The Nightlife Blogger Gives A Last Call Cheers To The Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel

Fun Party Memories At The Circle Bar, Pink Taco & Rehab Pool Party

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Nightlife Blogger

Memories don’t die easily and the good ones, along with the bad ones, last forever.

I have a few good memories of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, which had its last call after Super Bowl weekend in 2020. Turn out out the lights, the party’s over at the Hard Rock.

There was a time when the Hard Rock was the prime time place to party in Vegas. The circle bar – which may or not have been its official name but it was a “circle” on the casino floor – was a scene of single people. Nowhere else in Vegas could one go where the meeting and mingling was so ripe.

The Hard Rock had a small casino and everything was within eyeball view of the circle bar. And, with a high-roller exception or two, that’s why the circle bar was so good – it was the focal point of the action rather than the gambling.

In addition to the circle bar, there was an off-casino hot-spot, the Pink Taco restaurant. Beyond the suggestive name it, too, could be a good pick-up spot. I was always surprised at how many girls would go into a place called the Pink Taco. Pleasantly surprised.

I never saw a concert at the Hard Rock. It got all the popular mid-range rock ‘n roll bands in there – Aerosmith, Motley Crue, etc. – but was too small for the likes of the Rolling Stones.

Then of course, the Hard Rock really struck a chord with it turned its pool into a rockin’ party zone called Rehab. Most observers marveled at how it created the “daylife” scene in Vegas,  but I always said “what took so long?”

Anyone who was single in Vegas on the weekend pretty much went to the Hard Rock pool in the afternoon – joining up with friends who were staying there or staying in the hotel themselves so they could have access to the pool – partying until “transition time,” the time when you transition from daytime to nighttime.

Often whey would wind up back at the circle bar.

Yes, the Hard Rock had rock stars, celebrities and athletes there but for most of us, the attraction was always the other people who hung out at the place. Because it was a great singles scene.

It is ironic that, with all those one-night stands hovering around the circle bar, the name of the new hotel going up in its place being built by Richard Branson, will be Virgin.