Las Vegas: Dispensary Lounge

If every infinite corner of Las Vegas exists to vacuum money out of your pocket, the Dispensary may seem like another planet: The relic of a weirder, slacker and kinder Vegas that thrived after Sinatra but before Steve Wynn. Sequestered near a strip mall on the far side of the Tropicana, the bar is difficult enough to find, which luckily keeps the tourists at bay. Venture beyond the red door, however, and it’s like walking inside Tony Orlando’s brain. The brown shag carpet. The decorative ferns. The lawn chairs. The Muzak. The women in hot pants. The water wheel! The Dispensary is open around-the-clock, even though time itself stopped here a good 35 years ago. Bartenders are known to buy rounds for the house on a whim, but the drinks are so cheap even someone who has lost the shirt off his back can afford a few shots. It’s a bit of a jaunt from the buzzing neon apocalypse of the Strip, yet this dive’s very dislocation is its charm.

Photos: Ryan Olbrysh