Other Mama's David English Shares His Three Favorite Bars in Las Vegas

Sin City is home to a lot of restaurants and bars, but there are tons of hidden gems that the majority of Las Vegans aren't unearthing. To help guide us to these potential discoveries, we've enlisted some of our city's beverage players to share their recommendations for a random feature dubbed Cocktail Confidential. Know a bartender who wants to share some top cocktail spots? The tipline is open.

David English started bartending in college as a side gig while he was studying chemical engineering at Florida State University and quickly fell in love with that side of the hospitality industry. For the past decade, he’s worked in every type of bar from high-volume college nightclubs, rooftop lounges and restaurants to mega clubs in Las Vegas. At Other Mama, he says he puts all of his skills together with the bar program. “This project has become an opportunity to treat the bar the same way a chef treats his kitchen. I have been challenging myself to act like the talented gentlemen in the kitchen at Other Mama and take a cocktail and craft every element of it by hand and do so in a simple yet elegant manner. I feel that it's great to work with set recipes and pre-made ingredients, however my cocktails are very much so uniquely my own since most of the ingredients are hand crafted in house.”

Here, English shares his three favorite places to drink when he’s not being creative behind the bar at Other Mama.

Which bars or lounges do you turn to when you’re not working?
Herbs & Rye, Sand Dollar Lounge and The Velveteen Rabbit.

Which cocktails are most memorable?
Herbs & Rye is an oblivious choice. Some of the best handcrafted classics in all of Las Vegas.

Sand Dollar Lounge,  plain and simple, is my beer and shot bar.

At Velveteen Rabbit, my favorite is a tap beer and an absinthe fountain.

Why do you enjoy going there?
What makes Herbs & Rye great is that Nick T. delivers a great escape from the Strip, especially for us in the industry. It's high quality libations for booze nerds. Try the bartender’s choice.

The ambiance at Sand Dollar Lounge is great. Owned by some of the industries best, and a special little secret for those in the industry.

The Velveteen Rabbit, what can I say? It's like Pinterest opened a cocktail lounge. Great ideas all lumped in one little shotgun room. They have a serious backbar. Tons of toys for their mixologist to mix you something unique and tasty.