Hammered and Nailed: Beauty Bar offers entertainment in the form of alcohol, manicures

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 8:22 a.m.

Lisa Gonsalves sipped her vodka and grapefruit juice, stretched her arms across the manicure table and rested them in Frankie Ricco's palms.

"Now these are beautiful, natural nails," Ricco, aka Frankie "Da File," said while gripping her wrists. He then leaned toward her to say, "Tonight's the night, Lisa." Gonsalves ordered a shot of Jagermeister.

"Bring it on," Ricco said pointedly. "The more you drink, the better I get." Ricco is a character. Well into his 60s, he calls himself a romantic and loves the ladies. He's been married six times and is often told that he resembles actor Robert De Niro. A gold chain hangs around his tanned neck, his hair is flooded with products and his tight complexion hints at a history of facials and attentive grooming.

It's his colorful personality that puts him in Beauty Bar Las Vegas on a Friday night. Reportedly Las Vegas' first male manicurist, who has been styling women's nails for 28 years, he's a sort of mascot for the new retro salon-themed bar on Fremont Street, giving nail-care demonstrations to clients having a drink.

Since taking on the two-night-a-week position at the bar in Las Vegas' new Entertainment District, Ricco said, "My life has changed completely."

The previous night Travel Channel interviewed Ricco for a segment on the Beauty Bar. Last month Ricco was on the local TV news filing and buffing Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's nails as a publicity stunt for the bar.

Looking at Gonsalves, Ricco said, "You know how many people asked me if I own this joint?"

"Well, it's the name," Gonsalves said, referring to Ricco's flashy alias.

"It's the name," Ricco repeated.

But for now, the even bigger name is the one that glows in red above the storefront outside, which by design tells visitors that Beauty Bar isn't another check-cashing place or another souvenir shop. It's not a place to buy cigarettes. Nor is it a liquor store.

The bar, which opened nearly six weeks ago, is geared toward urban twenty- and thirtysomethings who want a hip place to grab a drink and soak up a unique setting.

Its gold-and-white interior is taken from the 1950s Capri Salon of Beauty in Trenton, N.J. The DJ booth is the old reception desk from Capri Salon. Even the couches in the waiting room have been transported to Las Vegas. The orange-paneled lights behind the salon chairs and retro hair dryers are from the now-defunct Algiers.

Gold sparkle on the walls fictitiously dates the bar at 517 Fremont St.

Pointing to the well-stocked liquor "cabinets," Beauty Bar owner Paul Devitt said, "Those were all the hair stations."

Beauty Bar Las Vegas follows the opening of three other Beauty Bars in the past 10 years. The first was opened at the former Thomas Beauty Salon in Manhattan, which offered a martini and manicure to clients.

Three years later Devitt went to San Francisco to open a second Beauty Bar in a converted tavern in the Mission District. From there he opened Beauty Bar in Cahuenga Corridor, a stretch of nightlife, in Hollywood, in 2000.

When Beauty Bar Las Vegas opened in May, it had to exclude its martini-and-manicure gimmick because of strict regulations by the Nevada State Board of Cosmetology, which ruled that the bar would have to build a separate manicure area if it wanted to serve alcohol. Instead, the bar files and polishes nails and calls it nail-care demonstrations.

But Ricco helps draw a small clientele, as does the bar's entertainment out back. Beauty Bar is also the new host of The Get Back, a "Funky Soul Dance Party" held every First Friday. And Ben Matsunaga, the bar's manager, said that locals familiar with Beauty Bars in other cities are coming by the bar to check it out.

Jen Leo, a travel writer who moved to Las Vegas two months ago, stopped in at the bar last Friday for an early evening "pre-First Friday drink" before going to S2 Art for a book signing.

"It's the afternoon drink," her companion, John Caldwell, said. "It's really not tonight. Yet."

Both Leo and Caldwell had been to Beauty Bars in other cities.

"The New York one is really cool and the Los Angeles bar is packed," Caldwell said. "It's just a big hipster place."

Leo, who moved to Las Vegas from San Francisco, said that Beauty Bar San Francisco was so crowded when she stopped in that she "walked in and walked out."

Looking at the interior of Beauty Bar Las Vegas, Leo added, "This place is better than San Francisco's."

A new district

Devitt, who partnered with New Yorker Deb Parker to open the first Beauty Bar, has other concept bars, including the Coral Room in Manhattan, which opened in a renovated warehouse and has an aquatic theme played out with large aquariums and "mermaids." Devitt's Star Shoes in Hollywood on Cahuenga Boulevard is a vintage shoe store and bar.

On concept bars, Devitt said, "It's a creative outlet. A good gimmick helps. It appeals to a wide range of people. We have people at happy hour who are 45 to 50 years old. At midnight, young people of New York City are coming in."

Placing the themed bar into a themed casino is something that Devitt said he considered briefly before opening a downtown storefront.

But, he said, "I didn't feel it was appropriate for the bar. "It's more of a grass-roots kind of thing, more for the locals."

Beside, he added, "I liked the area. It's the only place in Las Vegas where there's a feel of the city. It could become the part of the city where people could walk around."

When asked if he was nervous being one of the first in the city's fledgling Entertainment District, a six-block designated area off Fremont Street, Devitt said, "Yeah. But we have a pretty good track record and contact with locals. The Beauty Bar had as good of a shot as any place to make it there."

And Devitt is taking different approaches to drawing crowds, with a gay night on Monday, female DJs on Wednesdays and occasional private parties on Sundays. Devitt said that the manicure issue, which he was unaware of when he signed on, does hurt the bar a bit.

"I don't think it's good for us," he said. "We can't advertise that we do manicures. We have to do nail polish demonstrations. There's no charge."

Referring to the regulations, Devitt said, "I don't think anybody is going to die from a having a manicure."

However, he added, "The happy hour is going to be hard getting off the ground. The kids come in late at night, not at 5:30 (p.m.)."

Gonsalves, who was visiting from Northern California, said she came to the bar with a friend, a local, just to see Ricco.

Ricco is paid in tips at the Beauty Bar. During the days, he works at Mosaic Salon & Spa on Sahara Avenue and Saints and Sinners Hair Design off Las Vegas Boulevard, near the Bootlegger.

A former construction worker who slipped two discs in his back, Ricco said he chose manicuring because of the creative outlet it offers and because, he said, he loves women so much.

He does all-natural nails (rather than acrylics) and once had his own salon, where, he said, "We did anybody and everybody that was somebody in this town -- Mafia wives. It's all in my book. I'm writing a book."

Barely 10 minutes into her nail demonstration, Gonsalves said to Ricco that he looked like De Niro.

Nearby, Shedini, an escape artist and former assistant of magician Dixie Dooley who was having drinks at the bar, said, "Frankie's the man. If I'm going to get my nails done, I'm going to Frankie. He knows what to say, what to do."

Gonsalves, clearly charmed, agreed. Of Beauty Bar, she said, "It's an awesome concept."

In learning that there was a Beauty Bar in San Francisco, Gonsalves said that she might try it out.

"The only difference is ..." Ricco said.

"You won't be there," Gonsalves said.

"Bingo!" he said.

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