Liquid Diet
Bar · Gateway District ·
Inventive cocktails using culinary techniques, rotating menu
Inventive cocktails using culinary techniques, rotating menu
"Winner of the Best New Bar of the Year in the 2023 Eater Awards, this downtown bar is tricky to find, with an unmarked entrance off an alley in the Gateway District. But inside, find a bar decorated in witchy imagery and some of the city’s best cocktails. The menu rotates nightly, but if you’re lucky enough to pop in when the pico de gallo michelada is on the menu, order it — the delightfully refreshing drink has a salty cilantro rim." - Janna Karel
"A cocktail bar known for an ever-changing lineup of inventive drinks that emphasize creativity and seasonal techniques." - Janna Karel
"Tucked in an unmarked former auto garage off an alley in the Gateway District, Liquid Diet’s witchy decor and its two owners’ obsession with cocktails produce standout drinks like a pico de gallo michelada made using clarified tomato "water" and a cilantro-salt rim—tangy, salty, almost sweet—while the nightly-shifting menu also yields a super smooth malted mudslide, a clear-your-sinuses horseradish shot, and a Gibson riff with vodka, bay leaf, pickled shallot, and black pepper; it feels like a boon for the burgeoning Gateway District." - Janna Karel
"Tucked into a 70-year-old auto garage at 1415 South Commerce Street near Imperial Avenue in the burgeoning Gateway District, I discovered a new downtown Las Vegas bar with slightly spooky decor, an intriguingly large open kitchen, and an obsessive, hands-on vibe from owners Bret Pfister and Patrick Mannion; it was packed even during its soft opening. What stands out is the rotating lineup of food-inspired cocktails, especially the pico de gallo michelada: Mannion revived old-school tomato water—suspending tomatoes in cheesecloth chains over the expansive kitchen island—to create a crystal-clear tomato essence that he blends with red onion and cilantro, carbonates, and pours with beer, finishing the drink with a bright, textured rim made by freezing cilantro with liquid nitrogen and smashing it with salt. He also uses other modern techniques—sweet dates spun in a centrifuge for a date-washed old-fashioned and an ice machine that makes large bricks of glassy ice he hand-carves into cubes and spheres—and the menu sometimes features an elegant, not milkshake-y malted mudslide, a Gibson-inspired martini using bay leaf–infused vodka with pickled shallot and black pepper, and a horseradish shot for sushi eaters. The owners intentionally preserved much of the industrial, brick-wrapped interior, hung roadside tree branches from the ceiling, sourced much of the furniture cheaply, and kept the bar tricky to find with minimal signage at the side entrance off Imperial and the patio entrance behind Main Street; the bar opens at sunset Wednesday through Sunday and closes at 1 a.m." - Janna Karel
"Designed to feel like a moody, unpretentious house party thrown in a basement of teenage witches, this Arts District bar emphasizes intimate, shoestring-budget decor and rotating cocktail selections made with house-made syrups, juices, and sodas; the tight, changeable menu and dusky lighting aim to create a lively, ever-evolving neighborhood nightlife spot." - Janna Karel