Stand on the Strip outside the Flamingo and the sound finds you first. A cover band, a blender running, and a crowd that already decided it is five o'clock somewhere.
Published Sep 17, 2025 · By Daniel Okafor
It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere is the open-air bar that anchors Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville at the Flamingo, at 3555 South Las Vegas Boulevard on the center Strip. It sits right on the sidewalk, open to the boulevard, so the room and the street run together. The name comes from the 2003 Buffett and Alan Jackson song, and the bar leans into that easy, off-the-clock idea from the first pour.
This is a party bar, plain and clear, and it does not pretend otherwise. There is no velvet rope and no reservation book, just a long counter, a stage, and a steady churn of people walking up off the Strip. The Las Vegas Advisor lists the bar as open from 10am to 4am, which is to say it runs whenever the boulevard does.
The drink list runs on frozen margaritas. The blenders barely stop, and the house margarita is the order everyone makes at least once, with a tall frozen variation for anyone who wants the full Margaritaville cliche done right. LandShark lager, the brand tied to the Buffett world, pours cold for the people who want a beer instead. The standout deal is the 5 cent beer happy hour, run daily from 5pm to 6pm, which the Las Vegas Advisor flags as one of the cheapest pours on the Strip.
The music is the engine. Cover bands and solo acts work the stage through the night, leaning on Buffett, classic rock, and singalong sets built for a crowd that came to join in rather than listen quietly. It earns a clear spot in the Las Vegas live music scene, and the band schedule is the reason regulars time their walk down the Strip. Our guide to the best live music bars in Las Vegas sets the wider field.
The flair bartenders are part of the show. Reviewers on Tripadvisor return again and again to the bottle-spinning, juggling pours that turn a simple drink order into a few minutes of theater. Watching a margarita get built here is half the reason to grab a stool at the rail.
The crowd reads true to the center Strip: bachelorette parties, conference escapees, and first-time visitors who want one loud night near Caesars and the Linq. It runs busiest in the early evening and again past midnight, when the Strip foot traffic peaks and the band turns it up. Come for noise and company, not for a quiet drink or a serious cocktail.
Time the visit to what the night needs. The 5 to 6pm happy hour is the smart move for a cheap warm-up before dinner, while the late sets reward anyone who wants the full open-air singalong with the Strip lit up behind the stage. A frozen margarita on the rail with a band playing is the whole pitch, and it delivers exactly that.
What keeps 5 O'Clock Somewhere on a Las Vegas list is honesty about what it is. It does not chase the speakeasy crowd or the craft purists. It pours a cold frozen drink, books a loud band, and opens itself to the sidewalk, and on the center Strip that is a formula that rarely misses.
The bar pairs naturally with the wider Strip drinking circuit. A short walk away, Beer Park in Las Vegas keeps the open-air Strip-view idea going, while The Golden Tiki in Las Vegas and Frankie's Tiki Room in Las Vegas carry the frozen, tropical thread off-Strip. For the full picture, our roundup of the best bars in Las Vegas and the wider Las Vegas bar guide set the scene.
