Sara Crocker
Audio By Carbonatix
Mill Avenue has its fair share of craft beer and pizza, and after months of anticipation, a new duo will join the mix near Arizona State University’s campus.
Phantom Fox Beer Co. and its partner pie shop Goat and Ram, will officially open on Oct. 8 in the former Illegal Pete’s on Mill near Fifth Street. The crew will begin its soft opening the week before. The brewery and pizzeria were part of a slate of new restaurants coming to the city’s main drag announced last year.
Eric Cady and Trent Smith, owners of the downtown Mesa watering hole Chupacabra Taproom, founded the brewery and opened its original location nearby in November 2023. They teamed up with the popular mobile pizza maker Goat and Ram, helmed by husband-and-wife Dan and Morgan Medlen. Together, the group of friends run a dual-concept brewery with a pizzeria inside, where customers can order flights of Phantom Fox beer to pair with freshly made pies.
“(Tempe) reminds me a lot of how we started in Mesa,” Smith says. Mill Avenue has a baseline draw, but Smith is excited to be a part of the latest wave of new spots moving in and revitalizing the area. “We’re just really happy to be part of this community.”
Tempe Mayor Corey Woods sought out the craft brewer at the suggestion of other Valley restaurateurs Armando Hernandez and Julian Wright, owner of the long-running Mill brewpub Pedal Haus Brewery.
“Downtown Tempe is a very hot place to be and a lot of restaurateurs and bar owners are looking here for their next big location,” Woods told Phoenix New Times in December. “2026 is going to be very exciting for Mill Avenue and downtown Tempe.”
What to expect at Phantom Fox
In just a few years, Phantom Fox has quickly become an anchor of the half-dozen breweries and taprooms along downtown Mesa’s Main Street. Fans flocked from around Mesa and the rest of the Valley for the winning combination of pizza and cold pints. The owners recently expanded into the space next door, doubling the seating at the popular, industrial Mesa brewery.
“We have not ever been busier (than) this summer,” Smith says. “Everyone has a hit in the summertime. We just got busier and busier.”
The brewhouse, helmed by Valerie Adee, turns out an expansive tap list that ranges from crisp, quaffable Mexican-style lagers to headier West Coast IPAs. Those will continue to be brewed exclusively in Mesa. The bar also serves a taut selection of cocktails, wine and Cider Corps cider. Meanwhile, at Goat and Ram, customers can order snacks, salad, wickedly garlicky cheese toasties and pizzas with a pillowy, airy dough that serves as the canvas for both traditional and more unexpected toppings.
The brewery and pizzeria are a package deal.
“They’re tied to the hip with us,” Smith says of the partnership with Goat and Ram.
In Tempe, customers can expect the same bar-and-pizzeria format under one roof. At the bar, 20 taps will be filled with Phantom Fox’s brews as well as pours from Cider Corps. The team will expand cocktail options to include a few more craft tipples and shots, Smith says. The Goat & Ram crew will expand the food menu to include wings and loaded French fries with toppings that mirror the regularly updated pie menu.
The brewer has shared teasers of the new, likewise industrial space, including a wall of copper-colored Zellige tile, the drywalled outline of Goat and Ram’s kitchen and the patio, whose metal pergola holds up a massive black-and-gold sign teasing the beer bar and pizzeria’s arrival. The Tempe dining room and patio will seat more than 200 guests, similar to its Mesa footprint, but with more outdoor seating. They plan to air college sports and NFL games on TVs around the space, Smith says.
When they open this fall, Phantom Fox and Goat and Ram will join the latest Tempe hotspot, Roman God of Fire, and a wave of places that debuted near Mill last year, including Wild Barbecue and outposts of popular Valley spots Bad Jimmy’s and Proof Bread.
Several more restaurants are coming, including Novel Ice Cream, a new concept by the creators of Glai Baan and Carmen, a coastal Mexican-inspired eatery from restaurateur Julian Wright.
Tempe won’t be the end of the brewery’s expansion plans. Phantom Fox and Goat and Ram are set to open in Gilbert in early 2027 at The Gilmore, a 35-acre development at the northwest corner of Val Vista Drive and Germann Road.
For now, the next phase of Phantom Fox and Goat and Ram’s East Valley expansion is along Tempe’s bustling avenue.
“We think Tempe is going to be a great spot for us,” Smith says. “We built a pretty good community in downtown Mesa with a bunch of locals, just being a great little place to hang out. We’re hoping this turns out to be the same thing.”
Phantom Fox Beer Co. and Goat and Ram
Opens on Oct. 8
525 S. Mill Ave., Tempe
Now open
150 W. Main St., Mesa
