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This week on Vegas Day Drinkers, Chris and Darren bounce from the NFL Draft to the barstool algorithm, and somehow it all still makes sense.

The guys kick around Fernando Mendoza going number one on Thursday night, his Fanatics merch reportedly flying off the shelves, and what that says about sports fandom in the social media age. From there, it is Vegas sports talk: possible new teams, NBA and MLS rumors, VGK playoff energy, and the never-ending question of what this city becomes next.

Chris recaps a visit to Kansas City, including the fries at Rosedale, the weather, gas prices, BBQ, and a moment remembering 45 BB. Then the conversation comes back home with thoughts on UFB in Vegas, early planning for Bourdain Day on June 25th, and first impressions of The Irish Spot.

The boys also get into Phish at the Sphere, Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada, Magic Hat #9, veggie burritos, grilled sausage, early jam band culture, and why alternative beer once felt like a rebellion against the macro machine.

Then it is full bar-culture chaos: Costco hot dog virality, Kirkland water, Coke returning after a decade, Stage Door moving away from Bud and Bud Light, Heineken, Dos Equis, Heineken 0.0, and the strange way brands live or die in real-world hospitality spaces.

Finally, Chris and Darren unpack social media viability in hospitality, then close with a little urban slang education: the origin of "glizzy," what actually goes on a Chicago dog, and why terms like "dragged through the garden," “with the works," and "char dog" still matter in the language of food, bars, and neighborhood culture.

Pour one up. The algorithm just ordered a round.

Read More Stories at the Newsletter, The Vegas Handshake

Our Motto: Sip Socialize Shine!

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Every bartender has an origin story. This week, Chris and Darren finally tell theirs.

Before the turnstiles. Before the 40 million travelers a year. Before the shift, meals at McMullan's. Two guys took two very different roads to end up on the same side of the same bar.

Darren started in Seattle — cutting his teeth in a city that takes its drinks as seriously as its coffee — before heading south to Las Vegas in the early 2000s, where he found his home pouring Romulan Ales and Warp Cores at Quark's Bar inside the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. If you were there, you remember. If you weren't, Darren would take you back.

Chris picked up the trade living in Europe, came to Vegas with a head full of continental bar culture and a year of hard knocks waiting for him. That year, the bartender who'd go on to help open the Hofbräuhaus, then cross the Strip to open Steiner's on South Las Vegas Boulevard — back when the Arts District was still a rumor, and South Vegas was where locals actually drank.

Both paths led through McMullan's. Both paths led to Harry Reid International Airport, where they now work the busiest stretch of tile in the state — pouring for more than 40 million people a year who pass through on their way to somewhere else.

This one's for the career bartenders, the Trekkies, the expats, the industry lifers, and anybody who's ever wondered how someone ends up doing this for twenty-plus years and still loves the work.

Sip. Socialize. Shine.

Our Motto: Sip Socialize Shine!

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Vegas is on a hot streak and the boys are feeling it. Chris and Darren open Episode 37 by closing out their on-location recap from Shenanigans at McMullan's Irish Pub — the perfect post-St. Patrick's Day, pre-St. Baldrick's Day hang. Then it's all Vegas, all the time.

The NBA Board of Governors officially voted this week to explore expansion — and Las Vegas is one of two cities in the running, with the league targeting the 2028–29 season for a new franchise. Meanwhile, NFL owners are set to formally award Super Bowl 63 to Allegiant Stadium in 2029, a move insiders are already calling a done deal. And if that's not enough, Luke Combs just shattered the all-time attendance record at Allegiant — 70,921 fans on opening night, the largest indoor crowd in Nevada history.

The guys round out the sports conversation with March Madness bracket talk, then shift into something a little more philosophical: the analog comeback. Vinyl is outselling digital downloads. Gen Alpha is reaching for real books and card games. Is this cultural unplugging a genuine movement — or just a stick in the butt? Pour one up and weigh in.

Vegas Day Drinkers — celebrating bar culture as community, broadcasting from the Las Vegas Arts District. Sip. Socialize. Shine. 🥂

Our Motto: Sip Socialize Shine!