Mob Museum to debut speakeasy, working distillery next year

Have you ever tried to decide between an educational day at a museum or just hanging out at the local bar? No worries — the folks at the Mob Museum are way ahead of you.

As part of a renovation, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, affectionately known to locals and visitors as the Mob Museum, will add an exhibit on Prohibition next year – complete with a working distillery and speakeasy.

No simple watering hole dressed up in academic clothing, the exhibit will include multimedia displays, objects, artifacts and a Prohibition-themed game, and it promises to “educate visitors about the singular intersection of culture, industry and organized crime that pervaded the Prohibition Era.”

But this is, of course, is Las Vegas. So there will be a chance to wet your whistle as you study up on history. That will come from a truly “underground,” fully operational tavern located, like the rest of the exhibit, in the Stewart Avenue building’s basement. It will offer brews, spirits and a place to socialize 1920s style.

Las Vegas-based architecture firm LG Architects and the international design firm Gallagher & Associates will assist in designing the exhibits, expected to open to the public in the first quarter of 2018.

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter.