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The next time you’re in the Arts District, be sure to wander up Antique Alley.
Don’t know where that is? Just consult the Antique Alley map.
The map in question, designed by Cricket Studios’ Bryan Swanson—the artist who created the early maps of First Friday—is now available at many downtown businesses. (I found mine at The Beat Coffeehouse.) Smartly designed and printed on glossy card stock, it’s an invaluable resource for finding all the antique and vintage dealers on Main Street and Casino Center.
But let’s back up: There is now a neighborhood called Antique Alley. This map has created it, just as those early First Friday maps created the Arts District. And according to Retro Vegas owner Bill Johnson, who commissioned the map, Antique Alley is a boomtown.
“At least half the map is new places that have just opened up,” says Johnson, pointing to Patina Decor, Corner Store Furniture Co. and several other shops that have opened in the past six months.
Las Vegas may love to slap hopeful names on its empty plots of land—Symphony Park was named long before its first symphony—but Antique Alley is already a real place worth visiting. The map proves the existence of the neighborhood, and the neighborhood validates the existence of the map. Nice when it works out that way.
