dale dombrowski/viewPuff, a new nightclub and hookah lounge at 1030 E. Flamingo Road, is planning a grand opening celebration this weekend that will include a 36-hour party.
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There is no shortage of night clubs in Las Vegas, but few actually make a point of catering to locals first. This is the stated goal of Puff, a new nightclub and hookah lounge opening at 1030 E. Flamingo Road.
Puff will celebrate its grand opening with a party beginning on Friday at 5 p.m. and wrapping up on Sunday at 5 a.m. The 36-hour Puffapalooza will feature a $36 cover for the entire event. Hand stamps will be given out so people who have paid admission can leave the party and come back. The event will feature body painting, live bands, disc jockeys and other entertainment.
Puff will feature tapas (Spanish appetizers), cocktails and specialty hookahs, as well as nightly live music from 8 to 11 p.m.
"We're going to have a lot of different genres," said Lynn Garlock-Wright, director of entertainment and public relations for Puff. "Sundays will be reggae nights. We'll also have blues, jazz, acoustic, classic rock and more."
Puff plans to feature local acts on Wednesdays after 11 p.m. as part of a promotion with radio station 92.3 KOMP-FM and Vegas Rocks magazine. Local talent will not be restricted to that time, however. "With different music every night, we've got to bring in a lot of musicians," Garlock-Wright said. "We have such talented musicians locally that we'll be looking for them here first."
Garlock-Wright hopes that Puff can help create a more vibrant scene for local musicians not just by hiring them, but promoting them. "We're out to support the artists with strong, marketing, advertising and PR," she said.
Puff owners Karan Hoss and Abdil Nasr originally conceived Puff as a hookah lounge in Los Angeles, but the idea transformed during the planning stages to what it is today. They looked at and eventually rejected several locations, as their ideas got bigger and a correspondingly larger location was required.
"if you know my personality, everything I do it's either all or nothing," Hoss said. "If we're gonna do it, we might as well do it right."
The location has served as a number of bars under a variety of names over the years. "We pretty much gutted the place," Hoss said. "We stripped off five layers of bar tops."
Hoss and Nasr felt Las Vegas needed a place like Puff when they looked at the city. "There was nothing like this," Hoss said. "We're offering gourmet food 24 hours a day."
They felt that there were no venues that filled the wide gap between local bars and taverns and the mega clubs and upscale restaurants. The pair have no previous hands-on club or restaurant experience.
"Not having the experience, we decided early on to put the proper people in place who did have the experience," Nasr said. They brought in managers and staff with that in mind.
Puff's menu, for instance, was created by executive chef Gabe, who previously worked in five-star restaurants in Europe, and includes over 30 varieties of tapas.
"I've brought in elements from Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe and more," Gabe said.
"We can't wait," Garlock-Wright said of the club's opening.
Puff intends to cater to local industry personnel in several ways, including offering three separate happy hours to accommodate the three shifts, opportunities for dancing, listening to house and live music or enjoying fine, intimate dining.
"If you're not into the night life scene, it's a great place to come and have dinner," Garlock-Wright said. "It's a fabulous place for business meetings and things during the day. We're set up for groups; we have a group sales director."
The 10,000-square-foot club is divided into several diverse areas, including a VIP area with a separate entrance, quiet, draped booths and an outdoor patio area with a small performance stage. "The stage is for dancers, fire twirlers ... that sort of thing," Garlock-Wright said. "Since we don't have the local scene, we're trying to make a statement culturally. We want to create our own culture for Las Vegas."
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