Question of the Day - 12 September 2022

We ran this answer a little more than a year ago, but since then, several more secret spaces have shown up. Here's the updated rundown.

First, you're correct that what's generally known as Secret Pizza was the first deliberate secret space in Las Vegas. It's been there since Cosmo opened in 2010, on the third floor down a long hallway lined with the jackets of '50s and '60s record albums. These days, you can also tell the place by the line of people usually waiting for their pizza. 

Secret Pizza launched a Vegas trend of "hidden" bars and eateries that provide a little adventure to find. Cosmo, in fact, has a second hideaway, this one on the second floor at the back of the Block 16 food hall. The Ghost Donkey Bar, which serves a large selection of handcrafted mezcal and tequila cocktails, is accessed by a plain door under an Exit sign with a small colorfully painted donkey on it. You press on the push bar and you're in a whole new world.

A third secret space at the Cosmo is the Barbershop Cuts & Cocktails. First, get a haircut. Or don't. Either way, you can pass through an unassuming janitor door in the salon for a Prohibition-style bar decked out in 1920s' barbershop decor that serves some of the world’s finest whiskeys.

And a fourth hidden venue at Cosmo opened with Superfrico, the "psychedelic Italian" restaurant last year. The Ski Lodge is accessed by one of the eight doors you encounter when you walk through Superfrico's massive front double doors (ask the doorman to show you which). It has a big stone fireplace, a snowy scene behind the bar, and ski accoutrements scattered around the room. If anyplace in Vegas makes you feel like you're not in Vegas, it's the Ski Lodge bar.

Two more "hideaways" were part of the Palms $650 million renovation several years ago. The first was Sara's, an exclusive supper club that you entered through a plain door tucked away at the back Mabel’s BBQ. As far as we know, it hasn't reopened yet. The second is Greene Street Kitchen, whose entrance is hidden behind a cola vending machine at the side of a small video arcade. 

Resorts World also opened with a secret space. Here Kitty Kitty Vice Den is a cocktail lounge accessed from behind grocery shelves in Ms. Meow's Mamak Stall inside the Famous Foods Street Eats food hall. But don't try to open the entrance; you need reservations, then you check in at the Stall counter. 

The Mob Museum, you probably won't be surprised to hear, has an actual speakeasy in the basement. To enter the Underground, you go down to the basement, ring a bell, provide a password, and walk into a Prohibition-era bar and working distillery decorated with artifacts from the 1920s. What's the password? We could tell you, but then we'd have to rub you out. (Seriously, it's posted on the Mob Museum's website.)

Which leads us to the 1923 Prohibition Bar at the Shoppes at Mandalay Bay. Obviously, this secluded little bar has a speakeasy theme, but hidden within is a room called the Magician's Study, billed as "an intimate and exclusive invite-only interactive theater experience hosted by a charming international magician in his secret study." There's a whole rigmarole for getting in; if you do it, let us know.  

Late last year, Circa opened its own Secret Bar, hidden behind an overhead door, featuring a close-up photo of the eyes of Marilyn Monroe, in the high-limit room on the second floor of the casino. 

On the Record is the nightclub at Park MGM; it's hidden behind a two-story record-store entrance off the main casino floor. That leads to an indoor-outdoor space dominated by a full-sized double-decker bus that houses the deejays and audio equipment, along with a karaoke space, dance floor, and a hidden speakeasy in the hidden club called the Vinyl Room.

The latest entry onto the list is the the Lock, the requisite speakeasy hidden behind a new bar, Cabinet of Curiosities, on the lower level of Bally's. You have to make a reservation for the Lock, then look for a phone on the wall of the bar to check in. The “locksmith” apparently instructs you how to get in by "picking the locks." We're told that it's a 90-minute Prohibition-style experience inside the speakeasy. 

We doubt that hidden Las Vegas spaces have run their course, so we look forward to updating this QoD when more reveal themselves.