The Garden Las Vegas grows into gay nightlife hot spot

The room has gone from gray to green.

Eduardo Cordova scans his surroundings.

Not so long ago, this green-hued nightspot and restaurant now was drab and out of date, a dormant seed that needed serious watering, waiting to bloom.

“This place was just a shell,” says the owner of The Garden Las Vegas and looks at his club on a new day of the week, his fresh blonde hair shining like the afternoon sun. “I designed all the stands. We painted that ourselves. We did the entire design ourselves.

“I knew what I wanted,” he continues. “I had the vision. I knew it would work. “

It has.

Since opening in the Arts District a year ago, The Garden Las Vegas has grown into one of the hippest gay bars in town – Cher even stopped by.

The weekend drag queen brunches are particularly popular, regularly selling out two shows on Saturdays and Sundays and attracting a large, diverse audience in a vibrant melting pot.

“We see local people coming out who are not necessarily part of the gay community,” says Coco Montrese, a veteran drag queen, former Miss Gay America and “RuPaul’s DragRace” candidate who performs at The Garden. “And that means a lot, because what I hear from these guests is that they now have more understanding of the community because they can spend time with the people in the community in a fun place.”

A native of California and a regular at the Garden, Matt Hayes has seen so much firsthand.

“Sometimes you see three generations of a family sitting there,” he notes, “which is interesting for any bar or restaurant, but especially for an LGBTQ bar and restaurant that has one member of the community, one parent or even two parents and a grandparent. You are watching a drag show.

“It’s very unique,” ​​he continues. “I don’t think it would have happened in Vegas five to ten years ago.”

The Garden’s success has already made Cordova think beyond the space he is currently sitting in.

He recently signed a lease on a 7,000-square-foot lot on nearby Main Street that he will convert into the Queen Bar, a drag bar set to open later this year.

“For me, a gay village in the neighborhood can do it,” he explains. “It was a journey to come here. It’s definitely a milestone – not just for me, but for the entire community. I’ve dreamed of having a space where we can grow and be proud of. “

“Eduardo, you are crazy”

It was a rough part of town for a long time with an even rougher nickname.

For decades, Las Vegas gay nightlife has largely been synonymous with a gravelly stretch of Paradise Avenue and Naples Drive colloquially known as the “Fruit Loop,” a questionably titled mini-district dotted with groundbreaking clubs past and present such as FreeZone, Piranha night club and gypsies.

While these spots have played an important and enduring role in the city’s gay community – even if like Gipsy they no longer exist – Cordova is striving for something different, a little more mainstream.

Since moving to Vegas from his native Arizona in 2008 and immersing himself in the local gay scene, he has tried to bring the gay nightlife to the Strip and then to other parts of the city where it previously had little presence.

“I felt we needed a space that was in the middle and at the center of everything,” he explains, “because the old gay concepts were in the dark and hidden from the mainstream.”

And so, over a decade ago, Cordova kicked off Closet Sundays at the Cathouse in Luxor, the first of its kind on the Strip, before being recruited by the Light Group to do the same at Revolution at The Mirage.

From there he worked with Bare Pool, Share Nightclub and Victor Drais Liaison Nightclub at Bally’s, the first gay nightclub in a casino on the Strip.

In the end, however, Cordova wanted his own place.

“After leaving Victor Drai’s liaison, I said, ‘I’ll never do anything gay until there’s a real need and I’ve found the right place with the right job,'” he says. “It took me about six years. I was actively looking for a place. I probably know every single space available on Fremont and here in the Arts District. “

Cordova originally planned to open a facility in Fremont East and consulted with Tony Hsieh on the project for a number of years.

But since Hsieh was constantly busy with numerous other endeavors, Cordova turned his attention to the downtown arts district instead.

He had a lot of ideas – and skeptics.

“I believe creating a unique venue that offers different types of experiences would definitely be a success,” says Cordova. “Of course there was a risk and there was resistance. I had friends from LA, gay bar owners, who came and visited. I showed them the room and they said, ‘Eduardo, you are crazy. It’s in the middle of nowhere. How the hell are people supposed to get here? ‘ ”

“They just didn’t get it,” he recalls. “But I knew the neighborhood was going to be great.”

Blooming

The garden does what gardens do.

It grows.

“In the first six months that we opened our doors, we surpassed ourselves,” says Cordova.

As such, he is already planning to expand the place, renovate the courtyard and add cabanas and a permanent bar.

The garden’s success is especially noteworthy when you consider that it was launched despite the pandemic.

“When we opened our doors, I didn’t know if anyone was going to show up,” says Cordova. “Like everyone else, we only had one reservation and were sold out every day from day one.

For me it showed that people wanted to see this room and that people liked it, so they came back, ”he adds. “It was important not to give up and just open up.”

During the COVID-19 shutdown last spring, The Garden was one of the few gay bars that could open because it had a kitchen.

Cordova made a point of reaching out to his colleagues in the industry.

“I felt so bad about all the other gay bars that couldn’t open, so I offered comp tables and industrial tables,” he recalls. “I was the first gay bar that every other gay bar in town was involved in and worked with.

“They would all come here,” he continues. “It would be Charlie’s or the Phoenix, Piranha, each and every one of them. I didn’t care if you supported everyone else and came back here. There is a kind of place for everyone. “

A stronger community

He couldn’t take his eyes off the guy in the leather jacket – he even stopped drinking his beer.

The garden had just opened one evening last year, and the room was largely empty in the hours before the nighttime crowd appeared.

Hayes was at the bar having a drink when he saw the aforementioned man rework some upholstered furniture with the precision of a surgeon extracting a pancreas.

“He brushes the whole booth where all the fibers are pointing down,” remembers Hayes. “Then he looks at it and he brushes where all the fibers are facing up. The waitress comes over. I’m like, ‘is the guy all right?’ And she says, ‘Oh, that’s the owner. He’s very special about things. ‘

“Last year, when I met Eduardo, I noticed that everything was perfectly fine,” he continues. “He’s a perfectionist.”

This is the root of what made The Garden a hit: attention to detail and an emphasis on different experiences and themed parties to keep the place feeling fresh.

“Depending on the night, depending on your mood, you sometimes sit there and think you’re on a Florida beach somewhere,” says Hayes, “and sometimes you think you’re in that speakeasy place in Manhattan. It’s very a sense of escapism, but it’s also comfortable.

“Anyone could go in there and they wouldn’t feel out of place,” he explains. “You can take your dog with you and sit on the terrace. If you want, you can order a bottle service. It’s one of the few places that can really capture all of these different environments and different personality types. “

All of this has helped The Garden reach a diverse clientele as the Arts District continues to grow outside its doors as well.

“If you look at it three years ago, it now looks like a little Melrose Street with a number of boutiques, bars and restaurants,” Cordova says of the neighborhood. “The Arts District has proven itself in many other major cities as the LGBTQ community really thrives there with art, music and food.”

Community: This is a word that Cordova says a lot.

It’s the whole point of all of this.

“For me, it’s not just The Garden. It’s about building a stronger community, ”he explains,“ because we have a beautiful LGBTQ community in Las Vegas. ”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter and @ jbracelin76 on Instagram