Poodle Room Members-only Bar in Fontainebleau Las Vegas

• Poodle Room is a members-only club at the top of 67-story Fontainebleau Las Vegas. 
• The social space features striking, poodle-inspired decor, as well as a bar with stunning views of the Vegas Strip, a patio, lounge areas, a cigar room, a private bar, and a 12-seat omakase restaurant. 
• The invite-only club is accessible to guests staying in the resort’s Fleur de Lis suites, as well as those invited by a Poodle Room member and guests dining at 12-seat omakase restaurant Ito.

One of Travel + Leisure’s Las Vegas reporters recently told me that the best view of Sin City is at a members-only bar called Poodle Room on the top floor of the Fontainebleau hotel.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the second outpost from the hospitality brand known for its ever-popular Miami Beach resort, was named one of the best new hotels of 2024 on T+L’s annual It List. Housed in the “tallest occupiable building in the state of Nevada,” according to a Fontainebleau spokesperson, the bar crowning the tower also has a 12-seat omakase restaurant, Ito.

The members-only club, 67 stories up, made New Yorker headlines at the beginning of 2024—during its preview phase—when A-listers like Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Cher, and as the article put it, “more than one Kardashian” showed up to have a drink with Josephine, the bar’s headlining poodle.

The idea of a sky-high bar, often bought out by celebrity clientele, with poodles everywhere lived rent-free in my mind until, finally, I succumbed to curiosity and made plans to see it. There are three ways to get in: you have to be invited by a member, have a coveted reservation at Ito, or stay in the Fontainebleau’s $1,500-a-night Fleur de Lis suites, which include butler service and lavish digs with multiple bedrooms and a living room that feels roughly the size of Nantucket. In my Fleur de Lis suite, I found a bathroom that could certainly rival Caligula’s—or really any Roman emperor’s. And just as I turned on the fountain that would fill the marble Jacuzzi tub beside the in-suite sauna, I saw it: An invitation to the newly opened Poodle Room, extended to the guests of the hotel’s highest-rolling rooms.

At 11 p.m. that night, I made it home from the wedding that brought me to Las Vegas, swapped my lehenga for a black dress and bright-red Carel heels, and rode the Fontainebleau elevator to the 89th floor. (Often, hotels leave floors unaccounted for—many forego a 13th floor out of pure superstition—which is how the Poodle Room is 67 stories up but on the 89th floor.)

The mirrored entry is ripe for Instagram moments, but there are no phones allowed up here; No photos, no videos, and yes, it’s strictly enforced. I told the host I was a Fleur de Lis guest, was granted entrance to the decked-out bar, and nearly walked into a full-sized illuminated poodle statue. On her hind legs with her head held high, she was taller than I was and posing haughtily in front of floor-to-ceiling glass windows framing the Vegas strip. The welcoming committee.

I was transfixed. Not so much by the view, though it was impressive, as by the poodle statues, sconces, and patterned lamp shades that might have been left over from a ‘60s haunt the Rat Pack frequented. The napkin under my gin martini had a poodle in the bottom right corner, and when the dessert cart came, it was done up with petit-fours and truffles arranged on what looked to be wax paper with sketches of purple poodles.

Poodle Room oozes luxury, but it isn’t quiet. And in the U.S. capital of unabashed opulence, the deeply maximalist club fits right in. The navy blue walls meld with the glowing white orb the poodle sconces and statues emit, creating an ambiance that has you ordering a third martini for the first time in years. (On a related note, three martinis in was when I visited the women’s restroom, and came face-to-face with a taxidermied poodle sitting on a toilet in one of the stalls.)

We’re not in the soft launch phase anymore. Poodle Room is in full swing, with a vibey cluster of hanging lights over the bar and a small patio where I found a member smoking next to a hanging portrait of a crowned poodle labeled “La Reine” in gold script. There is a cigar room, inviting lounge areas, and the sultry Forneau private bar, clad in floor-to-ceiling red and an impressive art collection. 

Finally, the 12-seat omakase restaurant Ito has a separate Japanese whiskey bar and serves rare fish that make daily flights from Japan to be dolled up by acclaimed chefs Masa Ito and Kevin Kim. The restaurant, which may be headed for the Las Vegas Michelin-star list, is open to members and non-members, and might be your best way into Poodle Room.

To book your Ito reservation, visit fontainebleaulasvegas.com/ito, or to book a stay at the Fleur de Lis suites, from $1,500 a night, visit fontainebleaulasvegas.com/fleur-de-lis.