Comments (0) Best Underground Bar Legend - 2011
Incognito at the Safari Hotel
All too often, the best-kept secrets stay underground — and so, it appears, will the full story of the Incognito. Legend places the underground bar in the basement of the Safari Hotel, built in Scottsdale by local architect Al Beadle and owned by Bill Ritter and Ernie Uhlmann. The Safari swung its luxury resort doors open in 1956 to crowds who made the long, 14-mile drive from Phoenix — and from all over the country.At the jungle-themed resort's height, all 108 rooms were booked; women were treated in the salons and danced on the ballroom floor while cocktails were poured from a fine-dining lounge for all-star guests including Burt Reynolds and Bing Crosby. But what isn't in the books or blueprints is what a few guests and local old-timers casually remember as a dummy payphone, just outside the resort. Say the secret word into the payphone and an outside door to the underground Incognito would be opened. There would be no mention of the place when Martin Milner and George Maharis filmed a 1961 episode of Route 66 at the Safari, and certainly no hint on the resort's well-known restaurant menu or hotel guide. According to Uhlmann's son, Mark, who's spent years documenting his father's influence in the city, there was no bar called the Incognito on the property — at least not while his father was in charge. The building passed from Uhlmann's hands in 1980 and was razed by the city a decade later to make room for condos. And though we'll always remember what was above ground (and we'll certainly see more transitions in the years to come), we'll always have to wonder about what went on below.
