My friend who works for the local paper has been telling me about this place for months. She took the gay boyfriend and I to the bar at the Artisan while telling us it used to be a Travelodge. Ohhhhhkay?
Wow, it's beautiful with reproductions of artwork everywhere. I really dug it and it appealed to my inner artist.
However, my friend thinks the bartender has it out for her and did NOT recommend we order the mai tais as they're "sour." I ordered a French martini which she was curious to what it was made of. When I named off the ingredients, the bartender sort of blanched and said, "we have only a drop of Chambord left. I was going to sub some raspberry syrup in." Okay, that's fine but I wonder if he was going to tell us if I hadn't known the drink?
In any case, they were good enough to have two rounds of them. I loved that the bar has hooks for purses. Supposedly the place is very much hopping on Friday and Saturday nights and they tend to have a live DJ. My friend also said a lot of the performers for various shows hang out at the bar here. But we came on a Sunday night and it was fairly dead.
I wouldn't mind staying here if I had a car but it's pretty far off the strip.
Valet only.