Welcome to the greenest week of the year in Las Vegas, which might be the best place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day—and weekend—in the country. And one of the best spots for Celtic-style revelry has to be Nine Fine Irishmen at New York-New York.
The scene brings together a traditional Irish pub with a baronial castle. The must-do place to start festivities is at the large and lofty carved wood bar, with a roster of stouts, lagers and ales. Many frothy clans—Guinness, Harp, Smithwick’s and beyond—are here to be enjoyed. Of course there’s enough uisce beatha, or water of life, to rival a leprechaun’s gold treasure trove. Whiskeys on-pour range from Connemara Peated Single Malt and Jameson 18 Year Old Limited Reserve to Tullamore D.E.W Original.
Bar-friendly appetizers have a Celtic touch, including Irish nachos, which arrive as crispy potato slices slathered in beer-cheese sauce. The popular Beer N’ Cheese dip comes as gooey cheddar-Smithwick’s with bread crisps. From the sea, littleneck clam steamers in a tangy tomato-white wine-garlic broth are a savory knockout. For a hint of Shamrock green, fried dill pickles with tartar sauce are handy.
Dinner brings first courses like colcannon. It’s a hearty purée of potatoes, cabbage and leeks with crispy Irish bacon. The bright and lively tomato gin soup unites namesake tomatoes with dry gin and white wine. The NFI salad plate is bursting with Romaine lettuce, roasted tomatoes, Stilton blue cheese and dill pickle slices in a basil vinaigrette.
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When it comes to entrées, Nine Fine Irishmen’s classics are substantial such as Shepherd’s Pie: ground beef, onions and carrots baked with a covering of mashed potatoes. Lamb stew is a fragrant portrait of Ireland in a bowl. Traditional fish and chips are crispy hunks of Alaskan cod with nicely done fries. For a bigger feast fit for heroic Finn MacCool, try the 14-ounce bone-in New York strip with melted blue cheese and Jameson-peppercorn demi-glace.
It’s “luck o’ the Irish” for dessert with offerings including Bread and Butter Pudding, a sweet concoction of butter-baked brioche with golden raisins, whiskey cream and caramel sauce. The Guinness Chocolate Bomb features rich stout-infused cocoa cake with vanilla ice cream, Baileys Irish Cream-infused whip and dark ganache. Both go quite well with a Jameson-enhanced Irish Coffee or the Frangelico-Baileys union of a Nutty Irishmen for after-dinner drinks.
To top off all this exuberance, every night Nine Fine features live entertainment by Sin E Ri-Ra, the house band. The troupe presents traditional crowd-pleasing singalong jigs like “The Irish Rover.” Plus, there’s folk dancing, too! All told, from drinks and cuisine to conviviality, this is one of the premier destinations on the Strip when St. Patrick’s Day comes to town.
New York-New York, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily, bar 11 a.m.-2:45 a.m. daily, live music begins at 9 p.m. daily. 702.740.6463
