Chandelier Bar Debuts New Cocktail Menu, Backed by a 100-Person Staff to Run the Show

^{Gedeon Tsegaye, head of mixology at The Cosmopolitan, took us a cocktail journey to try several of Chandelier Bar's new drinks. (Photo: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)}

LAS VEGAS – The Chandelier Bar is well-loved by both Vegas locals and glitzy visitors who want a trendy spot to get drinks. It hangs in the center of The Cosmopolitan, a three-story cocktail destination covered in millions of crystal beads. 

It's a familiar photo op for anyone wanting an ultimate night out at the Strip’s premier party hotel. Though many people recognize the massive purple chandelier as a backdrop, not everyone realizes there are different drinks on each level of the bar. It spans three levels: level 1, 1.5, and level 2, each with its own set of cocktails.

Several new ones debuted with the change of seasons, placing greater emphasis on the artistry and story behind the cocktails. After all, if you're paying $20 per drink, you'd expect the flavor, presentation, and ingredients to be the best of the best, right?

I recently sat down with Gedeon Tsegaye, head of mixology at The Cosmopolitan, to take a look (and a sip) at the new cocktail program.

“We do amendments to our cocktails, but generally these are the ones where the servers are smoking drinks in front of you or pouring tableside,” Tsegaye told Casinos.com. “We make sure that the menu is diverse, while looking at the trends of what people like to drink up here for that extra chandelier experience.”

He walked me through several of the new cocktails and explained what goes into creating drinks for a bar of this scale. After sipping my way through many options on the menu, here are some of the best ones I tried.

Journeying Through Cocktail Heaven

During the tasting session, we tried several new drinks from the Chandelier Bar menu and got a rundown of each from Tsegaye.

We started off with a nice spirit-free option: Sansgria, a fruity, fizzy drink made with Lyre's Apéritif Spirit, peach cordial, mint, clarified lime, and Lyre's Sparkling Wine. It's designed to give you the sangria taste without the alcohol. It also served as a nice, fruity buffer between all the mixed liquors that followed.

Mocktails are certainly not an afterthought at the Chandelier Bar, with other options like the Phony White Negroni and the Sparkling Maui Wowie on the menu. You still can get a thoughtfully made drink without the alcohol.

Next was the All Day I Dream, served in a tall glass with peach cordial, prosecco, gin, and a basil garnish plopped right inside. It was super refreshing, the kind of drink I’d want in hand while lounging at the Bellagio pool in the middle of summer.

Then came the First Spritz, which was my favorite – I love a drink heavy on presentation. It’s a floral and fizzy combo of Ketel One vodka, blackberry cordial, black tea, lavender, club soda, and prosecco. The best part is that it’s served with a little cassis macaron and blackberry dusted in gold. This does double duty, giving you a sweet treat with a pleasant sip.

From there, we moved on to two pineapple drinks with a little bit of foam on top: The Lime and the Coconut, and Pineapple and Co. The Lime and the Coconut is the new one of the two.

Both have tropical flavor profiles but differ in tartness. Lime and the Coconut features Havana Club Añejo rum, Manzanilla Sherry, and pineapple, topped with coconut and salted-lime foam. Be careful not to inhale lime foam!

I preferred Pineapple and Co., featuring G4 Blanco tequila, pineapple and lime cordial, Velvet Falernum liqueur, Suze, ginger, and Angostura air. The drinks are so similar that it makes sense to try them side by side, but that lime foam packs enough tartness to make your eyes twitch.

The best presentation of the night was Rare Characters #2, which replaced the apparently well loved American Gothic cocktail. You’ll receive this with wood burned above the glass, allowing the smoke to seep into the drink and flavor it.

This is a perfect cocktail for fall, featuring Rare Character six-year single barrel whiskey, Lo-Fi Gentian vermouth, and St. George Spiced Pear Fino Sherry. When you taste it, it's got a warm, spicy taste with pear and some honey notes that make it perfect for when things start to get a little colder here in Las Vegas.

We finished things up with the Espresso Chicory O.F (old-fashioned), which I expected to taste like a wacky take on an espresso martini. It was much more than that, to my surprise.

It features Buffalo Trace bourbon, Ethiopian coffee, salted vanilla cold foam, chicory bitters, and cocoa nibs. The coffee flavor is immediately recognizable, but the bourbon gives it a bit of a twist. That cold foam was much better than anything I've had at Starbucks, for sure.

Looking at the full menu, there's something for everyone here, and there's still more to try beyond what's described above.

The presentation is a huge part of the experience, and frankly, what you’re paying more for. The bartenders here are also knowledgeable and confident enough to guide you if you're not sure what to order.

How the Chandelier Bar Runs a Massive Operation

Operating this trendy hotspot of a bar around the clock takes over 100 employees to keep things running smoothly, according to Tsegaye. Many of the bartenders are legacy employees, having spent roughly a decade working at the bar.

The tenure allows them to maintain consistency across the venue, with many bartenders able to adapt quickly when a drink needs to be changed.

“A lot of these people have been working with each other longer than they've been with their spouses and children,” Tsegaye said. “A decade of consistency, regulars…knowing the trends. [They’ve] helped us curate, and kind of leverage our resources for space this large.”

This is how the Chandelier Bar can offer such an extensive cocktail program without compromising the consistency guests expect from a venue like this.

Tsegaye is the right person to lead the cocktail creativity at Chandelier Bar. He has a clear passion for mixology, which showed in the detail of how he walked us through all the drinks. His background is in culinary arts, and he spent years studying before moving into the beverage world. Now he told me that one of the things that keeps him most interested is being able to experiment with so many cocktails and techniques.

“I have 30 cocktails roughly that I get to play with,” Tsegaye said. “I get to try all the different techniques. We are a big property, so we do a lot in revenue numbers. So that means we can spend money on certain toys to make things fun for our guests.”

You're certainly paying for the cocktail and the high-quality ingredients going into it, but you're also paying for the setting and the presentation. This isn't necessarily comparable to another drink somewhere else on the Strip that you might be paying a lower pirce on. The Chandelier Bar is the destination if you want a genuinely upscale, fun bar environment, and that's exactly what's kept the place in business this long.

If you just want a good drink, you can certainly find one in many bars all over the city (there is never a happy hour too far away!) But being on the Strip means paying for something more than the liquid in the glass. The ambiance, service, and overall experience are on another level, especially inside The Cosmopolitan.

With a refreshed menu now in place, this is the perfect time to stop by the bar on your next trip to Vegas, or your next stroll down the Las Vegas Strip if you're a local. Maybe social media will finally let go of its obsession with The Verbena and give something new a turn in the spotlight.