Vegas Life Hack: The Happy Hour

Kelly Lamrock discusses one of his Vegas Life Hacks: Happy Hour

In most of the country, “happy hour” conjures up images of sad, middle-aged guys in a dark tavern. Not that it’s a bad thing. Heck, I like dark taverns and support their role in escapism in my everyday life.

But in Vegas, where everything is a little bit better, happy hour is a way to do Vegas like a high roller with a final bill that won’t make you avoid opening your credit card statement when you get home. Because the Vegas Happy Hour reaches into some of the finest establishments, the city has to offer.

Vegas spoils us with a diverse collection of restaurants that you just can’t get at home. We can all agree that once or twice, a splurge on a special dinner is part of the Vegas experience. But, how can we choose when we will leave so many wonderful restaurants behind, untasted and unsampled, when we return home? And at the rate places turn over in Vegas, how can we leave knowing many places we wanted to try will be gone when we return?

That’s where the happy hour comes in. Because you don’t need to drop a couple of hundred dollars to try most restaurants. For a few hours, generally 3-6pm on weekdays, restaurants will offer tasting-size portions of some of their best small plates for low prices. Even better, they will pair these deals with discounted booze, too!

I am a big fan of gearing up for the night with some small plates and cheap drinks around 5 pm, then hitting a show, a lounge, the tables, and whoever else the evening takes you. If the early dinner wears off, you can usually grab something small as a late night snack (Secret Pizza, anyone?) and be quite happy. Plus, some places are now doing Reverse Happy Hour around 10 pm, so you can even score quality munchies and cheap hooch twice.

It’s definitely worth doing some research, but the chances are that celebrity chef place your loved one desperately wants to try and damn the expense will let you check it out with less cost, lost gambling time and general stuffiness than you’d feared. To give you a small sense of what’s out there, here are some of my recommendations.

Sushi Roku, Forum Shoppes, Caesars Palace: Sure, it doesn’t get the buzz like Nobu, but this California-based export has one of the most diverse and affordable Happy Hours anywhere. Four of us hit the place up on a Wednesday afternoon and found $6 Sapporos and $3 sake got us ready for the evening. Plus we ordered a groaning table worth of shrimp tempura rolls, spicy tuna hand rolls, mushroom tempura, tuna tataki, and ribeye-wrapped asparagus. We left Sushi Roku full and primed for the evening with a bill of around $120 for four happy people. I highly recommend dedicating your late afternoon to a prime cigar and handmade monitor at Casa Fuentes followed by a stop here. If that doesn’t restore you more than a pricey spa, I really can’t help you.

Red Square, Mandalay Bay: I was going to like this place anyway. The headless Lenin statue with fake pigeon crap on it told me that. (It is fake, yes? Kinda concerning) The Soviet-era propaganda is tongue-in-cheek, but the food is serious. This place is worth a splurge at dinner, but the Siberian nachos (smoked salmon, caviar and Crème Fraiche on a potato wafer) are quite serious. Add them to some not-at-all boring wings and meatballs under $9 and you’ve got something. Have a vodka flight and some raw oysters on the half shell, shout “spassiba!” and head out of Red Square into the night truly fortified.

Public House, Luxor: They have a well-curated bunch of draft taps, over 20, and you’ll find something new and wonderful at Public House. As for the food, all I can say is that the cheesesteak spring rolls with house-made spicy ketchup are really good. How good? Once we started sampling the beers and ordering more of those $5 plates of spring roll, we forgot this was pre-dinner stop.

Brand Steakhouse, Monte Carlo: This is a tricky one because Brand seems like an old-school steakhouse that is there when you want a big, heavy, old-school steakhouse meal. But their bar is also pleasantly old school, with the leather accoutrements that Ron Burgandy would approve of. Drinks were $5.00 when I went there, and their $9.00 appetizers were definitely sophisticated munchies. The Hot Rocks are almost too elaborate to be a happy hour thing, with prime beef thin-sliced, marinated and given to you to cook yourself on a smouldering rock. The creamy dip that accompanies your micro-steak was very nice indeed. Crab cakes, oysters, and some lollipop wings round out the options. Have a nice, affordable double on the rocks, eat your steak that you yourself passed through fire, gaze at the casino floor, and reflect on your good taste and better fortune. This is Vegas, and just being here means you did something just a bit smarter than everyone who isn’t here right now.

Variety is the best part of Vegas. Sampling more of that variety is just plain doing Vegas right. Check out your favourite spots for happy hour options and see if you don’t find yourself kicking your night off by being happy for an hour (or more).

Editor’s note: For more Vegas Happy Hour options see this list from Vegas Fanboy.

[Images: Courtesy of Sushi Rock, Public House, Red Square]

Kelly Lamrock

Kelly Lamrock didn’t see Vegas until he was 40. Now, he goes several times a year. When home in Atlantic Canada, he’s a lawyer, international consultant, and former Attorney-General. When in Vegas, he is consumed by the search for the best craft beer, the perfect sportsbook, and a post-show cigar. He loves Vegas because, as Jerry Seinfeld says, “wherever you’re from, Vegas is pretty much the opposite of that.”