Getting back to bacchanalia

Hands are roaming and lips locking as Laura Brist and Rob Jaimes dance to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” in the wee hours of a scorching desert morning. When the song ends, the floor at BiKiNis empties, but the couple doesn’t notice until a stranger asks for their names.

“What’s your name?” the 24-year-old Jaimes, of San Jose, asks the woman he’s been devouring. “Laura,” she says softly, her face red with embarrassment. The 27-year-old from Pittsburgh is in Sin City for the first time and explains that she doesn’t behave that way back home. “It must be the atmosphere,” she says and giggles.

Must be.

Brist and Jaimes are partying in the city that has cornered the market on anonymity. And now that the town has dropped its family image, anything goes. Nowhere is it more evident than in the Strip’s proliferation of sprawling, steamy nightspots -- 18 new venues in roughly two years -- where you can dance until dawn among superstars and watch go-go girls shake their moneymakers for you at every turn.

Whether it was the economic downturn or the public’s preference, the push in the ‘90s to make Vegas a family destination was a failure. If the nightlife boom isn’t a clear enough indication of how far the pendulum has swung in the other direction, consider the current mayor -- with his own liquor endorsement deal, monthly martini parties for his constituents, and a convertible pink Cadillac complete with Elvis impersonator and showgirls for his public appearances.

These days, if you’re not spending the night at the slot machines or blackjack tables, there is an upscale nightclub or chic, intimate lounge that is open until dawn. Vixens taunt inside the warm waters of a Plexiglas hot tub at BiKiNis, while other shot girls wearing bikinis and go-go boots work the room, compelling partygoers to get on their knees to receive their liquor. Elsewhere on the Strip, dancers gyrate topless or nude behind backlit screens at Shadow Bar, swim sensuously like mermaids in Skin’s lavender pool, and let you dress and undress them as many times as you like at Studio 54. Go-go dancers, who seem subdued by comparison, entertain at Light, the spacious dance club modeled after the popular New York lounge.

The expansion comes at a time when the city is still recovering from a three-year tourism slump and several of the Strip’s themed resorts are building additional towers to attract more visitors. And under Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has been in office four years, the city adopted a new ad campaign: “What Happens Here, Stays Here.”

“Vegas represents freedom,” said Goodman, as an assistant filled his office refrigerator with Red Bull. “It’s a place where you can do whatever’s legal without worrying about who is noticing. It’s become a place where you really shouldn’t sleep.”

Still the Vegas economy’s rebound has been a gradual one.

“We’re virtually back to where we were before Sept. 11 in terms of visitors and income. And the adult nightclub boom is bringing a new type of clientele to Las Vegas -- younger people,” said Goodman.

In addition to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the stock market decline and the Iraq war contributed to the city’s economic slide. The number of visitors traveling to Las Vegas peaked at 35.8 million in 2000 and dropped to about 35 million in the last two years, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Last year, 35.1 million tourists visited Vegas, 28% of them from Southern California.

“If you look at Vegas historically, when new things are built, people do come out and take a look,” said Andrew Sasson, owner of several of the newest clubs: Light and Caramel at the Bellagio and Mist at Treasure Island. “The local market has grown a lot too, and it’s a market that goes out a lot and spends.”

Since November 2001, when the Palms Casino Resort opened its doors and threw its one-two-three punch at the Strip with the sexy Skin, slick Ghost Bar and massive 25,000-square-foot Rain in the Desert, and the Bellagio Hotel took its turn by unveiling the luxurious Light, the competition for hottest spot has been on.

This year alone, eight clubs and lounges have opened, signaling a new day for the Strip that involves much more than Celine Dion’s musical extravaganza. Like everything else inside the gargantuan hotels, nightclubs and bars are strategically placed around the casinos to tempt partygoers to gamble on their way in and out. But some lounges, like Caramel and V Bar, seek to create an isolated environment with interiors that drown out the constant ringing of the slot machines and roar of the casino floor.

Those running the club scene have even come up with a new nightspot category: the ultra-lounge, which is more about a highly designed, urbane atmosphere than the throbbing DJ-driven scene.

Case in point: Tabu, which opened at the MGM Grand Hotel in February and is the favorite among locals and tourists, hipsters and celebrities alike. With its ever-changing high-tech projected images that react to motion and are beamed onto the surfaces of funky coffee tables and the bar top, Tabu has earned the current top billing. Patrons of all ages dance on moving art on the tables and watch portraits emerge on the bar as they sip signature cocktails. Sexy waitresses change their lingerie uniforms in shifts, getting more provocative as the night wears on, while other phenomenally enhanced servers offer tequila shots from their bare bosoms.

“We’re moving to a new house, and the first thing I’m going to do is build a coffee table like this to dance on,” says Steve Strunk, a 52-year-old Las Vegas banker who danced for two hours on a recent Friday. “We love the mix of people here.” That is precisely in keeping with the spirit of the Strip’s new nightlife: There is something to tempt anyone who wants to let loose and explore new salacious territory, such as the topless pool opening at the Mandalay Bay Hotel next month.

For the youngest and most energetic partygoers, there are several vast nightclubs with high-tech special effects, including the 16-foot plumes of fire over Rain’s dance floor, bars that float inside pools at Baby’s, and a go-go dancer in a shower at BiKiNis -- the club at the Rio that feels like a never-ending spring break.

For the 30-to-50 set, the scene’s most sought-after market, there are intimate lounges, such as V Bar, Caramel and Mist, and ultra-lounges, like Risque, that allow dancing and partying in a softer and more sophisticated setting.

“The 30-to-50 market is what’s hot now,” Sasson said. “They’re not kids, but they’re still young and want to enjoy themselves -- and have the money to spend. That’s the market that is going to take ownership of Vegas. Vegas is just catching up.”

Bronson Olimpieri, a Los Angeles musician who now manages the V Bar at the Venetian Hotel, has noticed the changes at his lounge, the first to open on the Strip since the ‘90’s hotel boom.

“I still see a lot of shiny shirts, but I also see how Vegas is trying to become more hip and fashionable,” he said. “I don’t want just one look at V Bar. I want everything from pretty women to rock ‘n’ roll tattooed artists. I want an eclectic mix here, and you’re seeing that more and more at other spots on the Strip too.”

Without a doubt, the Palms Casino Resort is the hotel of the moment, with its star-studded parties and jampacked venues. If the long lines outside the hotel’s three clubs don’t speak for their popularity, check out the taxi line at 4 a.m. Because the Palms is off the Strip, cabdrivers are making more in tips than most bouncers if they agree to return hipsters to their respective hotels without making them wait.

Lines do not deter Dara Dupler and Allison Heckenkemper, who turn to shrieking expletives to describe how different Ghost Bar is from any lounge they’ve been to at home in Tulsa, Okla. The girls celebrated Heckenkemper’s 21st birthday at the Palms’ rooftop rendezvous made famous last year by MTV’s reality show, “The Real World.”

“As soon as we walked into the hotel, we knew where to go. We knew it from ‘The Real World,’ ” Heckenkemper says. “We never saw anything like this growing up. It’s beautiful up here. But we’re going to go check out Rain now. That’s supposed to be wild!”

The cable show -- with its requisite seven beautiful strangers, living together this time in a $2-million apartment built for them on the 28th floor of the Palms -- showed Americans how much they could get away with in Las Vegas, said Dez, the nightlife columnist for Lasvegas.com who alternates between being a virtual man and a virtual woman for laughs.

“So now they want to come to Vegas and do the same thing at the same place,” said Dez, who goes by David Fogg when he plays himself, the well-known DJ and lifelong scenester. “Until the next hotspot opens up.”

Though new clubs continue to open, not all are success stories. In the first five months of this year, three of the eight clubs that opened were at the Aladdin Resort & Casino. The resort hotel, which declared bankruptcy in 2001, recently changed ownership and is undergoing a revamp that will transform it into a Planet Hollywood-themed casino. Curve, the year-old nightclub in the hotel’s exclusive London Club, has lost its sizzle and will be revamped. Already, the Aladdin’s new Latin supper club, Sevilla, has closed and will open under a different ownership and name.

The hotel’s surviving clubs include Crustacean Las Vegas’ Club Prana, an upscale French Vietnamese supper club owned by the An family of Crustacean in Beverly Hills; and Ibiza USA, a mega-dance hall with cascading foam best known as an after-hours alternative for the youngest set.

Sister lounges Caramel and Mist, which opened in January at the Bellagio and Treasure Island respectively, offer a more relaxing setting for conversation and cocktails before dinner or after spending a few hours at a cavernous club. OPM, a nightclub above Chinois at Caesars Palace, fuses Eastern and Western designs but has yet to catch fire.

“Overall the new places are doing well, but some do open and close within six months,” Dez said. “A place like Risque [at Paris Las Vegas], which was very slow, gets promoters from out of town and they bring in 300 people with them, and that puts them on top.”

Another factor increasingly dominating the scene on the Strip and sparking the heat is the number of celebrities who are flying to Las Vegas to play at the Palms and other hotel hotspots. Light, at almost 2 years old, is a mecca for professional athletes and Hollywood’s jet-setters. For that same reason, the $7-million Tabu stands as the next darling. But that doesn’t mean that partygoers are not having a blast elsewhere on the Strip.

Brian Peters, a local interior designer, thoroughly enjoys undressing a male model and then dressing him in a plastic white doctor’s uniform at Studio 54’s Thursday night party, the “Doll House.” While go-go dancers perform in cages, clubgoers can choose fetish costumes from a wardrobe closet for male and female models who get paid to play dress-up.

“It’s a great way to get people involved,” Peters says. “Go-go dancers are usually untouchable.... It’s just a sexy party for everyone.”

Meanwhile, Chase Cobb and Jill Delozier, club connoisseurs, sip champagne and take in the views from their private Strip balcony at Risque. Cobb, 25, and Delozier, 23, attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas and can offer a better rundown of the Strip’s scene than any Zagat guide. With its plush couches, expansive ottomans and VIP balcony views that give Ghost Bar a run for its money, Risque is Cobb’s new favorite.

“Clubs put pressure on you to be a certain way,” Cobb says. “This is more of a club where you can dance and step back. It doesn’t feel like you have to wear designer clothes to come in, but if you are wearing that, you feel comfortable too.”

At the V Bar, Tina Coombs and her 13 girlfriends who traveled from Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Texas to celebrate a 30th birthday are hanging out on a double-sided chaise lounge. “This is the epitome of Vegas in every movie I’ve seen,” Coombs says. “I love everything in here: the people, the music and the clothes.”

Lee and Linda McQuarrie of Philadelphia are in town celebrating their third wedding anniversary. On this Friday night, they are at Shadow Bar, where Linda thinks the girls are hot and Lee thinks they’re not. The cozy lounge at Caesars Palace showcases bartenders who juggle and do back flips, and shadow dancers, such as Brandy Beavers (not a stage name, she frets), who fancies herself as the “pioneer of Jacuzzi dancing” at BiKiNis.

“This is all right, but it’s not trendsetting,” complains Lee, a shoe-in for a younger Ozzy Osbourne. “I’m from the East Coast and I’m about what is happening now.” In that case, Lee might want to head downtown, where the rundown ghost town of a historic district is undergoing a revival that could shape up to be the next red-hot thing.

Last Thursday’s opening of the Ice House, a 13,000-square-foot restaurant lounge across from the Clark County Government Center, drew 2,000 patrons and set the stage for a hoped-for revitalization. The $5-million venue sits on Main Street, not far from the city’s original icehouse and near a planned monorail station that in 2007 will connect the district to the Strip. Beyond the Ice House, though, this remains for now a section of town that has seen better days. The long-range plan is to turn downtown decay into an urban village where residents live in lofts and can walk to restaurants, bars and clubs and a performing arts center. Goodman, who is spearheading the project, hopes the art deco venue will become as hip as the Hard Rock Hotel and be revered for its photos of old Las Vegas.

Travelscape Web reservation entrepreneurs Tim Poster and Thomas Breitling recently purchased the historic Golden Nugget for $215 million and plan to turn it into a chic boutique hotel. The new district will be built among the casinos, instead of inside them.

“You don’t have to walk through the casino and you don’t have to walk through a different country like France or Italy or the Desert Passage,” said Dez. “It’s going to be a lot more down-to-earth.”

Is that possible in a town where everything, from the buildings to what’s inside them, is larger than life and people never have to be who they are?

“This is the best place I could have picked for my divorce party,” says attorney Melinda Clark, 32, of Kansas City, Kan., cuddling and smooching with a Nashville medical student she had just met at the Ghost Bar. “The views here and being outside really make it a different experience. That and the notion that you’re in this place where anything goes and everybody’s diggin’ that.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Vegas’ Hottest Nights

Monday

The House of Blues Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay Hotel -- the only night the exclusive club is open to the public.

Tuesday

The Palms Casino Resort is your ticket. Start off at Skin, the poolside lounge, and then go to the 55th floor to chill at the MTV-famous Ghost Bar.

Wednesday

Mandalay Bay’s China Grill turns into the Dragon Lounge for a good hump-day party. Baby’s at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is still a hip night.

Thursday

V Bar at the Venetian Hotel for a vibey funk and soul night or Ra at the Luxor for hip-hop.

Friday

Tabu, the MGM Grand lounge where you can dance on coffee tables, is a hit. So is the huge nightclub, Rain, at the Palms.

Saturday

Tabu is a winner again. Risque, the new ultra-lounge at the Paris Las Vegas, has deep house and progressive music in one room, hip-hop in another.

Sunday

Light at the Bellagio Hotel is the winner, but it’s a good idea to get your start at V Bar for a sexy neo-soul and reggae night.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Where to find the new Las Vegas nightspots

1. Aladdin Resort & Casino,

3667 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Curve Fri.-Sat., 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.

(702) 785-5525.

* Crustacean Las Vegas’ Club Prana Fri.-Sat., 11:30 p.m. until dawn.

(702) 650-0507.

* Ibiza USA Tue., Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. until dawn. (702) 836-0830.

2. Bellagio Hotel,

3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Caramel Bar and Lounge Weekdays,

5 p.m. to 4 a.m., Sat.-Sun., noon to 4 a.m.

(702) 693-8393.

* Light Thu.-Sun., 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

(702) 693-8300.

3. Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Shadow Bar Mon.-Thu., noon to 4 a.m., Fri. 11 a.m. through Mon. 4 a.m. (702) 731-7110.

* OPM Thu.-Sun., 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

(702) 369-4998.

4. Mandalay Bay Hotel,

3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Foundation Room at House of Blues. Mon. only, “Godspeed” party, 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. (702) 632-7606.

5. MGM Grand Hotel,

3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Tabu Tue.-Sun., 10 p.m. until dawn.

(702) 891-1111.

6. New York-New York Hotel & Casino, 3790 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Coyote Ugly Nightly 6 p.m. to 4 a.m.

(702) 740-6330.

7. Palms Casino Resort,

4321 W. Flamingo Road

* Ghost Bar Nightly from 8 p.m. to dawn. (702) 938-2666.

* Rain in the Desert Thu., 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., Fri. and Sat., 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

(702) 940-7246.

* Skin Tue. only, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

(702) 942-7546.

8. Paris Las Vegas, 3655 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Risque Wed.-Sun., 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

(702) 946-4589.

9. Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino,

3700 W. Flamingo Road

* BiKiNis Thu.-Sun., 10 p.m. until dawn.

(702) 777-6582.

10. Treasure Island Hotel,

3300 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* Mist Nightly, 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.

(702) 894-7330.

11. Venetian Hotel, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S.

* V Bar Nightly 6 p.m. to 4 a.m.

(702) 414-3200.

* The Venus Nightclub Wed.-Sun., 6 p.m. until dawn. (702) 414-1000.