Native Las Vegas rocker remakes famed dive bar
It’s too early to consider Frankie Sidoris as an operator of a Jimmy Buffet Margarita-scaled tavern conglomerate, or a string of Cabo Wabo Cantinas as envisioned by Sammy Hagar.
But the Vegas-born rocker has it dialed in at one bar, Hard Hat Lounge at 1675 Industrial Road. The club is just under the distinctive, vintage-Vegas neon sign.
Sidoris is hosting the lounge’s second anniversary under his ownership at at 8 p.m. Friday. The event features live bands, a photo booth, dining delectable from culinary partner Stay Tuned Burgers, among other happenings.
The end time is listed as, ”Til Late!” always a forecast of frivolity.
Rocking the Hat
At last year’s club reopening/one-year anniversary, Slash showed up and jammed with Sidoris and his fellow native rocker Franky Perez, with bassist Todd Morse of The Offspring and Brent Fitz (who has backed Slash, Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper and Vince Neil) on drums.
This time, Sidoris said, “We’re kind of leaning more into the local community and having a couple vendors, people selling local wares, with our jazz band playing early on.”
In order, the bands booked are Same Sex Mary, Cairo Knife Fight with Black Eyed Peas guitarist George Pajon; and Soft Echo, an occasional featured guest of The Killers.
“We want that whole local-love experience,” Sidoris said. He is a local-love individual. Those who follow the column know the lineage: His mother is original “Crazy Girls” cast member Angela Stabile, who has founded Stabile Productions with her husband, Matt Stabile. His his sister, Tiffany Stabile, is co-producer of the company that runs “X Burlesque,” “X Country,” “X Rocks” and Piff the Magic Dragon. His father is Resorts World casino professional Frank Sidoris.
“Hard Hat has taken on a whole evolution, and it’s all good things,” Sidoris said in a recent phone chat. “Whether that means we just need to hire more staff, or do this and that, to accommodate all the people coming in, these are great problems to have.”
The Hard Hat building opened in 1962 as a diner, and was later a convenience store. Bar operations started in 1970. Sidoris dove into the dive scene in August 2022, leading a renovation project that saw the guitar great filling multitudes of dumpsters in a cosmetic and infrastructure overhaul.
Locals are interested
“We wanted people to come to Hard Hat that understand the history of it, but even if you don’t understand the history you can come in and realize it’s just a cool place to hang,” Sidoris said. “I want it to feel like it’s somewhere I would want to go to if I was on the road like, ‘Where am I supposed to go tonight?’ and a local says, ‘Oh, you’ve got to go to the Hard Hat.”
Sidoris’ co-partner is Bobby Meader of Stay Tuned Burgers. Sidoris and club GM Dillon Shines have been friends since fourth grade. Sidoris is happy that Hard Hat has generated interest throughout the Las Vegas entertainment and culinary communities.
“Especially over this last year, the guys from the food-and-beverage staffs from Piero’s Golden Steer, Peppermill, Wakuda, the legendary Vegas places, are showing up at the Hard Hat just by word-of-mouth,” Sidoris said. “We have people from the new places that are high end. I love it because the age range just covers the whole spectrum of people who work in food and beverage.”
The company could conceivably expand, but Sidoris wants to keep the original Hard Hat as its own thing.
“As far as expansion, people have already been asking me about that. Right now, I really believe that I don’t want to dilute what we have here at Hard Hat,” Sidoris said. “So much of our value is in the name and location and history. It’s one of the few lasting stand-alone bars in Vegas. If we did anything other than Hard Hat, it should be to open a bar under a different name, but keep the same values.”
Elvis in the mix
Sidoris often manages the bar from afar, while touring with his dual bands, Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators; and Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH. He’s writing with Slash for an upcoming album, titled “World On Fire,” having finished 10-11 songs and recording Monday in Orlando.
The producer of that project is Michael “Elvis” Baskett, who has worked previously with Slash along with such accomplished rockers as Sevendust, Limp Bizkit and Chevelle. Baskett’s nickname lines up with Sidoris’ hometown.
“He’s amazing, and he goes by ‘Elvis,’” Sidoris said, laughing. “Why wouldn’t he be Elvis?”
Sidoris has performed around the world, and was in the first rock show ever at Allegiant Stadium when Mammoth WVH opened for Guns N’ Roses in Aug. 27, 2021. But he also gets a rush from hosting an intimate crowd at his Vegas tavern.
“I remember the very first night we opened, the soft opening, and there were like 13 people inside the lounge, they just popped in,” Sidoris said. “And people were paying for things, it was showing up on the register and we were in the bar business. I was like, ‘I can’t believe how good this feels. It was the coolest thing ever.”
Cool Hang Alert
Beginning this weekend, keyboardist Dan Ellis, guitarist Steven Lee and bassist John Belzaguy have a new gig at Treasure Island’s Breeze Bar from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Excellent music, no cover and free parking. This is a steal, a steal I tell you! Go go treasureisland.com (then dig for the treasure trove of intel).
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.