11 Best Nightlife in Paradise Road and the East Side, Las Vegas

An egalitarian mix of men and women congregates at this 24-hour bar with a taco menu, a dance floor, pool tables, video-poker machines, and karaoke (on Monday). The live drag shows are more raucous than the tame ones on the Strip.

Consider the Badlands saloon a 24-hour haven for local gay cowboys. It's decorated with a mock-log-cabin facade and offers cubbyholes in which regulars can store their beer steins. There's also a jukebox crammed to the coin slot with country-and-western hits. Acknowledged to be Las Vegas's oldest surviving gay bar, Badlands was featured on the reality show Bar Rescue in 2021 after the pandemic crippled its business.

The lone topless club in the convention corridor is smaller than the splashy ones to the west, but has long benefited from its location: across the street and literally within stumbling distance of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas (formerly the Hard Rock Hotel). The location was grandfathered: the club was one of the first strip joints in town in the 1970s, and one of the first to embrace the upscaling to "gentlemen's club" in the 1990s. Beyond the industry-standard free limo rides and VIP packages, the real novelty here is the nightly 11 pm presentation of a formal show, "A Touch of Burlesque."

Call it a self-aware dive bar—the Double D sits a short walk between the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and the Thomas & Mack Center and a long, long way from the upscale casino hotels. A sign inside says it nicely: "Shut Up and Drink." Delicious decadence prevails here 24 hours a day; no wonder it was a favorite of the late food celebrity Anthony Bourdain and anyone else adventurous enough to enjoy a bacon martini. For the boho crowd, this deliberately downscale bar awash in cleverly obscene graffiti has everything from great local bands to a truly eclectic jukebox. Our advice: go late, choke back the cigarette smoke, and try the (fabled) Ass Juice cocktail.

An amazing remnant of classic Vegas that almost faded away before being reborn in the 2010s, this club-restaurant has a front lounge that offers live cocktail entertainment Wednesday through Sunday and a ballroom that features ticketed shows. The entertainment is mostly tributes, usually to one or more members of the Rat Pack but sometimes to other Vegas stars such as Tom Jones. The performers are often Legends in Concert alumni or singers who work on cruise ships. Most of the shows have a dinner or buffet option.

The hookah is an elaborate Middle Eastern water pipe used to smoke exotic tobacco, and it also happens to be a point of distinction (or perhaps gimmick) for this Mediterranean favorite overseen by local entrepreneur Paymon Raouf. Instead of the bare-bones set-up or kitschy Greek murals that occupy most gyro joints in the Valley, Paymon's conjures a sexy, chill-out experience, with a contemporary, red-velvet-laden, incense-filled environment that draws a diverse crowd. The lounge area is separate from casual indoor and patio dining. Prices are a bargain, and the extensive menu offers plenty of dinner options. (Those who remember the original, University-district location, which has closed, will find the new, larger location worth the drive. A second location is at 8380 W. Sahara Ave.)

A lot of people ask, "Where do Las Vegas entertainers hang out and perform for one another?" One of the best and most consistent answers is found in this appealing and easily accessed lounge at The Tuscany (an attractive, convention-oriented hotel that is otherwise unremarkable). Kenny Davidson's Celebrity Piano Bar is a 10-year, Friday-night fixture for local performers, and other nights feature singers on the level of America's Got Talent winner Michael Grimm.

Revelers pack this gorgeous spot every night of the week, and with good reason, given that it's the only true gay dance club in town (at least until the Gipsy returns next door). Each night of the week offers a different drag show or theme. Although the dance floor at Piranha is legendary, the best spot in this labyrinth of rooms is the spacious, fireplace-ringed open-air patio out back. The Piranha's owners are backing the new version of the fabled Gipsy club next door, so the new arrival might be more of an expansion than a competition.

This comfortable venue is versatile enough to be closed off for ticketed concerts or opened up to host free lounge acts and casino promotional events. Sight lines are great, and it's really the only game on this side of town for a diverse range of local and mid-level concerts that range from rock to country and just about everything in between.

The concert hall long known as The Joint is now just The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. During the makeover, the 4,000-plus capacity venue was entrusted to concert promoter AEG Presents, and the room was spruced up with new seating and some changes, like moving a VIP area to the ground-floor level. Upgrades were welcome, as the venue was always better known for the big names it hosted than for the room itself, a big box, which jammed seated fans into folding chairs and put the versatility of its seating configurations ahead of comfort, aesthetics, or design. While leaving the biggest names (and highest ticket prices) to the Strip, The Theater has booked a steady flow of acts, including Widespread Panic, Sabrina Carpenter, and Mastodon.

You get two kinds of retro-hip nostalgia at Casa Di Amore, a durable Italian restaurant. Inside, vintage photos of Las Vegas line the walls where a live pianist often entertains diners. Except for the limited bar seating, the indoor area is primarily for those with dinner reservations. Out back, however, the open-air Tiki Di Amore is more for the walk-up crowd of those in shorts and flip-flops, with a separate menu of bar food, cocktails such as The Pain Killer or Dark & Stormy, and often live bands amid the kitschy bamboo and thatched-roof surroundings.