Las Vegas Weekly

One club, two worlds—Forbes Bar lives

Behold: the Forbes bar aka Dre’s domain.

Photo: Jessica Lynn

Sunday, November 1, 1:35 a.m.

There’s certainly no shortage of Halloween parties tonight—I can have my pick. At the bigger clubs on the Strip I could scream my lungs out till a Transformer shuffles away with $10,000 or, at the smaller, boutique-y clubs a She-Devil in red body paint and glitter pasties would inevitably get the moolah. But my lungs in specific are not necessary for either of those things to happen. I’d rather put my efforts where they’re most needed.

“If it weren’t so late, I’d suggest we get a drink!” my friend Mike says as we leave the Onyx Theater’s Rocky Horror Picture Show. Thank goodness for the end of daylight-saving time! Our next stop, I explain to Mike, will be at Jones and Spring Mountain in the northeast corner of the Mountain View Plaza strip mall. He eyes me strangely. “Just trust me,” I say, somewhat ominously.

Forbes KTV Restaurant and Nightclub is one of those places you simply have to see for yourself before passing judgment. Part video karaoke joint (hence, KTV), part underground afterhours club, Forbes is quickly becoming a staple of my nightlife diet, though I fear it’s catching on so fast I won’t have it all to myself for very much longer.

At a sprawling 11,000 square feet, Forbes is easily the largest and most opulent karaoke bar in Las Vegas. The 17 private, well-appointed suites can accommodate anywhere between 8 and 25 people. Suite host Jackie B. sets guests up with the screens that can play over 200,000 songs in eight languages including Japanese, English, Korean, and three dialects of Chinese. Members pay $500 per year and receive 25-30 percent off bottles and room minimums which run from $150 to $750. Non-members are also welcome to take advantage of the suites and the full kitchen, which is open from the time doors open at 8 p.m. to close, serving bar bites with Asian flair as well as more traditional items like lo mein, fried rice, duck gizzards and really delectable calamari.

Photo: Jessica Lynn

One of 17 private VIP suites at Forbes.

None of this being visible upon entry, I take Mike for a tour. But before one even gets to the suites, one cannot help but experience the other side of Forbes, the nightclub and bar side where a large dance floor is tricked out with a lighting grid and DJ stage, and backed by an LED graphics wall.

Nearly every stick at the intricately themed Forbes was shipped over from Beijing or Hong Kong. Dark woods, outrageous wallpaper, stone floors and mosaic tiles are everywhere you look. Glass tables dot the dance floor and the suites along with high-gloss lacquered bistro height tables. Forbes cost just around $3 million at build-out a year ago and was an instant hit, marketed exclusively to the Asian market: 50 percent locals and 50 percent tourists limo’d over from the big casinos. But that alone can’t support a behemoth karaoke bar, no matter how jaw-droppingly gorgeous it is.

To balance things out, the Asian co-owners brought in GM Paul Marrone, who, with his background in bar and nightclub operations, specializes in financially stabilizing new ventures. Around Chinatown he is something of a curiosity, one affectionately referred to as the White Devil, and tonight he wears his gleaming white suit and red horns proudly. In the eight weeks since Marrone took the helm at Forbes, the Philly native and five-year Vegas local has had his hands full, introducing Forbes to the greater Vegas market without alienating his Asian clientele. But he’s in no rush.

“My big goal here is to take the time to get the right clientele in,” he says. First came the staff, whom Marrone cherry-picked; popular local flair bartenders Dre and Jared came from Red Room, and Jamaal from Square Apple. Jessica Lynn, a well-known DJ and chanteuse—also from the Red Room—has helped introduce a whole new crowd to this great space, which is windowless, allowing the party to continue well past dawn.

“I want to build up a good locals crowd,” says Marrone, “so that they feel this is the industry local’s spot to come any time. They’re always welcome, they always know what they’re going to get.” Marrone’s frontline employees are the focal point of the Forbes experience. Even doorman Levi will remember you after just a visit or two. Try that on the Strip! Yes, surprise, surprise, we industry locals can be finicky, and there’s certainly no shortage of other options.

After the tour, Mike and I park ourselves first at the glowing bar and then in a VIP booth for one of Dre’s Old Fashioneds and some calamari. Asian tourists spill out of the suites, high on Grey Goose and Japanese pop, to mix with the diverse afterhours crowd on the dance floor as God and Marrone intended.

Slow and steady, word is getting out, which is fine by Marrone (aka Paulie, Uncle Paulie and sundry others). “I encourage people to visit. It really is the best-kept secret in Las Vegas.”

True, Forbes is still finding itself. This is a ground-floor opportunity for the right core audience to claim a new home for itself. And really, how often do those come around?