This new bar in Montreal is like a cheap night out in Vegas without the high stakes

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but sometimes it happens in Sainte-Thérèse too. The same rule applies!

If you’ve had your heart set on an old-fashioned Las Vegas-style experience with neon lights, billiards and retro dive bar kitsch, you don’t need to scour for last-minute flights on a travel meta-search engine.

Hotel Bonanza, an Old-Vegas style dive bar, opened this past March in Montreal’s village suburb Sainte-Thérèse.

It’s housed in what used to be the Hotel Blainville, which later became a bar, then a tavern, and then a nightclub over the years since 1912. While Hotel Bonanza may be a new business in the area, it strikes a balance between old and new, with a theme rooted in nostalgia.

The space is all decked out in an eclectic 1960s to 70s vintage Las Vegas aesthetic, from velvet curtains and fun wallpapers to a neon-lit red-velvet-topped pool table and cherry symbols.

The decor is intended to be a walk through a dive bar in different eras and spaces over the last century. When you enter, there is a 1960s Colorado ski lodge vibe with a nice fireplace, then a 60s-style California hotel lounge with clean, straight lines. Past that, you find a Vegas cabaret from the 80s, with red velvet curtains, Elvis paraphernalia, and a DG booth, and, finally, beside it, a 1990s-inspired Americana pool area.

Located on 27 Blainville West, Hotel Bonanza is a karaoke and pool dive bar, “a bit retro-trashy” and “well, charming,” according to its website.

With its Vegas-style show lights over the bar, wood-panelled walls and vintage-style playing card imagery wallpaper along the DJ station, Hotel Bonanza gives “Sin City” in a quiet suburb of North America’s “City of Love.”

You’ll find a 60s-inspired swaying arc-shaped bar sign outside the establishment, as well as fuzzy jaguar-print and classic vinyl bar stools on the inside.

As a fun twist on the theme, you’ll be surprised (but not so surprised) by the walls full of beer signs, license plates, decorative plates and retro music paraphernalia as decorative items, merging the Vegas theme with common Quebec dive-bar kitsch.

From the owners of Ste. Thérèse’s DEUX wine bar, you’ll catch Hotel Bonanza open late evenings starting from 7 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday, with karaoke nights every Saturday at 9 p.m.

The bar closes at 1 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, but stays open a bit later (til 3 a.m.) Thursday, Friday and Saturday. However, Hotel Bonanza is closed on Sunday and Monday.

The Sainte-Thérèse old Vegas-themed dive bar salon also recently hosted some shows for the Santa Theresa music festival. Hotel Bonanza held free shows with La Bonne Fréquence, DJ RIP Pop Mutant (We Are Wolves) and the event Le Grand Karaoke du Santa Theresa this past weekend, May 8 and 9.

As for food and beverage, you’ll find a nostalgic cocktail menu, beer pitchers, and shots, along with rotating specials for holidays, sports games, and events. With signature cocktails like Pornstar Martini, Tokyo Iced Tea, and Cherry Manhattan, and a few beers (Miller High Life bottle, Miller Lite draft, and Messorem IPA draft), there is something for everyone.

Now you may not win big at the slots, but the real jackpot at Hotel Bonanza isn’t just the curated drinks, tons of vintage decor, and that essential velvety red pool table at its heart. It’s whatever happens in a Montreal suburb’s Sin City spin-off.