Downtown Vegas

 

If you’re trying to find a little bit of remaining Retro Cocktail feel in Vegas you must leave the Strip. Just down the road to Fremont Street in Downtown Vegas you will find a revival going on in terms of Las Vegas’s history. 

Downtown Las Vegas was the original gambling center prior to The Strip with the historic casinos: The Golden Nugget, Lady Luck, The Golden Gate, The Western, Las Vegas Club. The effort to revitalize the area started in 2006 with The Fremont Experience.
The Fremont Street Experience consists of the closing of Fremont St. to vehicular traffic, a long canopy covering complete with the worlds largest audio system/video screens and the homage to neon signs.
 
Las Vegas was all about neon lights in the early days. Even the classic Las Vegas Welcome Sign shows its colors before you even enter the strip, but The Strip itself never embraced the historic value of neon and instead went the new direction with video monitors and fluorescent lights when the older casinos were removed. 
 
Recognizing this, the Neon Museum was established and has been collecting these historic relics since the 80‘s. Their goal has been to save and display this illuminating history of Old Las Vegas.
Many historic neon signs have been saved and had been stored at the Young Electric Sign Co. and then relocated to a new location called The Neon Boneyard.These treasures have been transformed from a waste by-product of the ever changing landscape of Vegas’s growth, to a very important part of their history. Several restored signs have been placed along Fremont Street with little plaques describing their history. Try to see all of the fully restored signs that are lit up every night in the downtown area.




Now, while you are cruisin' around downtown, the are a few 'real' lounges that you should stop into for a true Modern Retro Vibe:

 
Vanguard Lounge  I missed, but it’s also in this area where you can hit one after another along with a walk around to see the displayed neon signs in all their retro glory.
Now That’s Vegas Baby!
 

 

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