Clique Lounge at Cosmopolitan<\/a>. There’s no pretense, and the drinks are still dirt cheap, just the way we like them. The $5 Patron margarita looked especially enticing.<\/p>\nThe bar’s footprint has been expanded to include a wood floor, which presumably could be used for dancing.<\/p>\n
At the moment, the area is full of plush chairs and couches, perfect for hanging out with friends.<\/p>\nOh, just sit on something.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThankfully, El Cortez hasn’t gone full Gold Spike, and there’s not a single game of cornhole or Jenga to be found.<\/p>\n
Our favorite part of the new social area is a long table with chips from the now-closed Thunderbird and Western casinos embedded in the tabletop.<\/p>\nWe have got to get us one of these.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNo, really, it’s our favorite thing. Right behind the bottles of Captain Morgan at the bar, of course. Priorities.<\/p>\nThe Western casino closed in 2012 and in its declining years held the distinction of inspiring more “Silkwood” showers than any other Las Vegas casino.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIf that’s the Thunderbird we’re thinking of, it was originally the Silverbird, then El Rancho. It holds the distinction of being the place Judy Garland made her final Las Vegas appearance in 1965. Sweet nod to Vegas history, El Cortez.<\/p>\n
El Cortez is trying to liven up this portion of the casino by loudly playing popular music through exactly six of the casino’s speakers just above the bar. We suspect this won’t land very well with the typical El Cortez customer, but we’re all going to have to learn to play nicely.<\/p>\n
Ike’s Bar (it’s a coin toss at this point) has 19 video poker machines, 11 on one side and eight on the other.<\/p>\n
The bar also features 10 flat screen TVs.<\/p>\nCheap hooch, friendly service, video poker, mellow vibe. That’s our kind of Vegas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe new casino bar at El Cortez is located near one of the entrances off Fremont Street, and sits next to the keno lounge and excellent Pizza Lotto restaurant. Pizza Lotto never did get those promised scratch-off lotto cards, but the solid pizza makes up for it.<\/p>\n
You can still score freebies by visiting the Pizza Lotto Web site<\/a>.<\/p>\nCheers to El Cortez for investing in a more modern bar while retaining some old-school charm, including bartenders wearing old-timey garter on their sleeves.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we wrote about months ago, El Cortez has its eye on a crowd it’s not known for catering to: Millennials. Hoping to capture some of the youthful energy of downtown’s Fremont East District—bars like Commonwealth, The Griffin, Therapy and Park on Fremont keep it hopping, especially on weekends—El Cortez has unveiled its renovated casino […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,39],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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