Cadillac Ranch far from college-friendly

By: Casey Durkin

Monday, October 12, 2009 - 11:22 PM

Cadillac Ranch
- 1330 Scheels Drive
Sparks
- 775-331-2000
- Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 4 a.m.

OK, it is confession time.

I was ultra-excited when my editor said to review a restaurant called Cadillac Ranch. In my mind, it could only be a whorehouse with a buffet, a glorified car show with a buffet or, best of all, both. Not that I wanted to give in to carnal desires or have a love for low riders — I just thought it was cool that the The Nevada Sagebrush was expanding its horizons.

Although Cadillac Ranch doesn’t have any prostitutes cruising in pimped-out caddies, the bar and grill isn’t all that bad.

Cadillac Ranch is an American-style bar and grill located in the Legends shopping center behind Scheels. I also put much emphasis when I say it is American. When first walking into Cadillac Ranch you are greeted by so much American influence, it is like the U.S. vomited all of its culture into a restaurant and shook it around.

Cadillac Ranch tries to be Texan, Nevadan, rock ‘n’ roll, country, disco and an upscale lounge all at the same time; trying to pick just one could drive a person insane. Hundreds of guitars and blown-up pictures of Bruce Springsteen and KISS plaster the walls, murals of Nevada’s famous neon signs fill in the gaps and deer-antler chandeliers and traditional disco balls hang from the ceilings; it’s enough to make one wonder who the interior designer was and how much LSD influenced his or her decisions.

All the different choices of food are what one would expect from an American-style bar and grill. Hamburgers, barbecue, steaks and other various types of meat encompass the entire menu. For an appetizer, I got the $10 Texas Wings, which I thought was a stretch for the price of wings, but hey, it’s American-themed so that means it must be big. Fooled me once, Cadillac Ranch.

As I saw the waitress bring out 10 small hot wings on a gourmet rectangular plate I immediately knew I was going to lose more money than a Bernie Madoff victim that night. The wings ended up being really good but at what cost?

I was able to try one of their best-selling burgers, the Black and Blue Burger. This was a good burger, much bigger in size compared to the sorry excuse for an appetizer, and it tasted like a good six- or seven-dollar burger you can get at any good burger joint. There was only one problem: it was $12. Fooled me twice, Cadillac Ranch.

I was beginning to think that this restaurant was not college-friendly, but at least the atmosphere was looking good.

The restaurant has four bars and specialty drink nights like $2 pints of any beer available on Wednesdays, 97-cent Coors Fridays from 3 to 5 p.m. and half-priced drink for ladies on Thursday nights. The drink specials are like catnip to a college kid.

They even have a bull-riding machine. Yes, they exist; I questioned my own eyes too. Luckily for me, two bachelorette parties were converging upon this godly livestock machine, getting me as close as I was going to get to my original dreams of scantily dressed women riding an “insert word here.”

But like clockwork, the lights went dim, a disco ball turned on and “Freak Out” began ringing through the restaurant. You fooled me way too damn much for one night, Cadillac Ranch. It was now official: this place is not for the college kid’s checkbook or mental health.

So unless you want to go drink heavily on specialty drink nights and ignore all the other things around you, this is not the place for a college student. But if you end up going, just know you will be left without any money, fun or prostitutes — just as I was.

Casey Durkin can be reached at cdurkin@nevadasagebrush.com.