Those who know me know that I don’t spend a lot of time “clubbing.” Britney and I don’t hang out anymore, Lindsay is a little "tired," and even though I was at a Vegas nightclub on the evening of Paris Hilton’s birthday party many years ago, she has ignored me ever since. I was on Nicole's sid - it's a long story.
Or the reason could be that, generally speaking, I’m too old, too tired, and too cranky to deal with the crowds and costs of the Vegas club scene.
So the fact that I enjoyed Polly Esther’s may be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon how you look at it.
Open since earlier this year at The Stratosphere, Polly Esther’s is a return to the heady days of themed entertainment in Las Vegas. There are four rooms, each with a distinctive look and feel and each with its own music from a different era.
The ‘70s themed Polly Esther’s room is a riot of disco-fever dreams, complete with a light-up “Saturday Night Fever” dance floor and a bar inside a recreation of the “Partridge Family” bus. Non-stop ‘70s hits rule the roost here from the Bee Gees to Donna Summer and beyond and the drink menu features wild concoctions like “Jaws” (vodka, Blue Cur, pineapple, and grenadine) and “The Exorcist” (Goldschlager and Rumplemintz). There’s even a Brady Bunch shrine where you can have your picture taken as the center square.
Over at Culture Club, the focus turns to the ‘80s with a giant Rubik’s cube and a DeLorean floating over the “Purple Rain” inspired dance floor. Music from Duran Duran, early Madonna, Prince, and the namesake band keeps the retro energy high. Drinks are imaginatively named things like “The Cabbage Patch” and the “Alex P. Keaton.”
NerveAna moves into the ‘90s with a full-size replica of OJ Simpson’s white Ford Bronco and homages on everything from “Baywatch” to Sharon Stone. Despite the Kurt Cobain inspired moniker, the music here is not all Seattle alternative, instead offering up a wide variety of last decade’s hits including pop, rock, dance, and more. On the cocktail menu: “The Ricky Martini,” among others.
Finally there’s Suite 2000, which is the club for today’s generation, mixing the design elements of cool ultra-lounge with the party-all-the-time dance club atmosphere. The music menu is eclectic here as well so you can expect the latest from Beyonce and Rhianna mixed in with harder edged rock, rap, and hip-hop.
The rooms are well insulated from one another both physically and aurally so the only time you get any sensory overload is when you’re walking from one to another. But that’s the key element here that makes the place so much fun. At most clubs if you’re tired of the pounding house beat your only choice is to leave. Here if you don’t like the song that comes on in one area you simply walk 30 feet to the next until you find something that amuses you.
Weekly theme nights amp up the entertainment quotient with things like Disco nights, Milli Vanilli lip-synching contests, bikini making contests, and more. Check the website for a full calendar of events and themes.
The crowd, especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s themed rooms, was older than the regular Vegas party set, another reason that I liked it I suppose. I get a lot of questions from people my age asking where they can go dance and this is the spot that I’m primarily directing them to these days. It was a much younger crowd in the ‘90s and ‘00s themed rooms but for the most part they all seemed much more interested in having fun than in standing and modeling their high fashion accessories.
Prices on everything from admission to drinks are noticeably cheaper than what you’ll pay at the bigger, flashier clubs down the street – another big bonus in my book.
Polly Esther’s
The Stratosphere Hotel & Casino
2000 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89104
702-889-1980
website
Open Mon-Sat 10pm until close
Cover varies
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