Downtown Cocktail Room

So it's like a room, and they have cocktails, and it's like located downtown.  Pretty soon, they'll get creative and name a shoe store, The Store on Harmon on the East Side of the Strip Next to the Donut Shop that Sells Shoes.  I'm still trying to figure out THEhotel.  Really?  My sister tells me she's at the hotel, and I'm like what hotel?  She's like, do I have to spell it out?  THEhotel!  And I'm like, what is wrong with your smart phone it capitalized THE.  Now she just thinks I'm mentally challenged, which I am, but stuff like this doesn't help.  

Nice, dark, mellow joint with a very small bar area unfortunately, but a bartender who loves his cocktails and bitters and I got to taste a few.  This is what classic cocktail bartending is all about.  Bartenders who take pride in their ingredients and want to share and educate customers.  I was at this stupid Disney bar called Rx Boiler Room where they all dress steam punk and the bartenders are all like Disney animatronic characters serving you drinks like slow robots and walking away on their floor rails like Pirates of the Caribbean?  You get the point.  In fact, I bet you could program one of those pirates to mix your cocktail better AND give you faster, better service.  Unfortunate name.  My friend tells me he's going to take me to downtown cocktail room.  I'm like, what's it called?  He thinks I'm mentally challenged too.

This is a slightly odd review. I really like this place...on weeknights, at happy hour, when it's not catering to the Drunken-Nightclub-Hopping-Touristy crowd. I really hate this place on some random weekend nights, when it seems to be a completely different place. It happened to me once, and I've not been brave enough to try a weekend since. Maybe it's not that bad every time.

One of the things I miss most from Chicago are the cocktail bars (Violet Hour, Weegee's), and on some nights of the week, the Downtown fills that niche for me. On others...it's just another OONTSOONTS-DUBSTEP-OONTS filled nightclub that's so packed its impossible to move and so loud its impossible to hear the person next to you. So. Take this review with the grain of salt that particular perspective offers.

I would give it 2 stars on it's "Club-lounge" nights, and 5 on it's "actual cocktail room" nights.

Pros:
- I always get amazing cocktails here, and the bartenders know their stuff. Order off the menu, or tell them what you like and ask them to suggest something, either way, you can't go wrong. They are made with love, and great, fresh ingredients.
- On "good" nights, it's a great place to take an old friend who just flew into town, pull up a chair, and catch up over a cocktail (or four). It's quiet enough you can talk, loud enough you aren't overheard by the world, and the staff never gives you the "GTFO" stinkeye.
- These cocktails are actually worth $14. The prices are really not that bad for damn good cocktails made out of fancy pants ingredients. It's not the sort of stuff you can say, make at home, without dropping at LEAST $150 on all the necessary bottles. Unless you're ordering a gin and tonic or something, and that just sort of makes you an idiot. Be adventurous and order something with chartreuse.
- Atmosphere is cozy and mellow. Sort of like some rich old fella's study. Curl up in a chair with a smoky scotch drink and just say "ahhhh."

Cons:
- Realizing you came on random nightclub night. Oontz.

Jeff is the best bartender in Vegas. On a slow Monday, I challenged him to surprise me, after I couldn't decide on a cocktail on the menu. He was gone for a while and I realized... he had been making my cocktail the whole time. For maybe five minutes or more. He's stop and sniff, add a little of this and that. That kind of dedication to one's craft if hard to come by these day in any profession.

After a long night that had started too early and gone without food too long, he took me seriously when I said, "I need all the water you have." (I had actually tried this earlier the same day on 3 occassions, got one small glass of water and a disappearing waiter/bartender each time). He came back with a glass he had chilled and cool water without ice so that I could drink it faster. Yes... he chilled my water glass as if he were serving me a martini.

JEFF YOU ARE ONE CLASSY FELLA!