Congratulations to Human Nature as they celebrate their one year anniversary at the Imperial Palace Las Vegas. To commemorate their success, “Minus 5 Lounge” at Mandalay Place just introduced the “Inhumane Nature” drink yesterday in their honor. Cheers!

Photo by Scott Harrison | HarrisonPhotos.com

It’s no secret there are plenty of places in Las Vegas where you can sit around and have a drink. Some are romantic, others are just plain parties waiting to bust out on to the Las Vegas strip. You’re on vacation, go ahead and have a few drinks and then relax and have one more. Melt away the stress of everyday life and reinvent yourself if only for a few days. Las Vegas is all about allowing yourself just a tiny bit of irresponsibility and recklessness. Go ahead, have too much fun and then go back you hotel and take a nap.

Where you should have a drink in Las Vegas:

• Mandarin Bar at Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas – Sit along the window and take a long look down the Las Vegas strip from the 23rd floor.

• Parasol Down at Wynn Las Vegas – This is the place I go for the early afternoon drink. Sit out on the deck and have a stiff one as you gaze across at the water and up to the large trees. It is relaxing and the atmosphere tempts you to stay all day.

• Cabo Wabo Cantina Las Vegas – A “Waborita” with a view from the deck just steps from the Las Vegas strip. The music is on, the drinks are flowing and the sun is shinning. It is very Las Vegas.

• Minus 5 Ice Lounge – An ice bar with very cold vodka drinks and a little bit of Vegas flair. You won’t stop in here all the time but it is interesting to take a look at.

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Monte Carlo will be the site of the Strip’s second Minus 5 Ice Lounge

Xania Woodman

Mon, Dec 7, 2009 (11:04 a.m.)

Minus 5’s second Vegas location will accommodate up to 110 guests who will drink cocktails from ice cups made from New Zealand water.

“We’re going to stick to the core of what we are, which is an ice lounge,” says Minus 5 director of operations Noel Bowman. Come early-to-mid-February, Vegas can expect a bit of a cold front as a second Minus 5 Ice Lounge will open at the Monte Carlo in the space currently occupied by the Lance Burton Magic Shop and an MGM Mirage Players Club kiosk.

“Think of us as Madame Tussauds where you can drink alcohol,” says Noel Bowman. The “boomerang-shaped” lounge will not feature a lodge bar like its older sister in the Mandalay Place shops, though it will carry over the take-away frozen drinks in souvenir yards and will be 300 square feet larger. “We’re far more of an attraction than we are a bar.”

From the outside, guests will be able to gaze through a regenerating ice wall at TV screens set inside. From there they will suit up in Minus 5’s gear including a parka, hat, mittens and booties to prepare guests for the 27 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 degrees Celsius) temperatures and $100,000 worth of icicles, chandeliers and ice chaise lounge with faux animal skins.

A communal table and drink rails will make ample room for up to 110 guests (as opposed to just 65 at Mandalay Place) to drink vodka cocktails from ice cups made from New Zealand water. The 30-minute limit on staying in the cold environment was dropped shortly after the opening of the Mandalay Place location, allowing guests to spend some more time among the new ice statues of vintage Rat Packers. Still up in the air are the possibilities of an ice stripper pole and a fireplace.

But the Monte Carlo location isn’t the only one getting all the attention; the Mandalay Place installation is also getting a complete overhaul including a new bar and new ice carvings and statues.

“When I first saw it I was like, ‘convince me why I want to pay $25 to freeze my ass off,’” says Bowman, who was GM of RM Seafood across from the Mandalay Place location when it first opened—he quickly came around. Bowman, who has a background opening venues such as Outback Steakhouses, is the entrepreneurial type and saw an opportunity to expand the Minus 5 brand even further than its current six locations in four countries.Outside the new ice lounge experience—which is located, ironically, just around the corner from Diablo’s Cantina—is a burgeoning neighborhood of new restaurants like d.vino and the recently renovated Dragon Noodle Company and CosPlay Lounge. Bowman says the Monte Carlo is considering this new entertainment zone a “party pit,” like those found outside Pure at Caesars and elsewhere in town since that trend took off. If all goes according to plan, that area may soon welcome a new, circular, unmanned table games area waited on by hostesses, plus different lighting and music from the rest of the casino. Bowman imagines that ladies dressed as she-devils and snow bunnies will populate the pit for the additional 30,000 people anticipated to cross the casino floor once the CityCenter project is completely open.

After the Monte Carlo, Bowman says there are three more locations on the way in Times Square, Los Angeles and Orlando. Las Vegas will be the first city to host two Minus 5 Ice Lounges, but then we should be used to the special treatment by now.

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The ice is in your drink and everywhere else at this desert escape, where mittens and a heavy coat are provided.

By Jay Jones, REPORTING FROM LAS VEGAS
06:40 PM PST, November 04, 2008

Nathan Kaye doesn’t need to check the weather forecast before getting dressed for work. Regardless of whether it’s going to be 60 or 110 degrees, he pulls on ski boots, a winter parka and gloves. Even then, within minutes of starting his shift, his ears and his nose are bright red.

“They’re numb,” Kaye says with a laugh as he pours ice-cold vodka into a glass made of ice and sets it atop the bar, which is also made of ice. A customer takes her drink to a nearby couch, also carved out of ice.

Welcome to Minus 5, the newest and, literally, the coolest bar on the Vegas Strip. Guests must don heavy coats and mittens — they’re provided — before entering what is essentially a giant freezer in which the temperature is kept at minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Celsius term is used in New Zealand, where Craig Ling opened his first Minus 5 bar six years ago in Auckland. Since then, he has added sites in Australia and Portugal. Vegas is his first venture into North America.

“What’s better than having an ice bar in the middle of the desert? It’s a good novelty,” Ling says of his newest pub, which opened in late September in Mandalay Place, a mall that stretches between the Mandalay Bay and Luxor resorts.

Guests pay $30 for a 30-minute visit. “It does get cold after a while,” Ling says. The admission price includes one drink. There are nonalcoholic choices for children.

During a visit with a girlfriend, Kristi Ritchie of Las Vegas sips a Finlandia Eskimo, a concoction including pomegranate and lime juices, Cointreau and vodka. “It’s really, really cool,” she says, ignoring the obvious pun. “We wish we could stay here a bit longer, but not everybody’s accustomed to the cold. I’m fromWyoming, so I’m used to it.”

Michelle Gookin of Escalon, Calif., near Modesto, likes this newest Vegas diversion. “I always wanted to stay in an ice hotel, so this is probably the closest I’ll ever come. I come to Las Vegas a lot. I’m always looking for something different to do, and this is definitely different.

“It’s amazing to me. You’ll never find anything in Vegas that’s done halfway.”

Kaye, despite his beet-red nose and ears, enjoys tending bar in the freezing environment. First, he’s from northern Nevada, so he’s used to the cold. Second, he gets warmup breaks in the lobby every 30 to 45 minutes. Or at least he’s supposed to.

“On really, really busy nights when it’s filled and there are people waiting, we might be here [at the bar] for up to five hours at a time,” Kaye says. “But it doesn’t really faze me, because it really doesn’t feel that cold in here. The atmosphere picks you up and you’re moving all the time.”

It took about 150 giant blocks of ice, each weighing 265 pounds, to create the unique attraction. “All the ice is made in Canada,” says general manager David Kuhn. “They have a process where there’s no impurities, bubbles or anything like that. So when it settles in the room, it’s as clear as glass.”

Those blocks are also used to create giant ice sculptures. An oversized carving of Elvis, guitar in hand, graces the center of the room. It’s a popular spot for pictures. Those photos are taken by a staff member and are for sale upon leaving the bar; personal cameras are not allowed.

Not everyone is enamored with the frigid conditions.

“It’s freezing,” says Julie LaCoste, who’s visiting from Albuquerque and grasping her icy glass of vodka between mitten-clad hands. “My lips are moving too slow for me to talk. I’m not good with cold.

“It’s a good thing to try once, but probably not again.”

Minus 5 is open 10 a.m. until 3 a.m. daily; (702) 632-7714www.minus5experience.com.

Jones is a freelance writer.

travel@latimes.com

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