1 Happy St

If you're a fan of Las Vegas and you're over 60 years old, you probably heard that The New Frontier was imploded this morning. I'm a fan of Las Vegas, but just a shade under 60 years old. However, I still have a couple of stories related to The New Frontier that make me sad to see it go.

2004 - My friend Chris Lucht's bachelor party - The whole B.P. group was staying at Treasure Island, but I was originally a "no" when they were making reservations. So last minute when I realized I could make it, I had to take what I could get. My boy Donald from work said he'd tag along, so we started looking for deals. Another guy we worked with at the time named Art recommended The New Frontier because it was cheap, had a great pool, and was still on the strip. Even now, I have no idea how Art could have given this place the description that he did, but at the time, any idea would have been a good one, and his sounded perfect. When we arrived, our first clue that this was not the place for us should have been when the front desk gave us the key to our room and it was a real key. Like for a house. Not a swipe card. A real friggin key. How old is this place? Then we checked out the "fantastic pool" that we had heard so little about. It was hardly fantastic. It looked like the pool where the movie 'Cocoon' was filmed. We kept hearing a bell go off in the middle of the day; we weren't sure if this meant a new bingo game had started, or if somebody had died. The TV channel in the room that talks about the hotel was on a continuous loop, but the video was made in 1986 <-----this is not a lie. There was one silver lining however - the main bar served $4 jack and cokes. And they were good.

2006 - My bachelor party - We were staying across the street from The New Frontier at The Wynn. Our very first night, we tried our hand at The Wynn's nightclub called Tryst. After waiting in line for almost 2 hours and not getting any closer to the door, we pitched the idea and walked across the street to The New Frontier. First things first, we decided to gamble a little bit. I sat down at a $5 blackjack table, and within 30 minutes or so, I was up over $200. Nice. By now, it was probably after 11pm, so my friends dragged me from the table and decided on checking out that horrible redneck bar with the mechanical bull. If you've ever been to The New Frontier, you know which bar I'm talking about. There's line-dancing and guys there wearing black jeans, T-Shirts, and cowboy hats. The only thing missing is peanut shells on the floor. On the way to the redneck bar, I stop at the main lobby bar and order myself a Red Bull and Vodka, where I'm probably guessing it's going to be cheaper. The bartender says "we don't have red bull, but I got this instead". I can't remember what it was, but he advertises it as an energy drink that tastes like Red Bull. He is wrong. It is the worst-tasting $8 drink I've ever had. I end up puking for like 10 straight minutes. Not good. My friend Tony finds me and asks what is taking so long, I play it off like I just had to pee really bad, then he tells me that everyone is already inside the redneck bar. I walk over there with him and the bouncer at the door ends up talking me into purchasing their $20 all-I-can-drink package. I had just finished puking that horrible kryptonite concoction, so $20 is a small price to pay to feel good again. I hand him a $20 bill and he gives me a wrist band. Once inside, I go straight to the bar and order a jack and coke. The bartender says "that'll be $7", or something like that. "Not so fast," I say as I show him my wristband. The bartender laughs at me. "That's only for beer," he says. He points out about 30 cups of beer spread out at the end of the bar and says "you get those". Sonofabitch. I grab one and take a sip. It's warm. "What is this?" I ask. "Bud Lite," he says. I say "do you have any Miller Lite? Or something cold?" He responds with "just Bud, and it should be cold." Sonofabitch again. "Just give me that horrible energy drink with the vodka please."

New Frontier, I'll miss you.