If you’ve visited the downtown area of Las Vegas, you might have noticed a certain shift over the past decade. What was once an area that few tourists and even locals stepped foot on—save for under the bright lights and comforts of the Fremont Street Experience—has become a utopia for drinking, dancing, dining and the digging of cool atmospheres. One street that has received great fanfare is the Fremont East District. It’s here that you’ll find a memorable night of revelry. And that’s thanks in part to Ryan Doherty and his company, Corner Bar Management.
Boston native Doherty never meant to stay in Vegas. While studying hotel management at University of Massachusetts Amherst he decided to study one semester at UNLV’s exchange program. That was 1996, and he’s been here ever since. While finishing his undergrad at UNLV, he immersed himself in Vegas’ nightlife industry. That industry led him into the world of marketing, printing and media, which led to linking up with the late Tony Hsieh, Zappos founder and downtown champion, who helped open Doherty’s business-oriented mind to the opportunities of a renaissance in a once rundown and forgotten area of the city. By 2012, Doherty had signed the lease on a building to open his first downtown venture, Commonwealth, on Fremont East. That was followed with The Laundry Room (a speakeasy inside Commonwealth) and Park on Fremont, and the launch of his hospitality group, Corner Bar Management. “We had been swept away by the romance of being downtown,” Doherty says. “I got addicted to building stuff. That was the main driver. I started diving deeper into design. I wanted to keep building more spaces. I started working with better artists. We started thinking as you build these venues, you’re breathing life into an old building, but also into the neighborhood.”
The past few years, under the CBM umbrella, Doherty and his team have continued to add hot spots to the stretch of Fremont East including the bars We All Scream, Lucky Day, and Discopussy; restaurant Peyote; and bar-theater hybrid Cheapshot. (CBM also dipped into the museum realm with the opening of Museum Fiasco at AREA15.)
“The best thing about having all these venues on the same street is that it makes downtown feel more personal to me, more intimate,” he says. “Years ago, I stopped inviting people to a specific venue, and now I invite them to a neighborhood … Our goal is to create places for our community to gather, to support the arts and to spark conversation. We’re going to continue to create new venues that do just that.”
With all of Doherty’s venues, which is his favorite? It’s his most-recent opening, Cheapshot, and its accompanying variety show, Miss Behave’s Mavericks. “I like this venue so much right now,” he says. “Everyone always asks me what my favorite venue is, and I say, ‘Whatever the next one is.’ But I keep coming back to (Cheapshot) because it’s just so fun to watch the people onstage interacting with the audience. There’s a recipe to throwing a really good party, but there’s this whole different recipe to keeping everyone engaged for 90 minutes with the show and having lots of personalities to manage and the variety act is like 14 different acts throughout the night with nine different people.”
Going over his other venues, for lovers of tequila and mezcal, Lucky Day loves back with a huge assortment of the spirit and inventive cocktails. For lovers of house and techno music, Discopussy is a bit of a throwback to the underground rave days, with a warehouse-style space and a big dancefloor that will keep feet moving all night. For childhood whimsy mixed with adult playground, We All Scream has quickly become a hot spot for scoops of ice cream mixed with delicious cocktails, a monster sound system and a huge second-floor balcony that overlooks the action of Fremont East.
While the drinks flow freely inside all his ventures, guests are in for more than a buzz. “The trendier the bar is, the shorter the lifespan will be,” he says. “Legacy matters in bars and we want to be around for decades. My goal is to build timeless venues that don’t feel gimmicky. Our spaces are essentially large-scale art projects that lean on technology, sound immersion and visual stimulation to create an environment that feels more like an art installation than a bar.”
And he’s right. Just take a look at the graffiti murals splattered across We All Scream, the playful art-meets-industrial space of Commonwealth, the secret-garden setting at Park on Fremont, the explosion of lights on the ceiling of Lucky Day, the retro-desert design of Peyote’s patio, and the vaudevillian vibes and circus-style art encompassing Cheapshot.
“We go out of our way to fill the spaces with art and make it very immersive,” Doherty says. “… Our bars are among my favorite galleries in the world. They’re open all night and are inviting for every person of every walk of life to experience. So many people who walk into our venues have no idea they are entering an insanely carefully curated gallery filled with contemporary artworks.”
More than 25 years later since Doherty moved to the desert city, through his many career incarnations and many popular venues, we close the conversation with what success looks like. “There is something special about rescuing an abandoned building and turning it into a working establishment,” he says. “If you do that enough times in the same area, you not only revive the property, but you start breathing life into the entire neighborhood. I want them to write the story of downtown and at least have them mention us, like these guys added a layer that is still around. I want to leave Fremont Street better than when I found it. That’ll be the measure of success.”
All venues 21+:
Cheapshot – 17 E. Fremont St., Ste. 100. 702.239.3786
Commonwealth – 525 E Fremont St. 702.445.6400
Discopussy – 512 E. Fremont St. 702.754.1225
The Laundry Room – 525 E. Fremont St. 702.291.7389
Lucky Day – 516 E. Fremont St. 702.291.7599
Park on Fremont – 506 E. Fremont St. 725.210.0306
Peyote – 1028 E. Fremont St. 725.210.0306
We All Scream – 517 E. Fremont St. 702.666.0313
Click here for your free subscription to the weekly digital edition of Las Vegas Magazine, your guide to everything to do, hear, see and experience in Southern Nevada. In addition to the latest edition emailed to every week, you’ll find plenty of great, money-saving offers from some of the most exciting attractions, restaurants, properties and more! And Las Vegas Magazine is full of informative content such as restaurants to visit, cocktails to sip and attractions to enjoy.
