Las Vegas’ newest party suite is themed after the Moscow mule
Las Vegas hotels boast some of the most interesting party suites in the world. From bowling lanes and basketball courts to hot tubs and stripper poles, whatever guests could want to take their celebration to the next level can likely be found in a Sin City hotel room.
Educating history buffs, however, has never been a top priority of the folks who design this city’s luxury digs. That will change Tuesday, with the opening of a 50th floor suite in Palms Place that doubles as a museum — albeit one with a boozy twist.
To coincide with the Nightclub & Bar Show taking place this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, JJ Resnick will host a grand opening party from 7-10 p.m. Tuesday for his Muleseum, a 1,300-square-foot hotel suite dedicated to the Moscow mule, a cocktail of ginger beer, vodka and lime juice served in a cooper mug. Resnick is more than just a fan of the beverage — he’s the great-grandson of Sophie Berezinski, the Russian immigrant who helped create the cocktail in West Hollywood in 1941 in an effort to sell the copper mugs she’d brought to America from her family’s copper factory.
“She was looking to get rid of these mugs that were filling up her apartment,” Resnick explains of the drink’s origins. “So she ended up meeting (Smirnoff Vodka owner) John Martin, and Jack Morgan who ran the Cock’n Bull pub at the time. Jack Morgan had a bunch of ginger beer he was home-brewing in his basement. And the three of them together just came up with it.”
Berezinski’s involvement in the drink ended when she sold out of her original stash of copper mugs. But she held on to the original, which was eventually passed on to Resnick. That copper mug is now on display in the Muleseum, along with the first magazine ad for the drink, a timeline documenting Berezinski’s journey to Hollywood and the history of the drink, and other “artifacts.”
“We’ve got different mugs that made it through time,” Resnick says. “We’ve got some of Sophie’s different artifacts, like her (copper) cleaner recipe, and she wrote that out.”
The suite, which starts at $995 a night, also contains a bar with several variations of the Moscow mule on tap. It sleeps four, has a wrap-around balcony and can hold about 25 revelers comfortably. And the hosts get to take home a four-pack of custom copper mugs.
So who does Resnick expect will be booking the suite?
“Private parties, corporate events, bachelor parties — really anybody.” Reservations are available through moscowmule.com.
Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter.
