Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 9:06 a.m.
Jerry Fink's lounge column appears on Fridays. Reach him at 259-4058 or jerry@ lasvegassun.com.
Scott DeGraff and Michael Morton know something about running bars and restaurants.
In 1995 they created Drink and Eat Too on East Harmon Avenue, which closed this year.
They own the equally popular Nine restaurant and the Ghostbar lounge in Chicago.
Now they have four venues at the new Palms -- including a Las Vegas version of N9NE and Ghostbar as well as the Rain in the Desert nightclub and (coming in the spring) the poolside lounge Skin.
The lounge by the pool will be visible from the deck of Ghostbar, which hovers 55 floors above the ground.
On the floor of the deck (which wraps around the outside of the building 270 degrees) is a reinforced sheet of glass about 20 square feet, on which you can stand and stare straight down several hundred feet. It creates an interesting sensation of being suspended in space. The glass will hold up to 7,000 pounds, so it should be safe -- unless you overdo it during the holidays.
From inside Ghostbar, floor-to-ceiling windows allow a spectacular, panoramic view of the heart of Las Vegas, although not quite as spectacular as the view from the lounge atop the Stratosphere.
It's hard not to talk about lounges in the sky without comparing the Stratosphere and Ghostbar. The view from both is breathtaking, but the interior of the Stratosphere lounge is dark and rather plain, probably so as not to distract from the unique view.
The interior of the Ghostbar is light and airy, with a sleek, ultra-modern feel, thanks to interior designer Jame Geier (who also designed the interior of Ghostbar in Chicago).
Geier described the Las Vegas Ghostbar as "an upgraded version" of the one in Chicago, which has no windows.
"This is the best of the coolest in contemporary design," Geier said as he put the finishing touches on the lounge on Wednesday, the day before it opened to the public. "Some of the furniture is custom made. About the only thing similar to the Chicago club are the bar stools."
An iridescent 30-foot ghost, with tones of blue and green and dozens of other colors, covers much of the lounge's ceiling.
DeGraff explained how he and Morton came up with the name of the lounge:
"It was only going to be open three nights a week, Thursdays through Saturdays. We thought of it as an apparition, a ghost that would appear on Thursday and disappear on Sunday."
The Las Vegas apparition will be around seven days a week.
DeGraff said most of the music in the lounge will come from a DJ, which is another difference between the Ghostbar and the Stratosphere, which has live entertainment.
"At times there will be live music, but it won't be a regular thing," he said. "I have a lot of friends in the music industry and at times we may have some big names, but we're not setting a regular format. Mostly, we will have a DJ who will play a wide variety of music."
That may be just as well because there isn't much space for a stage in the lounge, which has a maximum capacity of 326.
Much of the fun will come from the lounge itself -- the view and the decor.
"There is a lot of unique furniture," DeGraff said. "And there will be outdoor swings, a couple of bubble swings on the deck."
DeGraff said Ghostbar will open early in the evening, around 5 or 5:30 p.m., and stay open until early morning.
"People will be able to come here after work and relax, maybe order something from the downstairs restaurant," DeGraff said. "Then as the evening goes along, the crowd probably will change until, after midnight, there will be an entirely different type of people here."
As long as you don't get spooked by heights, Ghostbar should be a welcome addition to the diverse Las Vegas lounge scene.
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