Bars in Pahrump

Located on the Strip, Sitara Hookah Lounge packs fine puffing products into the age-old, long-hosed smoking vessel. Lean back in ultra-chic padded booths and spell your postman's name in the smoke with a Fumari or special Sitara blend tobacco ($15, $7 refill). Starbuzz and Al Fakher tobacco ($12, $6 refill) burn with pleasant flavored aromas as the hypnotizing sounds of the bubbling water base evoke ancient caves and modern percolators. Keep your mouth busy while waiting your turn at the hookah with Boba-brand drinks ($5) or sandwiches and assorted finger foods ($5+). Sit cross-legged like a sage within the quiet contemplative weekday atmosphere, or tap feet to the sound of music during more rambunctious weekends, when the lounge swells with people and single smoke rings searching for consonants to give their lives meaning.

Approximately $200 million dollars have been pumped into the Tropicana Las Vegas’ recent transformation, converting The Strip resort into a South Beach–inspired hot spot. Guests can try their luck in the 50,000-square-foot casino, outfitted with all the usual suspects—craps, blackjack, roulette, slots, and more—plus a high-limit area where big spenders place their bets amid custom Latin artwork and high-definition TVs. Beyond the casino, three distinct restaurants match every taste and budget, from the old-world Italian fare at Bacio to fresh seafood and top-cut steaks at Biscayne. At night, guests can rest their heads in luxurious, penthouse-style Sky Villa suites and single-bedroom Pool Villa bungalows.

While nightlife and gambling are the draw of Vegas, Tropicana hosts plenty of daytime carousing as well. Named the best Las Vegas pool by KLAS-TV in July 2010, the two-acre Tropicana swimming pool sparkles in the sunlight with crisp South Beach-esque furnishings, waterfalls, and private cabanas. Should it get too hot to doggie paddle, guests can trade in their swimsuit for a terry-cloth robe and head to the 10,000 square-foot Glow, a Mandara Spa, for a bamboo massage, lime and ginger salt glow, or a luck-restoring oxygen facial. Starting in May 2014, patrons can also grab seats for one of seven-weekly shows of the hit musical Mamma Mia!.

For an additional fee, special add-ons are also offered to allow for an elegant experience. Lodging includes The Paradise Suite, which allows customers to choose their perfect sleep setting, and The Club Spa Suite, a high-class couples suite. In addition to wedding floral arrangements, wedding photos can be taken by the pool, courtyard or chapel.

Cuisine Type: Italian and comfort food
Established: 2014
Reservations: Optional
Handicap Accessible: Yes
Number of Tables: 25–50
Parking: Parking lot
Most popular offering: Handmade pizza
Kid-friendly: No
Alcohol: Full bar
Delivery / Take-out Available: Yes
Outdoor Seating: No
Pro Tip: Our Brooklyn-style pizza has been a staple in the Las Vegas valley for more than 25 years.

Q&A with Steve Erdos, Owner

In your own words, how would you describe your menu?
Our menu is 100% authentic handmade Brooklyn-style pizza with top-quality bar food.

Is there anything else you want to add that we didn't cover?
Our founder is Sal Durizzo. He immigrated to New York from Naples when he was 12. By the age of 20 he was running Lenny's Pizza in Brooklyn. Later, he bought Lenny's and owned it for 35 years until coming to Las Vegas. Still in Las Vegas after 26 years of making pizza, Sal makes his sauce and dough fresh every day with his secret Italian recipe.

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As its name implies, Midtown Bar & Pizza Kitchen embraces the spirit and the ambiance of a sports bar as well as the cooking of a creative pizzeria. Flat-screen televisions line the entire wall behind the bar, allowing guests to keep one eye on the game as they relax with friends and enjoy a refreshing beer or a potent cocktail. Warehouse lamps hang above the banquette-lined row of tables that sits just opposite the bar, which ensures that visitors can easily find a place to sit before perusing the menu. The selection of appetizers features a variety of salads as well as orders of wings glazed with one of the 15 available savory, spicy, or imaginary sauces. Alternatively, diners can skip straight to building their own pizza by choosing either a hand-tossed or thin-crust pie, then adding as many as 25 toppings, including everything from homemade italian sausage and fresh garlic to carne asada and jalapeños. Midtown Bar & Pizza Kitchen also offers their signature pies, such as the lobster thermidor with rich lobster, thermidor sauce, and mozzarella, and the Shroomaroni, which is what happens when mushrooms and pepperoni fall in love.

The Franklin Institute brings hands-on science fun at Pennsylvania's most visited museum. Spanning three floors, the Institute gives a voice to human ingenuity—past and future—with hundreds of interactive exhibits such as The Giant Heart, Changing Earth, and Sports Challenge, as well as explosive live science shows, an indoor SkyBike ride, and the city's tallest IMAX theater,which is 5 stories high. Though now filled with a range of space-age attractions, the Institute began with single purpose.

The Background

Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating established The Franklin Institute in 1824, to honor the life and achievements of Benjamin Franklin. In the following decades, the Institute hosted forward thinkers such as Nikola Tesla, who gave a demonstration on wireless telegraphy in 1893. In 1930, the board decided to expand the space into a new science museum—and raised the funds in 12 days. The museum opened to the public in 1934—and in the same year hosted the first public demonstration of an all-electronic TV system.

The Highlights

A visit to The Franklin Institute’s includes access to three floors of permanent interactive exhibits including the iconic, two story tall Giant Heart. Other exhibits include Space Command, which invites visitors to recover an unmanned space probe and examine real astronaut equipment. At Changing Earth, visitors create their own weather patterns, play with steams of water, and build structures that can stand up to earthquakes or all-elephant 5Ks.

At various daily showtimes, the Franklin Theater’s high-contrast screen displays 3D films on animals, earth ecosystems, and human history. In the recently renovated Fels Planetarium, the second oldest in the nation complete with a rooftop observatory, audiences witness projections of weather and space spread across a 60-foot seamless aluminum dome. Daily live science shows draw an enthusiastic crowd, and interactive science carts invite visitors to observe a live heart dissection or try their hand at paper-making.

The Brentwood Cafe and Tavern has homey interior, where diners match their appetites against a menu of classic American dishes. Couples can display some PDA by feeding each other an appetizer of bomb diggity nachos or Tex-Mex rolls, arriving at mouths with spicy chicken, corn, black beans, and plane propeller noises. Or relax over a dinner of chicken piccata– chicken breast sautéed in white wine and lemon served atop a bed of linguini– followed by smores pizza for dessert. Moisten palates by taking swigs from a glass of cold beer or sipping a glass of wine.

Midday munchers can sate lunchtime cravings with the California sandwich hoisting fresh grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, mozzarella and avocado on a warm brioche. While sipping on refreshing iced tea, or chowing on the Brentwood burger, diners can occupy their eyes with one Brentwood's 15 TVs or exposed brick pillars and high ceilings instead of awkwardly locking eyes with their doppelgangers.