From the name, you might reasonably expect Viking Mike’s to be full-on longships and horned helmets. Yes, the “Alpine yurt bar,” recently opened in the Arts District, has hand-carved Norse totems flanking its front door. Its cocktail list is a proper aquavit delivery device, with several tasty drinks based on the caraway-forward spirit. The circular “yurt” room, with its exposed wood beams, is serving Oslo. And Scandinavian-styled design touches and special effects manifest themselves throughout. Taxidermy deer heads keep sentinel watch, the Northern Lights shimmer over the bar, and a sharp blast of arctic air hits you in the entryway, which is technically a walk-in freezer.
But in creating Viking Mike’s, operating partners Dan Coughlin (Le Thai) Jerad Howard (Vesta Coffee Roasters) and Michael Stoll didn’t aim for absolute verisimilitude. Yurts are from inner Asia; the closest Nordic equivalent is probably the lavvu, like the North American tipi. And Vikings never wore horned helmets; someone made that up for an opera. (Anthropologists, feel free to slide into my DMs.) There isn’t even a Viking Mike; Coughlin, Howard and Stoll named the bar for a non-Viking friend named Mike, in hopes of getting him to stay in Vegas. (He didn’t, though Howard says no less than five other Mikes worked for the bar at opening.)
Mikkel-Tai cocktail
Instead, they aimed squarely for a feeling—a vibe unlike anything else in Vegas, roughly based on a similar yurt bar just outside of Park City.
“There’s something about a round structure that’s very communal and very different. It has a different type of social energy to it,” Howard says. “We really wanted to try to recreate that.”
It does. Winter or summer, Viking Mike’s will feel like a mountain escape. The drinks—particularly the Cosmopolitan-inspired Yggdrasil ($17), with its blend of scotch, housemade krupnikas (spiced honey liqueur), Gilka Kummel herbal liqueur and cranberry juice; the Valkyrie, a “Viking gimlet” ($18) with Becherovka, vermouth, tonic, spruce, lemon and, naturally, aquavit; and the Lunch Box Nog ($14), literally a bottle of Hood River Distillers’ cinnamon and peppermint Ullr Nordic Libation upended in a box of Yoo-hoo chocolate milk—have the feel of beloved classics kissed by a glacier.
The beer list runs from an $8 Donna’s pickle beer to a $135, 750 milliliter Cantillon Ashanti, a Belgian Lambic ranked an “outstanding” 94 on BeerAdvocate. The German and Alsace wine list is deep and impressive, featuring a 2021 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Riesling ($318), a Koehler Ruprecht Chardonnay Kabinett ($36) and more borderline unpronounceable revelations. And yes, my little Loki, there’s a mead list, which begins with a 750 milliliter Dansk Mjod Odin’s Skull ($65) and only gets more Valhalla from there.
Girl Dinner cocktail
Also, don’t Odinsleep on the food. The house bratwurst ($15), served with curry ketchup and mustard, savory potato “house browns” ($9) and curated Alpine cheese plate ($16) are splendid complements to Viking Mike’s unique cocktails, decor and feel. It all comes together in a comfortable camaraderie and sense of place you’d never expect to find in one of the hottest cities in the U.S. The spirit of the hospitality is established the second you enter through the arctic “walk in”: Take off your woolen cloak, loosen your axe and stay a while.
“The idea is to reset your expectations at the door,” Howard says, politely tipping his horns.
VIKING MIKE’S 1500 S. Main St., vikingmikes.com. Wednesday– Sunday, 4 p.m.–12:30 a.m.
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