Please don’t tell…party at the Centurion Lounge in Las Vegas!

I’m in Vegas right now with a good friend. We were flying in from different cities, so we met at the airport; we decided to kick off our weekend with a drink and a snack at the Centurion Lounge. As we checked in, the women behind the desk asked us why we were in town. “Girls’ weekend!” we whooped, high-fiving for effect.

The businesspeople in line behind us rolled their eyes. We ignored them and raced each other to the bar.

Have you ever enjoyed a drink from the cocktail menu at the Centurion Lounge? If so, you’ve tasted the delicious work of Jim Meehan, the Centurion Lounge Mixologist.

He’s good, right? I think we can all agree that the drinks at the lounge are genius.

My favorite (so far) is the Tex/Mex in Dallas. So smoky and spicy!

As we sat at a table, happily laughing and talking and enjoying our nibbles and cocktails, one of the women from the front desk came over to us. “I just wanted to let you girls know that we’ve having a special event in the lounge right now,” she said. “Jim Meehan is doing a book signing! The book is a hardcover bartender’s guide, and he’ll autograph it for you. It’s complimentary…on the house!”

We looked over at the bar. There he was, in the flesh, mixing it up with a cocktail shaker. We rushed over.

Did you know that Jim Meehan is also part of PDT in Manhattan? PDT is a modern speakeasy (initials stand for Please Don’t Tell). To get to this bar, you slip into a vintage phone booth that sits inside Crif Dogs, a deliciously nondescript hot dog joint in the East Village.

Step inside the phone booth, pick up the receiver and press the buzzer…once. This gets you access to PDT, which is a glamorously sexy space with a lot of ambiance – and some pretty famous handcrafted cocktails. Once you’re in, you can relax in the quiet, dimly lit lounge and enjoy your drinks, paired with food from Crif’s. Again, genius!

Since the Centurion bar wasn’t busy, we peppered Jim with questions. How did he get into bartending? How did he get so famous? Whose idea was the phone booth inside the hot dog restaurant?

Jim was so funny and cute. We loved him!

He graciously signed our PDT Cocktail books – which by the way, are filled with easy-to-make craft cocktail recipes and look like a godsend for any bar – and then he interviewed us to figure out our perfect cocktails. Which he promptly made for us.

Which we promptly drank.

This was such an awesome surprise from the Centurion Lounge. Thanks so much, Jim! You’re the best.

Have you ever been to PDT or another modern speakeasy? What did you think?