A new downtown Phoenix nightspot opens this weekend. See inside

Downtown Phoenix is getting its latest nightspot this weekend, and it’s a room built for sound.

Roosevelt, a new “listening-focused” bar, club and restaurant, opens on Sunday inside the former home of FilmBar, pairing high-fidelity sound with house music, vinyl nights, cocktails and food.

And there’s a “dream team” of nightlife behind the project.

Roosevelt is the brainchild of Arizona electronic dance music promoter Thomas Turner of Relentless Beats, Phoenix nightlife veteran Steve Kushnir, Ocotillo owner and chef Walter Sterling and nightclub lighting designer Stephen Lieberman. Michael Hooker, a longtime Arizona house music DJ, is also involved.

Over the past two years, they’ve transformed the 4,000-square-foot spot at 815 N. Second St. into a space designed with the listening experience in mind.

Turner says Roosevelt was designed to deliver high-quality sound at any volume, but won’t go “full bore as a club” every night it’s open.

Roosevelt’s calendar will feature a mix of events. House music nights with local and touring DJs will share the schedule with vinyl listening sessions and even movie screenings, tying into the property’s legacy as FilmBar.

“So it’s really a restaurant, a bar with food and a fun place for the neighborhood,” Turner says. “And we’re going to let the neighborhood kind of decide what it is.”

Turner says food and music will be Roosevelt’s foundation, but its programming will evolve as the owners figure out what works.

“We’re starting the engines now,” Turner says.

‘A room built around the music and sound‘

Roosevelt boasts the only Funktion-One sound system inside an Arizona nightclub and what Turner describes as studio-quality acoustic treatments. Speakers are positioned throughout the room to deliver clear, high-fidelity sound without having to ratchet up the volume.

“You don’t have to turn the system up really loud,” Turner says. “The system has great coverage and really high fidelity.”

Hooker has another way of describing the setup.

“It’s kind of overkill but in a really good way,” he says.

And Roosevelt’s owners plan to put the sound system to work most nights. Weekends will feature club nights geared toward what Turner calls a “broad spectrum of feel-good house music.”

During the week, though, Roosevelt will dial things back. Local DJs will spin funk, soul, jazz and disco tunes or conduct vinyl listening sessions for entire albums.

“We can bring back the romance of listening to an album from start to finish,” Hooker says.

Phoenix currently has only a handful of listening bars where the focus is on a curated musical experience. Hooker says Roosevelt will take a similar approach with its listening nights.

He’s working with Konstadinos “DJ Cocoe” Tsimahidis, owner of Phoenix’s Grand Avenue Records, on these sessions.

“It’s going to give people the opportunity to hear music they’ve never heard before in a room built around the music and sound,” Hooker says.

‘A real dream team of nightlife’

Roosevelt started becoming a reality after Phoenix hip-hop promoter Michael Horowitz brought Turner to the former FilmBar space to check out the property in 2024.

“He thought it was a cool building and thought we could do something cool with it,” Turner says.

There was a wrinkle, though: Sterling, the chef and owner behind Phoenix’s Ocotillo Restaurant, already had a lease on the property.

Turner and Kushnir, longtime partners in Relentless Beats, then approached Sterling to collaborate on a nightspot at the property.

The idea took off from there. Sterling brought his restaurant experience to the project. Lieberman, an internationally known lighting designer who has worked on nightclubs and music festivals across the U.S., oversaw Roosevelt’s lighting and production with Turner and his team.

“It’s a real dream team of nightlife,” Turner says.

Hooker also joined the ownership group, bringing years of experience in Arizona’s house music scene and helping shape Roosevelt’s musical programming.

Roosevelt marks Turner’s first attempt at opening a downtown Phoenix nightspot since Track Club in 2019. The short-lived Roosevelt Row nightspot, which only operated for less than a month, was a collaboration between Turner and local developer Chuckie Duff.

Turner stresses that Roosevelt isn’t meant to be Track Club 2.0, though.

“There’s not any connection,” he says. “It’s a different business and something completely new.”

Instead, Turner says the goal with Roosevelt has been to start relatively small and go from there. He calls Roosevelt a “small entry-point room,” but says he wasn’t interested in cutting corners on its sound, lighting or acoustics.

“The first thing was to build it with quality and intention,” Turner says. “And then we can figure out what it’s supposed to be like.”

How Roosevelt will continue FilmBar’s legacy

Longtime patrons of FilmBar might spot a few familiar sights at Roosevelt.

The marquee and distinctive flagstone from the now-defunct independent cinema and nightspot that occupied the property for more than a decade until closing in 2022 are still part of the exterior.

Inside, though, is a completely different story.

Roosevelt’s owners gutted the interior of the property, opening up the main room to create more space for a bar, dance floor, stage and seating areas. It’s now transformed into a space that former FilmBar regulars would barely recognize.

Roosevelt’s owners included a few nods to the spot’s former life as FilmBar, though. A patio area alongside the building includes a series of glowing lightboxes resembling movie poster displays along the walls, which Hooker says will showcase a rotating lineup of work by local artists.

Then there are the movies that the spot will screen on the regular.

Roosevelt features a projector and screen in its main room, which will be the site of film events. Hooker says they’re teaming up with with Phoenix pop-up film series Cinehaze for monthly screenings of cult classics beginning in September. Turner says the team is also kicking around ideas for movie-night popcorn, snacks and other food.

Keeping film in the picture was important to the property’s landlord, Turner says.

“It was important to her that we did something to incorporate film,” he says. “So we’re doing our best by that.”

When does Roosevelt open in downtown Phoenix?

Roosevelt will debut to the public at 4 p.m. Sunday with Open House Sundays with happy hour prices and, as Hooker puts it, “house music from the off.”

The opening follows three RSVP-only preview nights from Thursday through Saturday. Roosevelt’s grand opening is planned for September.

Turner says Roosevelt’s menu and programming will continue to evolve over the coming months as the owners learn what works and what doesn’t.

The nightspot could eventually get bigger, too. Turner says the team plans to develop the parking lot next door into an outdoor area, potentially by spring 2028.

Turner says what customers see at Roosevelt starting this weekend will be a small snapshot of what the place will become over the next six months.

“We’re going to look to build the best business that we can through Roosevelt for the neighborhood,” he says.

Roosevelt
815 N. Second St.