Nevada City in 1857 has forty-five licensed establishments selling alcohol.

The Hotel de Paris on Broad Street is a relatively clean gambling hall and restaurant, with a boarding house in the back. Despite the name, townies avoid the place. It serves a rough crowd – including laborers and miners in-town to spend hard earned gold.

Meals are filling and hearty. Typical review : "The best-got-up thing of the kind I had sat down to for some months. The feast of roast beef, soup, cabbage, carrots, turnips, and onions, washed down with copious amounts of coffee and cognac, left me powerfully refreshed.” More simple folk might say simply “by any standard an improvement over the mining camp’s horrible dinner.”

Behind the restaurant, you find gambling tables with “pretty good music”. The bar is well-stocked with whiskeys and mash – including some (supposedly) imported bottles for folks wanting a taste of home.

Attached on one side and out the back is “The American Hotel”. A typical boarding-house, much like the mines, but with cleaner with sheets changed once a week. Expect to sleep in double or triple-bunks.

On the other side is “National Gymnasium” which follows the German/Nordic meaning of “school”. Focusing on folks wishing to finish their grammar education (esp writing and arithmetic) with advanced classes on the practical science of engineering and geology.

Next door is an building with open meeting space for about two dozen. Currently rented out to a visiting theater troupe performing selections from Shakespeare – particular favorites of the crowd are the histories esp Richard III and Henry V.