Anyone who has visited downtown Las Vegas may have noticed the changes over the past decade. Once untouched by most tourists and even locals except under the bright lights and comforts of the Fremont Street Experience, this area is a bargain for drinking, dancing, dining and cool vibes. has become a utopia. One of his streets to great fanfare is the Fremont East District. A night of revelry to remember is here. Thanks to Ryan Doherty and his company, Corner Bar Management.
Doherty, from Boston, had no intention of staying in Vegas. While studying hotel management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he decided to study for a semester on the UNLV exchange programme. That was him in 1996 and he’s been here ever since. While completing his undergraduate degree at UNLV, he immersed himself in the Las Vegas nightlife industry. That industry led him into the worlds of marketing, printing and media, and connected him to the deceased.
Zappos founder and downtown champion Tony Hsieh helped open up Doherty’s business-minded minds to Renaissance opportunities in a once-devastated and forgotten part of the city. By 2012, Doherty signed a lease on a building to open his first downtown venture, Commonwealth, in his East Fremont. This was followed by The Laundry Room (a speakeasy inside Commonwealth) and Park on Fremont, and his Hospitality his group, his Corner Bar Management, was launched. “We were overwhelmed with the romance of being downtown,” he says. “I got into making things. That was the main driving force. I started getting deeper into design. I wanted to keep creating more spaces. We started thinking that building a venue could bring life not only to the old building but also to the neighborhood.”
Over the past few years under the CBM umbrella, Doherty and his team have continued to add hot spots around Fremont East, including bars We All Scream, Lucky Day and Discopussy. Restaurant Peyote; and Bar Theater Hybrid Cheapshot. (CBM also ventured into the museum realm with the opening of Museum Fiasco in AREA15.)
“The best thing about having all these venues on the same street is that downtown feels more personal and intimate to me,” he says. We stopped inviting but now we invite our neighbors…our goal is to create a place where the community can come together, support the arts and spark conversation. We will continue to create new venues for
Of all Doherty’s venues, which one is his favorite? It’s his latest opening, Cheapshot, and the accompanying variety show. Mavericks from Miss Behave“I love this venue right now,” he says. “People always ask me what my favorite venue is, and I always say, ‘Everywhere next.’ There’s a recipe for throwing a really good party, but there’s a completely different recipe for staying on the show for 90 minutes and managing a lot of personalities.”
Turning to his other venues for tequila and mezcal lovers, Lucky Day loves spirits and a vast selection of creative cocktails. For lovers of his music, house and techno, Discopussy is like a return to his underground rave days. It has a warehouse-style space and a large dance floor that will keep your feet moving all night long. A mix of childhood whimsy and grown-up playground, We All Scream is an ice cream scoop hotspot with delicious cocktails, a monster sound system, and a huge hefty second-floor balcony overlooking the action of Fremont East. became.
Drinks flow freely in all his adventures, but guests want more than just buzz. “The trendier the bar, the shorter its lifespan,” he says. “Legacy is important in bars and we want to last for decades. My goal is to create a timeless venue that doesn’t feel gimmicky. It’s a large-scale art project, relying on technology, sonic immersion and visual stimulation to create an environment that feels more like an art installation than a bar.”
and he is right. See the graffiti murals strewn across We All Scream, the playful art-industrial space of Commonwealth, the secret gardens of Park on Fremont, the light exploding ceiling of Lucky Day, and the retro desert. Peyote’s patio design, and the vaudeville vibe and circus-style art he surrounds Cheapshot.
“We do our best to fill the space with art and make it very immersive,” says Doherty. “…our bar is one of my favorite galleries in the world. They are open all night and invite all who experience all walks of life. So many people who walk into the venue don’t know they’re entering a very carefully curated gallery full of contemporary art.”
More than 25 years after Doherty moved to the desert city, through his many career incarnations and many popular venues, we wrap up the conversation on what success looks like. “There is something special about rescuing an abandoned building and turning it into a working facility,” he says. “Doing it over and over in the same area not only brings the property back to life, but it brings the entire neighborhood to life. We want to leave Fremont Street better than we found it, and that will be our measure of success.”
All Venues 21+:
cheap shot – 17 E. Fremont Street, St. 100.702.239.3786
Commonwealth – 525 E Fremont Street 702.445.6400
discopathy – 512 E. Fremont Street 702.754.1225
laundry room – 525 E. Fremont St 702.291.7389
lucky day – 516 E. Fremont Street 702.291.7599
Fremont park – 506 E. Fremont Street 725.210.0306
Peyote – 1028 E. Fremont St 725.210.0306
We All Scream – 517 E. Fremont St 702.666.0313
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