Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 | 8:16 a.m.
The Freakin' Frog at 4700 S. Maryland Parkway opens at 11 a.m. seven days a week and closes "when the freakin' fun is done."
"Rarely do we close before 3 a.m.," said Adam Carmer, who started the small club in a strip mall across the street from UNLV about two years ago.
The beer and wine bar is a throwback to a different era, maybe the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco in the early '60s -- only without the drugs.
"I like to call it a 'bohemian alcohol coffee shop,' " Carmer said. "We have good, inexpensive food with unique characteristics and an amazing beer collection.
"It's a very bohemian atmosphere where you can be yourself. It doesn't matter whether you're wearing a tuxedo or jeans, we treat everyone the same."
Carmer hasn't lost his freakin' mind, thinking a low-keyed club in a city of glitz could succeed. He knows what he is doing.
For 10 years he has been an adjunct professor of beer and wine in the hotel department at UNLV. He has no problems filling his four classes.
"I teach students about how wine is made, how it's served, how to evaluate it," he said. "It's a beginning wine appreciation class where you learn maybe how you should taste wine, what wine goes with what food -- and the same with beer."
His resume includes working as a maitre' d at such properties as Harrah's, Treasure Island and the Mirage.
"I loved working for Steve Wynn," Carmer said. "But I like better not having the gaming environment around me, and not having the layers of structure that you have to go through in a corporate setting."
And so at the Freakin' Frog you may hear poetry readings or impromptu performances by a musician who grabs one of the guitars hanging on the wall and plays anything from folk, to rock to jazz.
Beginning at 8 a.m. Thursdays you can listen to the contemporary bluegrass group The Pickadillos as they "put the 'cult' back in 'culture.' "
Monday nights, beginning at 10 p.m it's Marth's Mean Time Jazz Band.
Fridays its Seth Barkin playing "slide" piano.
"Students from the music school used to come here a lot before we started having a regular lineup," Carmer said. "But they still come in on occasion and do concerts of all kinds here."
A variety of bands drop in to play from time to time.
"Big Friendly is one of our favorites," he said.
The bar is an anomaly -- it has no gaming machines.
"We don't want machines," Carmer said. "It would ruin what we have."
What they have at the Freakin' Frog is a friendly atmosphere.
"Every guest leaves happy, and that includes my employees," Carmer said.
And there is a reasonably priced quasi-gourmet menu with such delicacies as the World Famous Freakin' Fries, Mac N Cheese Triangles, Crispy Mushrooms and a Portabella Melt.
"The biggest selling item on the menu is the Lucifer Burger," Carmer said. "We're going to add a Hell Burger that will make the top of your head sweat.
"What's better than spicy food and beer?"
There are more than 550 beers to choose from, perhaps the largest selection in one bar in Nevada or anywhere else for that matter.
He started off with about 300 brands of wine and 60 or 70 beers.
"When I started the club I was thinking that as a professor I could open a beer and wine cafe and it would be a hit," Carmer said. "Everyone would come and try the wines and it would be great.
"Well, they came, but they wanted the beer."
The beer menu continued to grow and the wine list dropped to about 30.
He's not interested in serving hard liquor in the 65-seat bar, which includes a large contingent of graduate students, professors, doctors, lawyers and others from all walks of life and all ages.
However, on Oct. 1 he will open a private club above the bar which will serve only whiskey.
The Whiskey Attic, which holds about 50, will be a meeting place for club members, who can relax, read, smoke cigars, play games, watch football or movies or attend monthly whiskey tastings.
"Right now we have 320 brands of whiskey from all over the world," Carmer said. "By the end of the year we will have over 500 -- so we are going to have the largest whiskey collection in the history of Nevada upstairs, and the largest beer collection downstairs."
Dues for the Whiskey Attic are $150 a year. Almost 200 have joined the club so far.
"I was amazed," Carmer said. "I expected maybe 100 to join."
He says there's no secret to the success of his two ventures.
"Our focus is on fair value for what we are doing. And, we're just nice people serving nice people -- ladies and gentlemen waiting on ladies and gentlemen."
Lounging around
Dueling Pianos at Paris Las Vegas' Napoleon's Lounge at 8 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays through Thursdays and 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
The Beauty Bar, 517 Fremont Street, features industry night at 9 p.m. Sundays. Performers from the Strip get their first drink free. DJ Comfort Jones provides the entertainment.
"Jimi's Image: Tribute to Jimi Hendrix" will be at Jerry's Nugget's Royal Street Theater at 8 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10.
"Dean's Lounge" featuring Tom Stevens is at the Barbary Coast Lounge from 8 p..m. until 11 p.m. Tuesdays.
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