We started the night off right by heading over to Stake Out. Stake Out was a sweet, low-key hole-in-the-wall type bar with low lighting, comfy booths and rockin' tunes. A great place to start the night off, the music was the perfect volume to rock out to while being able to chill and have an actual conversation at your table. Almost all the music was 80's which totally rocked our world and we were singing along in no time. We both ordered a shot and a drink for around $5 to get started and decided to share the nachos. The nachos, slathered in "nacho" cheese and salsa w/ a side of sour cream and jalapenos was pretty good for $5, although we both seriously wondered if we would be regretting this later.
One item of interest that many people don't know if you're not a Vegas local, is that many/most bars in Vegas still turn a blind eye if you smoke inside despite passing the no smoking laws. Even if there are no ashtrays in sight, you can ask the waitress for a "smoking receptacle" and they will bring you something like an old tin Altoid box, which would look something like this:
Of course should anyone come into the bar that enforced these laws, the wait staff will deny that they were aware that you were smoking and said receptacle belongs to the patron.
We also heard about a so-called sex machine in the womens bathroom at Stake Out. Yvonne went to use the restroom and was checking this machine out. A woman in the bathroom noticed her looking at it and asked her if she's ever gotten anything out of this machine before.
When Yvonne answered in the negative, the woman then said she had to pee really bad, but she would be right back and told Yvonne not to go anywhere, b/c she wanted to buy her some items out of this machine. The woman then returned with a fist full of quarters and purchased 1 Pandora's Box - A Grab Bag of Sexy Surprises with "12 Different", and 1 Exciting and Breathtaking Guide to Modern Intimacy with 12 Illustrated Erotic Sensual Positions. This is a little preview of what you can expect from this machine:
A few highlights would have to be Working in the Garden, Pleasure My Love, the Unicycle, and the Bicycle Pump.
We ended up hanging out at Stake Out for quite a while, and after about 3-4 drinks each we were laughing so hard we were crying, talking about our experiences with pot when we were younger. For example, the time I went to a movie with 2 friends and as we passed the "Russell" exit off the 215, and we couldn't, for the life of us, figure out who the heck Russell Stiltskin was. As Yvonne and I were talking about this, Russell Stover was on the T.V. on a late night talk show. We later realized it wasn't Russell Stover, But this guy:
All in all a cool, chill bar! Damage: $30 tab for nachos, and about 2 shots and 3 drinks each.
Our next location was The Freakin' Frog. This bar had a cozy feel w/ a wooden bar and wooden floors. The bartenders were awesome. Just the type of place where they make you feel like you're at home. They were super knowledgeable about all the different beer and whiskey. We each ordered a Lindemans Framboise Lambic Belgian Raspberry Beer, which we've heard was bomb. At $9 a beer, they were, we both agreed, totally delicious and worth it.
After hanging at the bar for a few minutes, we wandered up in the Whiskey Attic. Up in the Attic there were a TON of bottles of Whiskey, Scotch, and Bourbon lined up along the shelves. One of the largest collections in the world, to be exact.
After hanging at the bar for a few minutes, we wandered up in the Whiskey Attic. Up in the Attic there were a TON of bottles of Whiskey, Scotch, and Bourbon lined up along the shelves. One of the largest collections in the world, to be exact.
The bartender, Scott was really educated and informative. Up in the attic we met Ramon, who peaked our interest, when he ordered a $22 shot of bourbon and went through an extensive process of tasting and sipping the liquor. Here's a photo of Ramon and his shot from the bottle of bourbon he was drinking:
We asked Scott, the bartender, if he could pick out one of his favorite bottles for us. He showed us this one:
It's a $28 year old Kentucky bourbon called Willett and a shot of it retails for around $100/a shot. There were only 115 bottles made and this bottle was number 35. Scott also showed us a bottle of Whiskey aged since the 1930's and the shots went up to $400/each!
Here's a few more random photos of us in Whiskey Attic:
We took our time socializing and sipping our $9 beers. We left the Freakin' Frog around 12:30am.
Total tab: $18 +tip for two Raspberry Beers.
Next destination: Champagnes Cafe. As soon as we pulled into Champagnes parking lot we saw the most incredible sight. At first we thought it was "Ecto-1" or the Ghostbusters car. As we walked up to it, this is what we saw:
Yvonne and I made a little bet. We had to each guess who the car belonged to once we got inside. The loser had to go up to the owner of the car, or "Grandpa Vampire" and ask for his autograph and get a photo taken with him. Yvonne was totally correct and chose the right dude w/in about 1 minute. It took me like 5 minutes to look around the bar, and I chose a goth looking dude with a devil lock and a hat sitting at the bar. FAIL. My roommate, Fred, was at the bar w/ his girlfriend who is a bartender there. We asked if she knew who the car belonged to and Yvonne was right. So I sucked it up and went up to him, and asked him enthusiastically if he was Grandpa Vampire, and if I could have his autograph! We took a photo, but for some reason it didn't save onto the camera!
Grandpa asked us if we wanted to see the inside of his car. So we went outside and checked it out! Here's what we saw:
Grandpa Vampire was definitely one of the main characters we met throughout the evening. He performs weddings, vampire tours, and makes appearances at parties. Here's the business card we got from him, complete w/ his autograph and photos of him in complete makeup on the back:
..and while we were outside, Grandpa Vampire (I kept calling him Grandpa Monster) told us his personal philosophy:
Inside, the karaoke was rockin'! Mostly locals, kicking back drinking and taking turns on the stage. Everyone at Champagnes was totally fun, strangers talking to strangers and dancing, singing along, heckling, each one of us a character. I got up and sang "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N Roses right after a group of guys signed up one of their friends to sing an AC/DC song. The dude had no idea what he was gonna sing, but he freakin' ROCKED the shit outta "Dirty Deeds". It was kinda hard to follow up that one! However, Sweet Child O'Mine must have been meaningful for at least one bar patron that evening. After I got offstage this woman that had been sitting at the end of the bar all night like the living dead playing video poker all alone got up, and hugged me. She very sincerely looked me right in the eyes and said, "Thank you. You don't know how much that meant to me" and hugged me again and then went back to playing her video poker! Yvonne got up after me and sang "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes. Grandpa Vampire got up and sang New York, New York.
We closed down the bar that night with karaoke ending around 2:45am. The six of us remaining sang the last song of the night together as a group onstage which was Bohemian Rhapsody. At the end, we held hands, standing across the stage, arms high up in the air and took a few bows as a group to the other six people still drinking in the bar saying "Thank you, thank you, you're too kind." I may have gone a little far when I asked the rest of the group to file off stage so I could take my final bow alone.
Yvonne had a #1 fan, this dude with long hair that was totally headbanging all night up front. As we were leaving he put his arms around us and made us promise him one thing. He said, "Promise me....that you'll never stop singing. Singing makes the world go 'round."
...and on that note, that was end of the night!
Drinks were about $4/each at Champagnes, I think we had about 2 drinks each for total of around $16 + tip. We left Champagnes around 2:30-3:00am
Money spent: About $32/each
Bars hit: 3
Time Out: from 9pm to 3am
Buzz for the night: Kept it strong
Overall, awesome night!
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