Las Vegas Mixtape v38: Backstreet Thrills, A Grand Café, and Forever Blues

Track #5: Around Town Medley:

Building a mystery at The Doberman Drawing Room. (Image: Vegas 411)

It’s all happening at the northern end of Main St in the Arts District (north of Charleston Blvd)—an area that I’m dubbing “NoMain.” Joining established places that include Taverna Costera and Ninja Karaoke are new spots like Audio Bar, Craft Creamery, retail store STAR Las Vegas, and The Doberman Drawing Room. The latter is a cavernous multi-room space with a softly lit seductive ambience, extraordinary cocktails, light bites, and a highly cool “bohemian groove…rare groove, funk, and disco” soundtrack. Attracting a sharp-looking crowd, it opened this past April on the site of the old Artifice club where the ghosts of goth live on.

Man about town salutes Gal Power. (Image: Jerry Watson)

After moving here, one of the first museums I visited was the tastefully sexy and smart Burlesque Hall of Fame Museum (also in the “NoMain” section of the Arts District). Sadly, it closed at the end of July. In honor of this shrine to gal power, I wore my T-shirt that I bought there to see Franky Perez’ FXP band at the rocking Copa Room inside Tuscany Suites & Casino.

Ahead of its closure, the museum revealed the sobering news in a sign-of-the-times press release: “Museum attendance has plummeted along with the drop in tourism. Meanwhile, funders we’ve relied on are struggling as federal funding is withdrawn. And Weekender [the museum’s annual event] ticket sales are slow as recession looms and international visitors make the difficult but entirely reasonable decision not to risk a US border crossing.”

Looking for a posh sanctuary? (Image: Vegas 411)

It was time to return to the intimate, gorgeously designed, and relatively price-friendly Pepper Club, the restaurant inside the English Hotel. Yep, this is also in the “NoMain” area, although a few streets here are being rebranded as “Midtown” (hmmm…). It was my first time back since the menu was completely revamped from “ocean cuisine” and sushi offerings to “Italian-influenced, ingredient-driven food,” in the words of food and beverage director Bruce Kalman (also the chef at the nearby SoulBellyBBQ).

Kalman’s collaboration with executive chef Manny Rivera has produced one hit after another including the terrific rigatoni with fennel sausage and the endlessly succulent double cut pork chop, served with broccolini and maitake mushrooms in a marsala sauce.

Better living through rigatoni. (Image: Vegas 411)

If you’re looking for a truly noteworthy deal, the restaurant is offering a happy hour 3-5:30pm daily (weekends, too), including a very special hour, 4-5pm, during which three of their pastas—including the rigatoni—are priced at only (drumroll, please) $6.00 each. Join the beeline there now.

They really mean it, man. (Image: Vegas 411)

During the week when Ozzy Osbourne had journeyed to the other side, it was especially comforting to see the long-running LA punk-metal trio Zig Zags light up Backstage Bar & Billiards. You can hear echoes of Black Sabbath, as well as Black Flag, in songs like “Take Me To Your Leader” from their excellent new album “Deadbeat at Dawn.” Onstage, the Zig Zags create a thrillingly crushing sound with each player operating without a net in the tight trio format. This is a rifftastic band to support.