Oh what a difference a week makes. When last we checked in on Minus 5 the ice was still being put into place and the front entry was still under construction. Now it’s opening day, and everything’s ready to go — including the giant ice sculpture of Elvis. Really, though, shouldn’t everything have a giant ice sculpture of Elvis?
Past the register — where you can order up the basic $30 package for half an hour in the ice lounge and one cocktail all the way up to a $100 VIP setup where you get to keep your own Eskimo hat — you pick up your Minus 5 parka, boots and hat. Inside the antechamber, mittens are doled out like your mom is getting you ready for the bus stop in January. Click for more words and pictures »
After three, you won’t notice your fingers are frozen to the glass.
In the antechamber before you go into the ice lounge at Minus 5 inside Mandalay Bay, there are row after row of mittens hanging off pegs. Trust us: Take them.
It’s not like it’s so cold in there you’ll have to kick a penguin — though you less-hardy folks who didn’t grow up where they have, you know, winter, might be in for a shock. It’s just that the glasses are made of ice. You ever hang on to a fistful of ice cubes for 20 minutes? No? Didn’t think so.
In fact, special mats are laid out on the surfaces inside the ice lounge so your glass won’t freeze to the ice when you set it down. Nothing’s more embarrassing than going to retrieve your cocktail and pulling off half the decor with it. If our time drinking in the Krazy Glue Lounge taught us nothing else, it was that. Click for more words and pictures »
You know why people move out of places like Minnesota and Maine and God forbid, Canada, and come to places like Las Vegas? Because it’s freaking cold there, that’s why. Well, guess what, snowbirds? The cold is coming home to roost. You can leave your shovel at home though.
Minus 5 at Mandalay Bay is set to open Sept. 25. Guess how it got that name? Blocks of ice 38 inches by 19 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches form the “brick” walls of the climate-controlled room with ice sculptures and furniture planned to adorn the blue-lit venue. All the ice is imported from Canada and workers have just gotten their elven North Pole duties in creating a winter wonderland under way. What do you think about it, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Batman and Robin?
Anyway. Craig Ling, who started Minus 5 in New Zealand, said that other locations have a party vibe despite the chill, with people dancing the life back into their extremities while vodka warms their bones. They’re just careful to turn the crowd over after three drinks — they say because they don’t want anyone hanging out in 23 degree temperatures all night, but we suspect so no one on a drunken dare decides to stick their tongue on metal. Click for more words and pictures »
09.25.08 
