Some call it fate—the way life unfolds as you connect the dots. When one thing leads to another and brings you right where you want to be. When it comes to his career, that’s how it happened for Chris Leavitt, mixologist for Barry’s Downtown Prime at Circa Resort & Casino.
After graduating from Penn State University, Leavitt got a job in pharmaceutical sales and was sent to Las Vegas on a business trip. While he was in town, he decided to visit the many bars (he worked as a bartender while he was putting himself through college) and wanted to check out the local industry. “I got a sense and a feel for what this town was all about from that point of view, and realized the caliber and skill was so much higher than I had ever seen before,” Leavitt says.
After he went home, he couldn’t get the idea out of his head; he knew at that point he was done with sales and wanted to bartend full time. So he made the move to Vegas in 2016.
Over the next few years, Leavitt sharpened his skills, bartending for hot spot Carson Kitchen, then working as a mixologist consultant for Red Rock Resort and Palms, where he helped launch the cocktail program for Scotch 80 during that property’s multimillion-dollar rebranding. Then, for personal reasons, he returned to his home state of Pennsylvania. A couple of years later, he got an offer to come back to Vegas from the team he worked with at Scotch 80, which was now opening Barry’s. He jumped at the chance to come back.
“I’m super lucky to be a part of this team, just on the level of passion that everyone has here, from the kitchen to the front of the house,” Leavitt says. “My career—it’s been a crazy ride, honestly. Every step I’ve taken, every job, to be a part of all these great things. To work where I’ve worked. It’s all been more than I’ve ever expected. It’s all led to Vegas and my career. I feel so happy and grateful.”
Libation: Barry’s Downtown Prime Old-Fashioned
“The bar program focuses on elevating the classics,” Leavitt says. “What you hope to do is tell a better story, make it more unique—our version of the classics.” A perfect example is the best-selling Barry’s Downtown Prime Old-Fashioned. It’s mixed with Bulleit Rye Frontier whiskey, cherry bark, vanilla bitters, chocolate bitters and a specially blended Chinese five-spice syrup. It’s finished with chocolate shavings on the top.
Benefit: Ask about the impressive cocktail cart—tableside preparations of Old-Fashioneds and Manhattans.
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