There's a lot of hype in Vegas. A lot of people looking for the next best place to go, the newest spot, the latest hangout, whatever – you understand.

So, when a new place opens up and starts throwing around words like, "exclusive" and "speakeasy" and "reservations required," you'd probably take all that with a grain of salt. So, yeah, maybe it's a little hidden, maybe it's a little more private, you'd probably think all these things and tell yourself it can't be that great and you'd head back downtown or to some VIP room or whatever place was cutting it these days.

And you'd go along thinking like that until you actually went to Noir Bar. And then you'd get it.

"Oh," you would say as you gave your name to the doorman, under a canopy lit by candles in a clandestine spot off the Luxor.

"Wow," you would say as you were led down the long, dim, red-lit hallway to who knows where.

"What," you would say when you ended up facing a giant wall covered in mother of pearl.

That would be how your night started. Your night would end with some version of those same words, but it would be all the stuff in between the made the difference.

Noir Bar isn’t the kind of place Las Vegas is used to, which (not to put too fine a point on it) means it’s exactly what Las Vegas needs.

There’s only a handful of tables in the entire bar, or maybe more than “a handful” but less than “a lot.” And, yes, reservations are required.

But it’s worth it.

After night after night of clamoring for a bartender’s attention and playing bumper cars on the dance floor with every member of Cindy Lou’s bachelorette party extravaganza and fending off advances from the brothers of Delta Delta Delta like you were in a fencing match, Noir Bar is like some sort of shining, clichéd beacon in the night. Like, you know, the sun after a rainstorm or something equally hokey.

You show up and there’s a table already there for you. A nice table, with real chairs, big leather ones that put your old IKEA hand-me-downs at home to shame. The bartender actually comes out to you. No eye contact, hand-waving, cleavage-baring tricks here, he comes to you. Where other places tout bottle service as the ultimate in nightlife, Noir Bar actually holds up the individual cocktail as the way to go.

You like rum? All right. And pineapples?  And cinnamon? Can do. Whatever your palate, the bartenders are going to throw a parade in a glass for it and you can bet it’ll taste awesome because they’re some of the best with a bottle in the whole city.

Of course, what would a Vegas nightspot be without a “vibe?” It would probably be one of the first signs of the apocalypse, so just to keep the Earth spinning a few hundred thousand more years, Noir has a vibe.

But it’s not your typical Vegas vibe. Or not typical Vegas today, anyway. With deep red lighting and deep leather booths and other deep things (including a Swarovski crystal chandelier that hangs down deep into the first room), Noir just kind of oozes class. Not in a smarmy way, but in a kind of slow-moving, effortless way that’s pretty much the opposite of the frenzied, lights and glitter feeling you get in a lot of nightclubs.

There’s actually a lot to say about Noir, which means that it’s the kind of place worth talking about (but not too loudly, not so everyone hears), but giving everything away would spoil part of the experience. Suffice to say, you’ve got the green light here to believe the hype.

-- Review by Jamie Helmick