Three Angry Wives named for owners’ not-so-upset spouses

It's been a staple of Boca Park since 2003, and its name has caused many a chuckle. Three Angry Wives Pub, 8820 W. Charleston Blvd., gets it name from the reaction predicted by the three owners, the Higgins brothers, when their spouses learned they were launching the business.

Three Angry Wives was established in 2000 in Henderson. The operation moved to its present location when the three families bought homes in Summerlin.

The Higgins brothers, Sean, Mike and Kevin, have their own careers. One is a lawyer, another is a commercial real estate agent, and the other is a sports agent. None is involved in the day-to-day management of the tavern. That falls to Reggie Reynolds and Aaron O'Hayer.

Are the wives still angry?

"The wives have never been angry," Reynolds said. "We have a wonderful establishment; why would they be angry? It's just kind of a joke from when the place opened. They're (here) just as much as their husbands."

Questions about the name pop up almost daily, he said. A plaque near the ATM machine tells the official version of how it came to be called that. O'Hayer said the name was selected because it was creative and fun.

"At first, I actually wasn't the biggest fan of it," he said. "But it's grown on me. It's unique, and people love it."

A few years ago, it gained the attention of celebrity chef Rachael Ray, and she featured Three Angry Wives on her daytime television show.

The pub's logo was designed by artist Robb Kramer, who went on to work in Hollywood. He was a set designer and lead sculptor for 2009's "Coraline" movie.

"His arts sells for, like, tens of thousands of dollars now in galleries in L.A., and he's the one who came up with the original design," Reynolds said.

The logo depicts three vivacious women wielding a cleaver, beer mugs and a rolling pin. It was not meant to be an exact replication of the wives.

"You couldn't pick them out of a lineup from looking at the logo," Reynolds said. "It was great artistic license."

Three Angry Wives is known for its St. Patrick's Day celebration, when it features live music and can go through 100 kegs of beer. It sees roughly 4,000 attendees that holiday.

Sometimes the owners stop in for St. Patrick's Day. The brothers come from a family of 10, and the extended family can all show up, as many as 75, for the holiday.

Perhaps it's such a big family day for the Higgins brood because their grandfather stepped off a boat from Ireland. A photo of him and his brothers hangs in the pub's foyer. It was taken on the Emerald Isle before he left.

If the name Higgins rings a bell, it could be because the brothers' father, Gerald Higgins, is well-known as a sports medicine surgeon and is affiliated with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

In September, Three Angry Wives will have been at Boca Park for 10 years.

Many of the original staff members are still there, and "we've actually become one large family," Reynolds said. "Aaron and I are the original two managers, and Aaron's wife is one of the original waitresses. There are four or five bartenders who have been with us the whole 10 years. People in the kitchen end have been here for almost a full decade, as well."

He said the staff now numbers 30, with 15 of them original workers.

"That's hard to come by in any restaurant, especially in Vegas, with how transient the city is," Reynolds said.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.