Stage Door Dive Bar Reopens After Months of Whatever Was Happening in There
A popular dive bar just off the Las Vegas Strip, Stage Door Casino, is back after an extended closure for gawd-knows-what but probably repairs of some sort.
Stage Door closed in early July 2025 and reopened Nov. 15, 2025.
What is Stage Door, you ask? If you have the audacity to pose this question, you are clearly a layperson and should have your Las Vegas knowledge card revoked.
The technical name for Stage Door is “Stage Door Casino.” It’s not a casino. Stage Door is a casino like Cheez Whiz is cheese.
Stage Door is a seedy dive bar known for cheap drinks. An oasis of value in a desert of $24 cocktails.
It also serves up a freaking great hot dog and beer deal.
In honor of Stage Door’s reopening, we risked our life to visit the place and have the storied hot dog.
There’s a reason the Stage Door hot dog is storied. It’s very good.
It’s also cheap. We’re pretty sure it cost $3.50 for the hot dog and a beverage. (The Internet says the deal is $3. We didn’t get a receipt.) Most people get beer, but we have never had a beer due to it smelling like an “Oliver”-era London jail mattress.
We opted for a soda, same price, great deal.
Just lower your expectations when it comes to ambiance. Stage Door is a smidge gritty.
Stage Door is in the same building as another overrated Las Vegas institution, Battista’s Hole in the Wall restaurant.
Battista’s closed June 1, 2025, for the aforementioned reroofing and air-conditioning repairs.
After our Stage Door visit, we popped our head into the door at Battista’s and were informed the restaurant reopens Nov. 19, 2025. There are reservations being taken, so that’s confirmed. Just ignore the star rating. People are too focused on “food freshness and quality,” when they should be paying more attention to history or kitsch or something!
Gordy Jaffe, the Battista’s beloved accordion player, passed away in 2022. Cue the sad trombone. Because accordions are rarely sad.
If you’d like to give Stage Door a try, it’s at the corner of Flamingo and Linq Lane, across the street from Horseshoe.
Stage Door is sort of the Las Vegas people whine about missing while they’re having dinner at Venetian.
Stage Door closed for repairs, but it wasn’t a refresh or upgrade or renovation.
Stage Door is unpretentious and real. It’s definitely not for everyone.
Stage Door is a stubborn middle finger to all those billion-dollar Strip resorts. Almost nothing about Stage Door is curated or bespoke or ‘Grammable.
The clientele is a blend of locals, night-shift workers, vagrants (having to show I.D. at the door curtails a lot of that) and tourists who wandered in by accident and stayed because the drinks were so cheap.
There have been attempts to buy out Stage Door’s lease, as the parcel upon which it sits is very valuable. Caesars Entertainment tried and failed to buy out Stage Door and Battista’s, but nope.
As far as we know, the current owners plan to keep Stage Door going through the end of its lease in 2030. At least.
Fun fact: You can’t take drinks out of Stage Door, even soda. Licensing thing.
Our heart goes out to Stage Door and Battista’s because they’re reopening right in the middle of the shitshow that is F1. Like the vast majority of Las Vegas businesses, they are hurt badly due to the disruption caused by the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
It’s awkward to say it, but Stage Door is sort of a must-do for Vegas enthusiasts, like playing Sigma Derby at The D, buying a pre-roll from a fake weed store on Fremont Street, getting a massage in Chinatown, waving at a mermaid at Silverton, sitting through a timeshare presentation for Nathan Burton tickets or pretending to understand Omega Mart.
If you don’t like our list of Vegas must-dos, start your own blog and good luck with that.
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