent Italian eats and breakfast food, and Vegas B-listers like Clint Holmes and Mamma Mia! stars show up on Mondays after 10 p.m. for a very Old-Vegasy celebrity karaoke.

In N Out (Various locations including near the Strip at 4888 Industrial Rd. 800/786-1000. $) The cult-favorite West Coast chain has a 24-hour offering right next to the Strip where the classic fresh burgers and french fries will sate you. The menu seems simple, but there’s a secret menu on their website, code words every clerk knows for a no-carb burger and extra-crispy fries. Animal style!

Peppermill Restaurant and Lounge (985 S. Las Vegas Blvd., 702/735-4177, $$) This thatched-roof greasy spoon has lost a bit of its onetime Rat Pack panache, but it’s still a 24-hour non-casino diner with swooping rainbow-colored booths right on the Strip. Penn Jillette and a colleague hatched the idea for the horrible The Aristocrats film here, but don’t hold that against it.

Las Vegas is for Lovers

One couple finds rest, relaxation, and romance in Sin City with this indulgent itinerary

BY MICHAEL ANTHONY

For my latest trip into the Desert That Never Sleeps, I decided to upgrade my typically trash-tastic weekend for a high-end holiday. Together, my partner (aka: my perpetual Plus-1) and I took in the more discerning sites, sounds, and other sensory-stimulating spectacles of LV, ones fit for romantic royalty.

Believe it or not, planning a lover’s retreat in Vegas is easier (and cheaper) than you’d think…And it’s just the ticket to reinvigorate your relationship with a little risqué spice by romantic candlelight.

THURSDAY

After a quick jumper flight from Burbank’s Bob Hope to Vegas’s McCarren International, we are ready to begin our 3-R weekend of rest, relaxation and romance…

4:35 p.m.

There is simply nothing more tranquil than a spa afternoon. And that’s why our first stop is the Grand Spa at MGM Grand (www.mgmgrand.com) for a couple’s Red Lotus Love Ritual, which can only be described as a soothing full-body experience of epically intense proportions: a two-hour tandem massage in a private spa studio that slowly gives way to a detoxification wrap and bath, tantalizing every sensory plane of your inner-chi. Both true spa-aholics at heart, we’ve never had better.

8:05 p.m.

Provocatively playful and yet electrifyingly seductive, our naughtier sides decide to take in the Cirque du Soleil’s sexiest show, Zumanity (www.zumanity.com). Here, musical and performance talents meld together to create an 18+ spectacle that draws both of us in…and turns both of us on.

9:45 p.m.

The French speak the language of love, and their romantic sensibilities most definitely come through in their food; a late night dinner at world-renowned chef Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys at Mandalay Bay (www.fleurdelyssf.com; www.mandalaybay.com) truly tantalizes every last taste bud. A five-course hand-selected menu, each plate paired with an international wine, makes for an indescribably ideal meal in our private cabana. We rave about it for months to come.

11:45 p.m.

Our honeymoon-esque Friday night concludes at miX atop THEhotel (www.mandalaybay.com). The view, quite arguably the best on the Strip, is almost as breathtaking as the chic bar’s endless selection of top shelf martinis. Truly a place to see and be seen, we watch the elite of Vegas rub elbows from the comfort of our clandestine booth.

FRIDAY

5:30 p.m.

If the view alone isn’t enough to draw us in, the mouthwatering appetizers and unique spirits of Paris Las Vegas’ Eiffel Tower Restaurant (www.eiffeltowerrestaurant.com; www.parislasvegas.com) most definitely are. At the tower’s coveted corner table, we enjoy La Vie en Rose (their to-die-for specialty drink) and indulge in the best foie gras dish we have ever had the pleasure of tasting.

7:05 p.m.

No man incites lyrical love better than Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, so my partner and I decide to take in Phantom, the Las Vegas Spectacular. We are pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully the stage trickery compliments the Broadway-worthy vocal stylings in this production of our favorite musical melodrama.

9:25 p.m.

Finding the way to our hearts via our stomach, we arrive at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas (www.bartolottas.com; www.wynnlasvegas.com) for a five-star dinner. Italian/Mediterranean at its finest, the chef-selected menu is more than the freshest of fish; it is a showman’s dinner, quite literally. An sommelier schools us in our paired wines, while the wait staff artfully de-bones multiple seafood dishes before our eyes in a classic yet innovative manner; the meal is a true culinary gem, both to taste and to experience.

11:55 p.m.

Of course, no romantic evening would be complete without a hand-in-hand stroll along the splendor that is the Bellagio fountains (www.bellagio.com) at midnight.

SATURDAY

5:05 p.m.

Reminiscent of our week in Venice, my boyfriend treats me to a Gondola Ride at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian (www.venetian.com). Our surprisingly talented gondolier invokes Bocelli as he serenades us with a beautiful aria.

6:45 p.m.

Knowing fine chocolates to be an utter aphrodisiac, we stop by the Payard Patisserie & Bistro (www.payard.com) for a classic French dessert tasting. Each indulging in our own traditional aperitif, we then move onto a three-course dessert menu, which is unlike anything we have ever tasted. Long-established chocolate recipes mixed with the finest fruits, sorbets, and exotic caramels whet, rouse, and then satiate our romantic palate.

10 p.m.

If all you need is love, then you simply cannot miss The Beatles LOVE at the Mirage (www.cirquedusoleil.com; www.mirage.com) ... and we didn’t. A Beatles fanatic, the spectacle brings my mate to tears, twice; an appreciator of the super group, I am surprised as the ensuing 90-minutes produce my absolute favorite Cirque show. Simply nothing can make more memorable our Saturday night.

SUNDAY

11:15 a.m.

A timeless breakfast in bed (one dozen roses included) brings about end of what can only be described as our second honeymoon. Our hearts heavy, not with sadness but with a newfound affection for one another, we leave Sin City…a bit sweeter than we found it.