Party on, Sin City

It’s a Saturday night in Las Vegas, and while “Desperate Housewives’ ” Eva Longoria hosts a cavalcade of stars at the grand opening of the Pussycat Dolls Lounge inside Caesars Palace, clubgoers are lined up hundreds deep to get into Caesars’ other new hot spot, Pure.

It’s the same scene outside of Light at Bellagio, Body English at the Hard Rock, Ra at the Luxor and Rain at the Palms. As Saturday night turns into Sunday morning, Ice Las Vegas, a bastion for top international DJ talent that is trying to prove a club can succeed in Vegas without the built-in traffic or backing of a hotel-casino, will face its own line of eager clubgoers.

Once inside the club of their choice, twenty- and thirtysomethings dance the night away, some paying $300 and more per bottle for the right to sit at a bottle-service table and be a player for a night.

Yes, Vegas is still the place to go for people who want to party. But where once the top-drawer clubs could be counted on one hand -- Utopia, the Drink and Club Rio in the early ‘90s, or Shark Club just prior to that -- today’s Vegas nightclub scene continues to boom.

It’s a place where the new kid on the block is granted immediate hot spot status until proved otherwise, and recently opened venues such as Pure and the Wynn Las Vegas’ La Bete are proving to be the top contenders to already established commodities such as Body English, Light and, to a lesser degree, Rain and Ra.

Extravagance comes at a cost, of course -- Body English came with a $7-million price tag, and Pure cost twice that. Although no figure was quoted for La Bete, insiders agree that it took at least $15 million to compete.

A top-of-the-line nightclub has become a requirement for the Vegas hotel, as evidenced by Wynn’s new digs. Among the prized jewels of the $2.7-billion hotel is La Bete (the Beast), a lush, fuchsia-and-gold club that calls to mind the elegance of European supper clubs.

La Bete’s most extraordinary feature might be the collapsible glass doors leading to an outdoor patio with tables, speakers so the music from inside keeps the party going, a lighted statue in the center of a pond, and an illuminated waterfall.

Such design flourishes are magnets for the glamorous. At the Pussycat Dolls Lounge opening in April, such stars as Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, Eliza Dushku, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf joined the fun. Even more turned out to party at Body English to celebrate the Hard Rock Hotel’s 10th anniversary two weeks ago. And last weekend, Blige and the Wallflowers performed at La Bete’s star-studded VIP opening, which drew the likes of Quincy Jones, Stephen Stills and actors James Van Der Beek and Claire Forlani.

Elizabeth Blau, Wynn’s executive vice president of restaurant marketing, says it was an absolute given the hotel would have a top-notch club. “We can look around and see what happened in Las Vegas,” she explains. “It’s part of the stock of what a great Las Vegas hotel has, like having a spa and like having a phenomenal show and great restaurants.”

Light opened up at the Bellagio three years ago, and by 12:30 or 1 a.m., prime partying time, the club is still packed. But Andy Masi, managing partner of the Light Group, is already looking ahead to the company’s next venture, which will open in the Mirage in December.

“We have to beat ourselves,” Masi says, seated in the sports book of the Bellagio. Next door, a line of people waits to go up the escalator into the red hallway that serves as the entrance to Light.

“When we came to Las Vegas there was no bottle service. So we came in, we kind of started this whole change-of-scene direction for nightclubs,” Masi says. “Now with Mirage we’re going to have some pretty things to take it one step forward. It’s got three separate rooms; it’s 18,000 square feet, and it’ll have three different styles of music.”

Caesars’ Pure has multiple rooms -- as does Ice, one of the city’s most successful free-standing clubs. The Vegas equivalent of L.A.’s supper clubs, Ice is the No. 1 destination for top DJs from around the world, with Deep Dish, Roger Sanchez and Erick Morillo among the A-list talent to perform there recently.

According to Neil Moffitt of Godskitchen, the promotions giant that books the Saturday talent at Ice, the club holds a unique place in the Vegas market. “We’re very much extracted from the marketplace. They are far more competitive with each other now,” Moffitt says of the hotel clubs. “We’re in a very fortunate position that the casinos know exactly what they want, which is middle-class white American music. That’s why you see them all fighting for the same hip-hop market; everybody gyrates to hip-hop. If you stand back you might look over and see a 60-year-old woman boogalooing to hip-hop -- that’s why the casinos love it and why they all continue to grow in that market.”

Where that market will end is anybody’s guess. Lorenzo Doumani, a veteran of the Vegas scene who used to own the Golden Nugget and Tropicana and is opening a new hotel, the Majestic, in early 2007, predicts the market will eventually be oversaturated. Brent Bolthouse, the Los Angeles promoter who is a partner in Body English, and Masi both agree.

However, they say don’t expect the fertile market to dry up anytime soon.

“At the end of the day, every hot place will be in Vegas within the next three years,” says Doumani, whose Majestic club, Heaven (which he describes as a cross between Skybar and Moroccan in feel), is already in the works. “If you can find it in Miami, New York, L.A., you’ll be able to find it in Vegas within the next few years. Everybody wants to have a place in Vegas.”

Steve Baltin can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The clubs, in spades

Light at the Bellagio

Info: Las Vegas Boulevard at Harmon Road. (702) 693-8300. 10 p.m.-4 a.m. Thursday through Sunday. Cover varies.

The scoop: Still packs in an upscale crowd, with the line beginning before 10. It’s worth the wait, though. The venue, with no VIP area, features tables and booths right out on the dance floor and has a warmer, more festive atmosphere than many of its peers.

*

Ice Las Vegas

Info: 200 E. Harmon Road. (702) 699-9888. 10:30 p.m.-5 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Cover varies.

The scoop: Offers big-name DJs and high energy. Takes its name from the liquid nitrogen fog machine that occasionally envelops dancers in a cloud of cool.

Pure at Caesars Palace

Info: 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S. (702) 731-7110. 10:30 p.m.-4 a.m. Friday through Tuesday. Cover varies.

The scoop: New kid on the block (until La Bete opened), Pure has attracted mega-lines to check out its three rooms (all done in white), people watch and dance to Top 40 and hip-hop.

*

Body English

at the Hard Rock

Info: 4455 Paradise Road. (702) 693-4000. 10:30 p.m.-4 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Cover varies.

The scoop: Bordering on a veteran at 1 year old, Body English reached elite status thanks to the hip crowd of the Hard Rock, a high celebrity quotient and an elegant motif.

*

La Bete at Wynn Las Vegas

Info: 3231 Las Vegas Blvd. S. (702) 770-7100. 10 p.m.-4 a.m. Thursday through Sunday. $25.

The scoop: Newest hot spot blends opulence (the specialty drink is a champagne cocktail with gold flakes and fine chocolates) and the sounds of a Vegas club, including Top 40 and hip-hop.

-- Steve Baltin