Pour 'Em, Cowboy

Best known for its dignified colonial buildings and staid Communist sensibility, Hanoi has never been a place to go for hopping nightlife. But that was before the Seventeen Saloon rode into town.

Adjacent to the Vietnamese capital's historic train station, Hanoi's hippest new hangout is a replica of an old frontier watering hole in the American West. A five-meter-tall cowboy stands outside, twirling a neon lasso over the saloon. Inside, the split-rail walls are decorated with cowboy memorabiliafrom cowboy boots to a mounted cowskinand since it opened in October, trendy young Vietnamese have been packing through the Seventeen...