Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

What’s inside?

Eastside hangout Offramp shows it has soul

offramp lounge

C. Moon Reed

I fell in love with the sign for the Offramp Lounge years before I considered stepping inside. Located at the eastbound Charleston exit of the 95, the marquee provides entertainment for passersby. The witty sayings (example: “Gamble here. Odds are better than the stock market.”) became the highlight of my highway travels, the same way a clever fortune cookie makes a bad meal almost enjoyable.

When I inherited this column, I finally had an excuse to learn more. The only hurdle was convincing somebody to trek to the east side of town. So I pulled a bait and switch, luring a friend for a fancy drink at Spago and dragging him to the Offramp Lounge.

Twenty minutes later, we opened the glass door (not Spago-style luxury glass, but more like a door you’d see at the post office, if post office doors were tinted) to the smell of stale smoke and authenticity.

I was pleasantly surprised by three things. 1) The place was twice as big as I had imagined. 2) The bartender was drop-dead gorgeous. 3) The interior was clean.

More

Bar and Club Guide
Offramp Lounge
3935 E. Charleston Blvd., 438-4565.

My friend, on the other hand, was nonplussed. The first thing he did, after ordering a SoCo lime, was invent an alias for himself: the Curmudgeonly Cocktail Connoisseur (CCC, for future reference). Sitting on a bar stool, he launched into a lecture about how a zillion of these places infest Las Vegas and how they are all the same.

“But look, there’s a framed oil painting from A Clockwork Orange. That’s personality,” I said.

He ignored me and continued his tirade: “You see, the companies that own the gambling machines pay for these bars. They build them.”

I didn’t see. Who cares where the money comes from? Gambling pays for everything in this town.

But CCC didn’t let me get a word in. “There’s probably some out-of-state owner who only comes to Vegas often enough to collect his checks. They’re all the same, and they only exist in Vegas.”

I saw his point, and my heart sank. What’s the purpose of “Bar Exam” if there is nothing to examine? I imagined a landscape of soulless suburbia with cookie-cutter bars as far as the eye can see. I recoiled in horror.

But that fear seemed over-simplistic. Perhaps every bar was a snowflake. If humans work in them and humans drink in them, then they must have unique personalities. I made it my goal to seek out that individuality.

As the time passed, CCC became all the more curmudgeonly. So I called it a night, but not before noticing a sign announcing that the Offramp’s three-year-anniversary party was that Saturday.

At 6 p.m. on Saturday, only a handful of people occupied the bar. I sat by myself and hid inside my cell phone. Within two hours, every seat was full, and the patrons shared a warm, community vibe. The bartender gave out swag to the gamblers who hit certain scores. Finally, it felt like a real party.

After a warm-up conversation with some friendly motorcycle enthusiasts, I set out to meet the owner. The bartender pointed out a convivial man sitting at the end of the bar, drinking a beer and chatting with a few customers. Walking past the spread of free food (chips, dip, pizza, just like at somebody’s house party), I went over and introduced myself.

Co-owner/general manger Rocco Russo’s mere presence dispelled CCC’s stereotypes about shadowy out-of-state owners. First of all, he and his partner are there every day. More than that, he was super personable (i.e., not at all shadowy). Making easy conversation, Russo revealed that he had lived in Portland, had played in a band and had worked at Costco for 17 years before investing in the bar. He’s also vice president of the Raiders Booster Club, whose Las Vegas chapter is headquartered at the Offramp Lounge.

Most importantly, Russo is author of the fabulous marquee messages. He explained that the previous owners, who ran the place into the ground, had also abandoned the marquee to boring karaoke advertisement. Coincidence? Doubtful. In response, I told Russo about CCC’s skepticism. Here was his apt reply: “The liquor is the same, the gambling is the same. The only thing that’s different is the people behind the bar.”

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