Keys to Las Vegas’ most historic bar Atomic Liquors passed to new owners Friday morning

June 18, 2012 - PRLog -- Usually when you hear about historical places in Las Vegas it’s because it's going to be imploded. But this Friday instead of the switch being flipped to level the building at 917 East Fremont Street, it will light up the famous neon sign of Atomic Liquors.

After a run of nearly six decades and a clientele list that reads like a Robin Leach or Norm Clarke column, Atomic Liquors closed its doors on January 1, 2011. It's sat abandoned for more than a year. Now the keys to the 2,500-square foot venue, which holds the oldest liquor license in town, are in the hands of a trio of Las Vegas business owners – downtown attorney Lance Johns, his brother Kent Johns, a commercial real estate broker salesman, and downtown visionary Derek Stonebarger.

A liquor license sale and a building lease with an option to buy was signed last week. The keys become theirs Friday at 10:30 a.m. Atomic Liquors grand re-opening is expected to be in December.

"This is very exciting," Lance said. "We've been eyeing this place for some time and now it’s ours. Our work officially begins Friday."

While other historic buildings in Las Vegas sit empty, decaying away or have been turned into knickknack shops, parking lots and the like, Atomic Liquors isn’t just going to be transformed, it’s also going to be restored.

"Las Vegas is a city with a lot of great entertainment history," said Johns, owner of LJ's Bar (Sahara Ave & Maryland Parkway) and partner at Downtown law firm Johns & Durrant. "It's also a place that is constantly reinventing itself every few years. Not much of its history still stands, but the Atomic is still here and we want to fix it up and make it ‘the’ place to be in downtown Las Vegas just as it was in the past."

The plan is to revitalize it to its past glory and beyond, making it an entertainment hub for creative individuals with artistic voices, as well as a tourist spot that Las Vegas can be proud of.

Built in 1945, the building originally was home to a café named Virginia’s. As customers watching atomic blasts, drinking atomic cocktails from the rooftop became a norm, the name of the places was changed to Atomic Liquors in 1952. It later received the first package liquor license and off-sales permit of Vegas in 1957.

Since it opened, Joe and Stella Sobchik, 65-year residents of Las Vegas, were the only owners of the bar. The couple died three months apart in 2010. Their son Ron Sobchik, a technical aerospace engineer, has since been looking for somebody who saw as much opportunity as his parents did; to keep the spirit of the place alive. Ron, who lives in Fullerton, Calif., will hand over the keys Friday morning in front of the venue.

While Ron’s parents ran the place, it was a magnet for the famous and the infamous. Bugsy Siegel, Roy Rogers, The Rat Pack, Barbara Streisand, The Smothers Brothers, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, and Rod Serling are some of the more famous names with ties to the place.

There is a rumor that Siegel’s girlfriend Virginia Hill is the inspiration for the venue’s original name. However, Stella’s mother was also named Virginia. But since Siegel was an owner of the nearby El Cortez casino in 1945, and one of the only people in town with enough resources to loan out the kind of money it would have took to build the venue, Bugsy very well could have played a part in the early days of Atomic Liquors' history.

Several members of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. , Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop), as well as Tom and Dick Smothers spent many a late night there after headlining shows on the Las Vegas Strip. Atomic it seems was one of the only places still pouring drinks after hours in those days. And when Barbara Streisand was in town, she made sure to stop by and shoot some pool there. She later wrote about it in her book. It has also been said that Roy Rogers frequented the place so much it was used in a number of his old westerns and television shows.

Aside from Rogers, Atomic Liquors was immortalized by many films and television shows. Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated crime epic Casino, which featured DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci and James Woods, shot a number of bar scenes there, including the famous scene where Pesci’s character uses a pen kill a man.

Glimpse of its interior or landmark sign were also seen in an episode of the Twilight Zone, Todd Phillips’ raunchfest The Hangover (Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis), Eastwood’s 1977 classic The Gauntlet, and many other projects.

“We’ve just started to learn about this place’s history,” Kent said. “There is no telling what we will uncover about its past. Who knows, maybe Elvis was in the building a few times.”

Renovations planned for Atomic Liquors include larger bathrooms and back-bar upgrades, and an outdoor sitting area and beer garden. Décor will include museum-like dedicated spaces of the venue featuring Atomic Liquors history, retro Vegas art and more. Ideas for themed areas in the bar include Rat Pack Corner, Smothers Brothers Alley, Barbara's Seat, Bugsy's Bar and Hangover Hideout.

The attached 3,000 square-foot mechanic’s garage is planned to be converted into a spot for live events, including local and national bands.

The ample parking behind the venue makes it perfect for Atomic Drive-In Theater nights where Stonebarger hopes Atomic Test Site footage, movies and commercials of the era can be shown, as well as local and national independent films. There are also talks of a permanent movie theatre on site.

More so than anything else, Stonebarger, a filmmaker, artist, and owner of the downtown arthouse theatre7, says what has him most excited about Atomic Liquors is the potential to help unify the music community, as well as the art, filmmaking, and many other growing creative communities of Las Vegas.

“The potential for this place is huge,” said Stonebarger. “It has showbiz in its veins. It has creative juices on tap. It’s a true blast from the past. I think it is just what we need right now to pull us all together.”

For more information, please visit http://atomiclasvegas.com/ or contact Stonebarger at DerekStonebarger@gmail.com or 702-349-2283.