Christian Smith

The Vanderpump Hotel — Basement (formerly The Cromwell)

Dark, intimate underground energy with multiple rooms for different sounds — the original Drai's vibe restored. Hip-hop in one room, house in another, hookah lounge as the chill-out zone. More focused and immersive than the rooftop era, where the outdoor environment imposed a ceiling on the bass response and the show competed with the Strip skyline for attention. Underground, the sound system takes over completely and the crowd orientation shifts inward toward the DJ and the dance floor rather than outward toward a view. The multi-room format creates a constant sense of discovery — the energy in the hip-hop room at 1 AM is completely different from the electronic room at the same time, and moving between the two resets the experience without requiring a venue change. The hookah lounge functions as a decompression zone: lower volume, seated, a space to hold a conversation or plan the next move without stepping outside. The Thursday R&B Thursdays industry night crowd knows the venue intimately — less performative than weekends, more socially fluid, and the kind of room where you are more likely to talk to strangers and less likely to be in a group that stays rigidly at one table all night.

MGM Grand

Five-level superclub at MGM Grand spanning 80,000 sq ft — one of the largest multi-level nightclub footprints in the world. Hip-hop at the Ling Ling Lounge on Level 3, festival-grade EDM in the main room on upper levels with 3,800-person capacity. Walking distance (0.3 miles) from T-Mobile Arena, making Hakkasan the default post-VGK game celebration venue — on Golden Knights home game nights, the crowd surges after final whistle with an energy unlike any standard club night. The main dance floor holds 2,500+ with a multi-story LED installation and concert-grade sound system. The five floors allow groups to split between genres without splitting entirely — EDM fans upstairs, hip-hop fans at Ling Ling, and the restaurant on lower floors for dinner before the night deepens.