Las Vegas Weekly

August 8, 2008 · 9:32 AM

Ice, ice, to the extreme: Minus 5 set to open at Mandalay Place

By Robin Leach

Minus 5 Lounge.

Photo: Minus 5

It’s not a case of just "on the rocks" -- the entire place is made from ice! That’s the cold, freezing fact about the first Vegas lounge to be made entirely from the frozen blocks!

The global ice-age has begun right here in the desert! The Minus 5 bar is currently under construction at Mandalay Bay and will open next month with plans to become the hottest nighhtlife destination. Vegas gets the first permanent ice lounge experience, which will be expanded later to New York, Miami and Los Angeles. To sneak a peak at this “cool” venue, go to YouTube.

“We look forward to being the first full-sized ice lounge attraction of this kind in the United States. We take pride in being one of the most visited man-made attractions in Australia and New Zealand, and look forward to recreating that experience in the U.S.,” said Craig Ling, president and founder of Minus 5. “We are excited to introduce what is a truly unique experience to an American audience and we believe Las Vegas is the perfect city to continue our global expansion.”

The Minus 5 Ice Lounge, named for its constant frosty temperature of minus-five degrees Celsius (27 degrees Fahrenheit) is currently under construction and set to open in September at Mandalay Place, adjacent to Mandalay Bay. Everything inside the 1,200-square-foot Minus 5 Ice Lounge is made of ice, including the walls, the bar, the sculptures, the chairs, and even the glasses, from which guests sip exotic vodka cocktails (non-alcoholic “mocktails” are available for guests under 21). To ensure guest comfort in the sub-freezing environment, guests are provided with winter gear that includes sheepskin-lined parkas, gloves, and booties.

“Minus 5 celebrates the art of ice, and we continually re-invent the experience by recreating the lounge and sculptures every 6-8 weeks,” said Ling. “We take enormous pride in the quality of our product and the uniqueness of this experience.” So much so that the Minus 5 ice sculptures and other fixtures are carved from crystalline Canadian ice and then shipped to Las Vegas where they are re-assembled on-site at Minus 5. The ice cocktail glasses are made from pure New Zealand spring water and are shipped in their frozen form all the way from Kiwi-country.

A world-leader in sub-freezing attractions, Minus 5 debuted in Auckland in 2002 then expanded to Queenstown 2003, Sydney 2005, Gold Coast 2006, and Portugal in 2008. The newly announced U.S. Minus 5 attractions are part of a global expansion that is moving at anything but a glacial pace, with additional Minus 5 international venues secured and in development in India, Singapore, Dubai, and Manila for 2009 openings.

“Minus 5 is far from a freezer, as many of our competitors have learned. We spent more than two years developing and engineering our concept and the result is a comfortable, arid ice environment for our patrons that involves no wind, wind chill or humidity inside the ice lounge – a rarity for attractions of this nature,” said Ling, who has painstakingly sought out the best ice carvers and researched the purest water from New Zealand springs in order to create glasses made of ice.

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