LAS VEGAS -- A proposed bar is trucking ice from Canada and shipping spring water from New Zealand to create a drinking establishment made entirely with frozen aqua -- the bar, the seats, even a wedding chapel -- and kept so cold that patrons must don parkas and mittens to go inside.It's under construction at Mandalay Bay.The creators of the $3 million establishment, Minus 5, not only realize the irony of building an igloo in the desert, but they hope to capitalize on it."We picked Vegas because of the desert," Minus 5 Group founder Craig Ling says. "It's always great to have an ice bar in the desert."Ling says his bar is as light on Mother Nature as any other nightclub. All the chillers and the two backup generators that will keep the walls from melting should the power go out are super-efficient, and the melted ice from glasses and furniture will be offered to Mandalay Bay's potted plants, he says.The bar will use more than 12,000 gallons of water just to make its ice every month or so."It's a neat gimmick in the desert, but once again it illustrates the excesses that we market," says Launce Rake, a spokesman for the environmental group Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.Where there's a fake Paris, a fake Venice, a fake Egypt, a fake Rome, why not a fake ice floe too?Ling says he expects it will draw 2,500 to 3,500 people a week.You'll have to check your madras shorts and stilettos at the door, though. Standard-issue parkas, mittens and ski boots -- "the latest in Eskimo chic," according to operations manager Anthony Leenders -- are required to survive a chilly (and pricey) half-hour in the Minus 5 Lounge.The temperature will actually be minus 5 degrees -- Celsius, that is -- in the club. That's a chilly 23 degrees Fahrenheit, a full 75 or 80 degrees lower than a typical Vegas summer day in the shade.The lounge will be so cold guests will be allowed to stay only half an hour. (Even employees with special cold-busting suits are limited to 45-minute tours of duty.) The $30 price of admission includes one drink, although each of the 50 patrons allowed inside at a time may purchase an additional two drinks during their half-hour stint. But the only booze available at the ice bar is vodka. And no cameras are allowed. Professional photographers will snap shots of guests and sell them for $25 at the door.The nightspot will also feature an adjacent Aspen-style ski lodge, where customers can thaw out between stints in the Arctic, and a shop where visitors can stock up on mukluks, furry hats and parkas before venturing back into the scorching Vegas sun.In the chapel, bride and groom will have the option of wearing faux-fur capes.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Post new comment