Drinking on the strip is a rite of passage for many first-time visitors to Las Vegas. This rite involves dressing up, waiting in long lines and paying lots of money for cocktails which may or may not be well crafted. But it doesn’t have to be this way – a better approach is to drink at bars located off the strip.
The city has a plethora of off the strip bars that are as good, and in many cases better, than the bars located inside big ticket casinos. Many of the best ones are located downtown and in the arts district. Some of these bars focus on mixology while others lean heavily into beer or wine. Many serve expertly crafted libations in ‘secret’ converted garages or in strip-malls. More than a few serve fruity-tooty tiki drinks in fantastical spaces that bely the city’s desert locale.
These are our favorite Las Vegas bars located off the strip:
1. Atomic Liquors
At first glance, Atomic Liquors looks strictly old-school with its retro jukebox and art featuring mid-century movie stars. But this dive bar’s story stretches back to the 1950s when onlookers would sit on the roof to watch nuclear tests performed just 100 miles from Las Vegas at the Nevada Test Site.
As the oldest-free standing bar in all of Las Vegas, Atomic Liquors has a historic past. Martin Scorsese filmed a scene for Casino here and the Rat Pack hung out at the bar as did Barbra Streisand. Over the years, celebrities like Burt Reynolds and Roy Rogers stopped by for a drink or three.
Drinking at Atomic Liquors is still a singular experience. Belly up to the bar, place some coins in the jukebox and breathe in the air of hipness with a taste of nostalgia on the side. Order a Hunter S. Mash cocktail if you’re a bourbon fan. Otherwise, you have your choice of 20 draft beers at this iconic Las Vegas bar.
Pro Tip
Start your drinking session with a Nevada Test Shot. The compact potent potable packs a whallop with ingredients that include rum, lime, cranberry cider and Angostura bitters.
Atomic Liquors is located at 917 E Fremont Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101, United States.
2. Stray Pirate
Don’t confuse Stray Pirate with tiki bars like The Golden Tiki and Frankie’s Tiki Room (see both below). Sure, the Gateway District bar’s menu features more than a few tiki cocktails and its walls are covered with nautical kitsch. But a closer look at Stray Pirate reveals more than a few sophisticated cocktails on its menu plus an array of framed dog portraits on the walls.
That’s when it hits – Stray Pirate is a pirate bar, not a tiki lounge. Once you make this realization, it’s time to order a cocktail.
Unless you’re jonesing for a Painkiller or Zombie, the smart move is to order a house cocktail like the popular Saturn crafted with Stray Dog gin, passion fruit, orgeat, falernum, amaretto and lemon. Or maybe you’ll follow our lead and order a Get It Kraken crafted with Avua Prata cachaca, passion fruit, calamansi, coconut, lime and kafir. Whatever drink you order, you’ll feel like you’re in a different world while you sip it.
Fun Fact
Stray Pirate’s back story involves a curse that transformed a ship of plundering pirates into ‘barking buccaneers’. Hey, we can’t make this stuff up.
Stray Pirate is located at 1321 S Commerce Street, Las Vegas, NV 89102, United States.
