Richard Brian

Stoney Gray, left, owner of the Stoney’s Rockin’ Country bar on South Las Vegas Boulevard, poses with the mechanical bull at his second club, dubbed Stoney’s North Forty. The new club is scheduled to open on New Year’s Eve at Santa Fe Station hotel-casino.

By Jeff Pope (contact)

Thu, Dec 25, 2008 (12:02 a.m.)

Residents in the northwest Las Vegas Valley soon will have a place close to home to don cowboy hats, kick up their boots to country music and maybe even ride a mechanical bull.

Stoney Gray, owner of the Stoney’s Rockin’ Country bar on South Las Vegas Boulevard, will open his second club, dubbed Stoney’s North Forty, on New Year’s Eve at Santa Fe Station hotel-casino.

“One of the biggest things everybody said was, ‘we love your club but it’s just too far to drive.’ So after about 500 or 600 people telling me it was too far to drive, we started looking for a new location on the northwest side,” he said.

At 10,000 square feet, North Forty is half the size of the Texas-sized Rockin’ Country club near the South Point hotel-casino. Still, North Forty will have full-service bars, an elevated VIP area, dance floor, pool tables, video games and the club’s signature attraction — the mechanical bull.

And it will be largely occupied with locals.

“The whole idea was to build a local-based night club,” said Gray, who managed Gilley’s Saloon and Dance Hall in the New Frontier for more than seven years. “When everybody else was turning away the locals, we decided to embrace them.”

Both Stoney’s clubs offer a bottle service that includes the inexpensive Boone’s Farm beverages. They are probably the only clubs in town that provide the brand and shun fancy things such as glasses.

“If you bought a bottle of Boone’s Farm or if you buy a bottle of Dom (Pérignon), you’re drinking out of a plastic cup,” Gray said.

The new club will move in to the former Salt Lick restaurant. Station Casinos, which also caters to locals, found a natural partner with Gray, said Lori Nelson, spokeswoman for Station.

“We are always on the lookout for new and exciting entertainment offerings,” she said. “We just felt Stoney’s brand and the Stoney experience that he had established with his location at Las Vegas Boulevard was a great fit for us.”

Santa Fe Station, 4949 N. Rancho Road, is promoting the new nightclub with a dedicated gaming pit based on the Stoney’s brand. It will offer six blackjack tables, Stoney’s-themed dealers and music.

Stoney’s Rockin’ Pit will open for a limited time beginning Dec. 26 through Jan. 17 every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.

Stoney’s North Forty will open with a New Year’s Eve party beginning at 9 p.m. that includes a midnight balloon drop and champagne toast for $25 in advance and $35 at the door.

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or jeff.pope@hbcpub.com.