Last Call for Las Vegas’ Iconic Downtown Cocktail Room

The Downtown Cocktail Room, ground zero in the explosion of the Fremont East Entertainment District in downtown Las Vegas, will close in November.

“The Downtown sign (has) been a beacon for those seeking great cocktails and groovy city vibes for almost 18 years, but like all other things in life, eventually it must come to an end,” read a post on the bar’s Instagram page Saturday morning.

No reason for the closure was offered.

“Nooooooooo,” commented Jonathan Jossel, CEO of downtown’s Plaza Hotel & Casino. “If it wasn’t for Downtown Cocktail Room, good chance I wouldn’t have spent the last 17 years in Las Vegas in downtown. Wow.”

There’s a good chance that thousands of people wouldn’t have.

That’s because the Downtown Cocktail Room (DCR) was where Tony Hsieh, the late former CEO of Zappos, hatched the idea to revitalize downtown Las Vegas by relocating the world-famous shoe retailer there from Henderson, Nev.

In 2010, Hsieh was at the DCR, discussing with owner Michael Cornthwaite his idea to create a new, Google-like headquarters for Zappos in the desert outside Las Vegas.

Suddenly, Cornthwaite asked him, “Why don’t you just build that here?”

The result of Cornthwaite’s suggestion — plus a $350 million injection of Hsieh capital, thanks to Amazon’s acquisition of Zappos for $1.2 billion in July 2009 — began revitalizing the area immediately east of the Fremont Street Experience in January 2012.

Eventually, it transformed from a crime hub to the hipster haven known as the Fremont East Entertainment District.

Downtown Downturn

But Hsieh, whose nitrous oxide-tainted behavior grew increasingly bizarre, quit Zappos and abandoned Las Vegas in August 2020, relocating to Park City, Utah. Three months later, he was dead at age 46 in a Connecticut house fire.

Ever since, Fremont Street East has been in a conspicuous state of decline punctuated by abandoned storefronts and half-empty streets.

Last September, Hsieh’s estate sold the DCR, as well as Inspire Nightclub & Bar, Corduroy, the Griffin, Smashed Pig and Flippin’ Good for $14.6 million to local real-estate magnate Branden Keating’s Logic Commercial Real Estate.

When Scott Roeben of Casino.org’s own Vital Vegas broke that news, he noted, “Tony Hsieh’s deep pockets often bolstered the viability of businesses on Fremont Street, including subsidizing rents. Without Hsieh’s help, some have floundered.

“We would not be surprised if there were more changes to come in this stretch of Fremont East following a change in landlords.”

And this appears to be one of them.

The DCR’s Instagram post concluded with: “Thanks for the enormous love and support over the years.”