After months of hype and a couple of setbacks, Vince Neil’s Tatuado Wild Side Tavern finally held its grand opening Dec. 3 to a packed house.
The rock n’ roll-themed bar saw up to 240 residents at a given time turn out to see what the latest bar in town had to offer and from the sound of it, they liked what they saw.
“Opening day was very busy. It was jam-packed,” Wild Side owner Michael Tsunis said. “Everybody seemed to be really enjoying themselves.”
Despite being somewhat overwhelmed during some portions of the night, Tsunis said that the opening went well and changes are already being made to ensure the bar can handle the busier nights better.
“We were a little too busy there on day 1, but we’re going to add another speed rack so that we can add another bartender there, so we can have two bartenders working the weekends and special events.
“But overall it was a great, great start for us and the town.”
Patrons seems to enjoy the decor of the bar, which is Motley Crue themed, with Neil’s likeness plastered all over the place.
“People seemed to love it,” Tsunis said. “The 80s genre, Motley Crue memorabilia, the mural we put on the wall.”
Neil himself liked most of what he saw when he visited the tavern ahead of the opening, but had a minor request to have the bar more closely match the Tatuado location in Las Vegas.
“Vince came out and after, he requested a few changes be made to the decor of the place, as he has final artistic view of the establishment,” Tsunis said. “He does want the walls repainted to a little bit darker color, and I happen to be in agreement with him. Right now we’re in the process of painting the walls a more of a red shade to correspond with our location in Vegas.”
The changes didn’t stop there, as a few upgrades were made to the outside area as well.
“We remodeled the outside bar already,” Tsunis said. “We added more tables and we added heaters out there. You don’t have to be 21 to come and sit down on the patio. You just have to be with an adult during the day only, so the whole family can come down and have a hamburger or some chicken wings on the patio, that would be allowed.”
The food itself seemed to please the crowd, despite experiencing some minor issues.
“The food truck seemed to be a big hit,” he said. “We’re currently in the process of buying a food truck that is going to be custom-made for our location, but for right now we lease out the current vendor.
“With the food truck we had a few hiccups, but we seemed to iron those out and I brought my chef from Las Vegas to start up a great menu there for the town of Pahrump. I think everybody there has taken a liking to it.”
Tsunis said that the crowd really enjoyed the disk jockey, DJ Chase Brown, on opening night so he made a return Friday and Saturday night.
Live music will begin to take place at Wild Side in the coming weeks and they will advertise the latest lineups on Fridays as new acts are added.
Tsunis wanted to assure those who may live in the area of the bar and that may have noise concerns that all concerts will be held during hours that are considerate of the residents.
“We absolutely want to make sure we don’t offend any of the neighbors with our concerts,” he said. “All the concerts will be during the day with planning commission’s approval.”
Gaming-wise, Tsunis said that gamblers seemed to be surprised that the bar had $5 machines, something that many places in town don’t offer.
WIth most of the kinks worked through the first week, Tsunis said they are excited to deliver the best experience to those in town.
“I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t perfected, but our manager Sherri has got everything itemized out now and it looks like we’ll head into weeks two and three with a much more comfortable feel of what needs to be done and how we need to address it so we can give 100 percent perfected product to the town of Pahrump.”
Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.