This Unique Pop-Up Bar Looks (and Functions) Like a Blockbuster Video Store From the ‘90s
A new pop-up in Las Vegas has merged the mechanics of a speakeasy with the look and feel of a 1990s video rental store.
The ordering experience alone sets it apart from anything else in the city’s bar scene right now — and it may signal where experiential drinking concepts are headed next.
“Back 2 The Video Store: A 90s Speakeasy Bar” replicates the experience of walking into a video store like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
It already had sold-out pop-ups in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and more.
The space looks like an old-school rental shop. But instead of picking up a VHS tape and heading to the checkout counter, you’re picking up a movie case and handing it to a bartender.
Each movie case on the shelf lists cocktail ingredients inside. Customers browse the shelves, choose a case, and bring it to the bar. The bartender then makes the corresponding drink.
The menu isn’t printed on a chalkboard or handed to you on a card. It lives on the shelves, inside the cases themselves.
What’s on the Drink (and Food) Menu
The cocktail list pulls from specific films, with each recipe built around a distinct flavor profile tied to its movie namesake:
- The Mean Girls combines vodka, lemon juice, watermelon syrup, and cotton candy
- The Happy Gilmore mixes vodka, sweet tea, lemon juice, and simple syrup
- The Big Lebowski brings together vodka, vanilla extract, coffee liqueur, and shaved nutmeg
That Big Lebowski recipe reads like a riff on a White Russian, which tracks. The Happy Gilmore leans into spiked Arnold Palmer territory.
The ingredients aren’t random cocktail names slapped onto standard drinks — they’re built to match the films.
The food side carries the same naming approach, with items like The Mighty Ducks Quesadilla (made with beef brisket or chicken) and The Mystic Pizza.
The pop-up comes from Bucket Listers, the company also behind Mariah Carey’s Holiday Bar at Park MGM and the Malibu Barbie Cafe at Area15. That track record gives you a sense of the production level.
These are fully built-out themed environments with event programming baked in.
The bar will host trivia nights, bingo nights, karaoke nights, and live DJs throughout the week. That kind of rotating calendar turns a one-visit concept into a repeatable experience — a smart move for a pop-up with a limited run.
Why the Ordering Mechanic Matters
Plenty of pop-ups lean on nostalgia. Plenty use movie references. But the physical act of browsing shelves, pulling a case, reading ingredients inside, and bringing it to a bartender recreates a specific behavior — the ritual of browsing a video store — and turns it into the way you order a drink.
It also solves a real problem with themed bars: the theme often stops at the decor. You walk in, look around, take a photo, and then order off a normal menu. Here, the theme is the ordering system itself.
You can’t engage with the bar without engaging with the concept.
The Bucket Listers model of creating branded pop-up experiences with limited runs has already proven it can move between cities and venues.
Whether this specific concept travels remains to be seen, but the framework — physical browsing as a menu system, tied to a nostalgic environment — could adapt to other themes and other cities.
The pop-up runs Wednesdays through Sundays, March 25 through May 17. It’s located at PKWY Tavern, 4930 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas.
General admission starts at $17.80 per person. That gets you 90 minutes of open seating and one cocktail or mocktail. Additional drinks are available for purchase.
Reservations and more information are at bucketlisters.com.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
