Peek Inside the Newest Speakeasy on the Las Vegas Strip

Tucked away behind an unassuming doughnut stand, the newest speakeasy in Las Vegas takes the hidden bar trend and amps it up with the addition of live music, a deliciously vibey venue, and cocktails overflowing with smoke, flower petals, and sugared rims. Easy’s Cocktail Lounge is the newest venue to open inside the Proper Eats food hall at the Aria Resort and Casino. And while the false wall behind the cappuccino machine has only been giving way to a velvet-enrobed lounge for a little over a week, word is getting out about the new speakeasy.

Cocktails served inside glasses shaped like pipes, with smoke and candy cigarettes. — Smoke Show cocktail

Inside Easy’s, plush and velvet-upholstered loveseats are grouped into intimate seating areas that face the stage at the lounge’s rear. A cocktail menu displays illustrations of the bar’s offerings. Among them are three of what the bar describes as its “showstoppers.” Order the Shroomin’ ($50) cocktail and your server will set down a wooden plank covered in moss and oozing with fog. As the plank reaches the table, two glasses in the shapes of mushrooms appear to emerge from the wood, dusted with sugar and filled with a cocktail of gin, matcha, lemon, and honey. The Smoke Show ($50) cocktails are served with a cigar box filled with candy cigarettes, a smoking ashtray, and two cocktails of bourbon, banana liqueur, sweet vermouth, and chocolate bitters in glass barware that looks like pipes. The Heart of the Ocean cocktail ($50) blends tequila, orgeat, lime, blueberry, and a black sea salt foam for a briney inhale with every sip. It’s presented within a glass seashell, inside a bowl of real seashells and, of course, floating over a dry ice fog. Blue LED lights ensure it catches the eye as it moves from the bar to your table.

A cocktail inside a glass seashell, flowing with dry ice fog. — Heart of the Ocean cocktail

“Right off the bat, when we were in the early stages of planning the food stalls, we knew we wanted a speakeasy,” says John Pettei, a partner with Clique Hospitality — the group also behind the Barbershop Cuts and Cocktails speakeasy. “We came up with Easy Donuts and it was right in the name.” Pettei says that, since Easy’s quietly opened on February 4, visitors have approached the nondescript doughnut stand to ask if they are in the right spot. “We just tell them, ‘right this way,’” says Pettei.

A dimly lit bar with liquor bottles. — Easy’s

Five nights a week, the lounge hosts live music from one-person acts using loop pedals and multi-instrument bands who play modern music in the style of older jazz or swing genres. And food options are limited to those of doughnuts and caviar service. Three varieties of caviar are available, ranging from $130 for 30 grams of Siberian Supreme caviar to Imperial Golden Osetra Malossol at market price with the accouterments of fresh blinis, creme fraiche, chopped egg, and chives. Here, the Vegas-ification of caviar comes in the form of the ornately jeweled Faberge eggs that house each tin of caviar and the inclusion of two pours of Belvedere with each order.

Caviar presented inside ornately decorated eggs with a platter of blinis. — Caviar service

When seated, each party is met with a table equipped with a tea light, a yellow rose, and a tiered silver platter of dark chocolate coins and quartered strawberries. The signature cocktails are nearly as elaborate as the showstoppers. One called the 3 Lil Bears ($27) is so named for the three ice pop bears that are stacked in a collins glass and bathed in a fruity vodka cocktail. The Angel Eyes ($27) cocktail is a stunning pink and yellow color, with gin, cantaloupe juice, orgeat, lemon, prosecco, and a floating rose petal.