Aces & Ales pours one of the deepest beer programs in Las Vegas from its original East Side room on South Nellis Boulevard, with twenty rotating drafts and a cellar of more than 150 rare and vintage bottles.
The original Aces & Ales sits on South Nellis Boulevard on the East Side, well away from the Strip and built for locals. The bar opened in 2009 and is co-owned by Keri Kelli, the touring guitarist for Alice Cooper, alongside a group of craft beer regulars. Las Vegas Weekly frames it as the room that proved the city had an audience for serious beer.
The draft list is the headline, with around twenty rotating taps that turn over constantly across IPAs, sours, stouts, and lagers. Behind them sits a cellar of more than 150 rare and vintage bottles, a depth few Las Vegas bars attempt. The official site tracks the program as the core of the place rather than a sideline.
Beer aside, the room is set up for a long stay. Four pool tables, a shuffleboard, and roughly fifteen high-definition screens give groups something to do between pours. Across more than 400 Yelp reviews, drinkers point to the gaming and the screens as the reason a quick pint turns into an afternoon.
The kitchen runs from-scratch comfort food rather than fryer standards. Burgers, sandwiches, and shared plates are built to pair with the beer, and reviewers single out the wings and the pretzel. The food holds its own well enough that the bar reads as a gastropub, not just a taproom.
Recognition has followed the beer focus. Aces & Ales has been voted the city's best craft beer bar in local readers' polls, a result Las Vegas Weekly and Tripadvisor both note. That track record is the short answer to why beer travellers detour to an East Side strip mall.
Service draws steady praise for bartenders who know the board and will pour a taster before a commitment. The recurring caveat across reviews is a busy weekend bar where a single server can fall behind. Visiting on a weeknight is the simple way around it.
The crowd skews local, a mix of off-duty service-industry regulars, Raiders fans, and beer hunters working through the taps. It reads as a neighbourhood beer bar rather than a destination tasting room, and the worn, low-lit room reinforces that. Anyone after a polished Strip lounge will find the opposite here.
A second location on North Tenaya Way carries the same format for the west side of town. The Nellis original keeps the older following and the lived-in feel that regulars prefer. Both rooms run the same deep draft-and-bottle approach.
Who would love it: hop chasers and bottle hunters who want range, tasters, and a room set up for a long sit. Who should skip it: anyone after table service, a cocktail menu, or a Strip address, since this is an East Side beer bar first.
The board changes often enough that regulars check what is new on every visit, and the cellar list rewards drinkers who ask the bartender for guidance. Limited and vintage bottles appear and disappear quickly, so the staff recommendations are the fastest route to the good stuff. The pricing sits at the mid range for the quality on offer.
Aces & Ales ranks among the strongest stops on our craft beer bars in Las Vegas guide for depth of selection, and it earns a place on our after-work bars in Las Vegas list for a relaxed beer-led evening. The cellar and the rotating taps are what separate it from the brewpubs nearby. For more close by, the full Las Vegas bar guide maps the rest of the scene, with many beer nights pairing a flight here and the house brews at Able Baker Brewing.
