By JULIET HUANG

We reported on the first icebar to set up shop in Orlando, Florida in October. However, it seems that Las Vegas has already embraced the icebar phenomenon in September with the opening of minus 5 on the Vegas Strip.

Located just at the entrance of Mandalay Place in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, minus 5 Las Vegas is the sixth icebar to open under the minus 5 concept by hospitality group Fusion Hospitality.

Its owner and creator, Mr. Craig Ling (pictured above) opened his first icebar in Auckland, New Zealand in 2002. Since then, other minus5s have sprung up in Queenstown in New Zealand, Sydney and Gold Coast in Australia, Viseu in Portugal, and now with Las Vegas. In fact, plans are afoot to bring the “chilling” sensation to Singapore, Dubai and India as well.

Built to provide a sensational cool off after warm Vegas, the intricately carved ice lounge has two main areas, one that resembles a ski lodge with an Aspen-style bar, and the other built entirely out of Canadian iceblocks.

A chapel-like area with stained ice windows and church-like pews welcomes visitors at the reception, where functions and events can be held. The architecture is propped up with handcrafted giant ice blocks – all 150 of them and imported from Canada.

These are used to create ice sculptures which are changed every 6-8 weeks – at the moment, it’s the King of Rock, Elvis complete with guitar in hand taking center stage in the lounge, where the temperature is kept at 5 degrees Celsius, (23 degrees Fahrenheit) hence the name.

Guests can be expected to suit up in booties and parkas, while sipping ice-cold vodka in an ice glass.

The adjacent minus5 lodge provides the anti-thesis to the consistent -5 degree Celsius experience: a warm pub with leather seats, Ironwood beams and river stones, grouped together with a famous chef providing comfort food for your palate.

Some pictures taken from Los Angeles Times