Best Concert for a Cause 2024 | Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding | Nightlife | Phoenix
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Best Concert for a Cause

Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding

The Valley has plenty of beloved holiday traditions, but none are as cool as Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding. For more than 20 years, big-name musicians have come to the Valley for a one-night-only holiday show benefiting Cooper's Solid Rock Teen Centers. Past guests have included Styx, The Doors' Robby Krieger, Dee Snider, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Lita Ford, Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, Cheech Marin, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Sebastian Bach, Hollywood Vampires (Cooper's supergroup with Johnny Depp and Joe Perry), Gin Blossoms and many more. The vibe is cheerful and fun; as it turns out, holiday cheer mixes well with killer guitar licks. Tickets sales plus proceeds from a silent auction bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to keep programming at Cooper's two teen centers completely free for Valley youth. (A third location is set to open in Goodyear next year.) We can't think of a better way to celebrate the season of giving.

Best Bar

Platform 18 at Century Grand

Barter & Shake Cocktail Entertainment

Platform 18 goes far beyond an evening of high-end cocktails to give guests an immersive experience unlike anything else in Phoenix. One of three concepts in the Century Grand building, Platform 18 is a bar situated in a 36-seat Presidential Pullman-inspired train car, taking its patrons on a journey by rail as they imbibe. With the debut of its new menu earlier this year, the current journey takes guests to New York City circa 1924. The lineup of drinks celebrates madams, mobsters and the melting pot that was America in the early 20th century. For people who like sweeter drinks, Texas and Her Mob is a bright, bubbly drink made from vodka, bergamot, Aperol and prickly pear. A unique option is A Fight a Night, a cocktail based on the flavors of a shepherd's pie that is served with a cup of potato chips. We recommend ending the evening with Platform 18's Irish coffee, the best we've ever had.

Best New Bar

Quartz

Grace Stufkosky

Quartz and its sibling bar-within-a-bar, The Cave, are pumping out well-made, whimsical cocktails. Residing in the historic Welnick Marketplace and Liefgreen Seed Co. building, the main bar is sleek and chic, tucked under a geologically inspired slab of craggy rock. Its cocktail menu pays homage to birthstones, delivering richly colorful, piquant drinks. If you're not sure where to start, order up your birthstone's tipple and one of Quartz's delightfully higher-brow Jell-O shots. But don't stop at the main bar. Snag a reservation for The Cave, a visually stunning mirrored cavern with a mood set by lighting and global music. The Cave's menu takes inspiration from deserts around the world, with ingredients and presentation are far-reaching and occasionally over-the-top. Unlock a childhood memory, and try not to get a brain freeze, with the herbaceous frozen sipper Polar Puppy.

Best Cocktail Creator

Jesse Knox

Huarachis is known for its tacos and its founder, Chef Rene Andrade. But at the downtown Phoenix restaurant, the cocktails stand out as well. And that's all thanks to Jesse Knox. Tasked with creating drinks that would fit the vibe of this trendy-yet-nostalgic taqueria, Knox came up with a playful menu of libations that both celebrate classic flavors and dial them up a notch. Take the Horchata Punch, a clarified cocktail that evokes the creaminess of the classic milky rice drink through a boozy, crystal-clear format. Many of the cocktails pair Jarritos sodas with artisinal mezcal spirits such as bacanora or sotol. The menu continuously rotates, but one thing remains true: With Jesse Knox behind the bar, the drinks at Huarachis make this taco shop a cocktail destination.

Best Speakeasy

Pigtails

Devan Sauer

Pigtails gives us everything we want in a speakeasy without the bluster and pretension that can bloat this genre of cocktail lounge. In both its downtown and Desert Ridge locations, Pigtails manages to hide itself from plain view without dissuading drinkers with passwords or the need to make a reservation. The vibe is dark and moody, but a living wall and copper accents add dimension to the space. The cocktail menus differ by location but both expertly riff on classic shaken and stirred tipples, along with shots, mocktails and a regularly-rotating mystery punch. Pigtails also has snacks to tide you over, from sophisticated raw bar bites to craveable cheesy nachos.

Best New Speakeasy

Tell Your Friends

Jill McNamara

New bars open all the time, and most don't do much to make a lasting impression. But in Tell Your Friends, the speakeasy underneath North Scottsdale eatery The Americano, we've got a winner. The ultra-luxe space is anchored by a golden fixture that runs across the ceiling and down behind the bar. There are a small number of seats at the bar, or you may choose to sit in an elegant velvet chair. The cocktails are potent and inventive. Call the Paparazzi is Tell Your Friends' version of an espresso martini, and the Flapper Fizz, made from vodka, apple, vanilla, amaro, lemon and Champagne, is a bubbly delight. Lest you get too tipsy, consider ordering something off the food side of the menu; options include fire-roasted oysters and a dip trio (smoked white fish, caramelized onion dip and pimento cheese) served with potato chips and fried saltines.

Best Neighborhood Bar

Casey Moore's Oyster House

Jennifer Goldberg

We honestly don't know what Tempe nightlife would be like without Casey Moore's Oyster House. The bar, set in an early-20th-century home, has been a mainstay of the area for decades, serving generations of ASU students and professors, neighborhood folks, fans of seafood and Gammage patrons. Drinks are strong and fairly cheap, and menu has a solid lineup of pub favorites (our picks include the gold wings, the fish and chips and the Cajun cream pasta). On a Friday or Saturday night, you can only hope that'll you find a table at the lovely wraparound patio dotted with trees and lights or inside at the bar. (There's an outdoor bar, too.) If you're extra-nice to the staff, they may let you take a peek upstairs, but watch out for the ghosts that are said to haunt the bar. The vibe is always casual, the clientele is always friendly and with any luck, Casey Moore's will always be around.

Best Dive Bar

The Bikini Lounge

Benjamin Leatherman

The more things change in downtown Phoenix nightlife, the more they stay the same. In the case of the Bikini Lounge, it's been 20 years since the last time we crowned the historic tiki-themed haunt as the Valley's best dive, and it's still worthy of the honor. In that time, not much has changed at this long-running Grand Avenue mainstay, which dates back to 1947, save for the tiki-style bike rack in front and the bamboo-ringed patio out back. It's still a cash-only spot, filled with quintessential dive bar bona fides, from its gloriously scuffed bar and stained concrete floor to the men's room outfitted with a janky condom machine, sketchy paint job and questionable odors. Maybe it's the potent pours at the Bikini Lounge, but the Christmas lights always seem to shine a little brighter, the regulars are friendlier and the staff is more colorful (including doorman and local sideshow artist Dr. Rev. Stephen Strange) than at other local shitholes. In an age when the dive bar aesthetic has become an oft-copied concept for new nightspots, nothing beats a true classic like the Bikini. We're betting it'll still be serving dirt-cheap drinks long after these newer and trendier spots go belly up.

Best Sports Bar

Santisi Brothers

You want to watch the game? How about all of them? Santisi Brothers in northwest Phoenix takes game-day options to a new level with its 100 — yes, 100 — televisions that they refer to as the Wide Wall of Sports. That many screens means that you can keep tabs on multiple sporting events at once. And as you cheer for your favorite teams, you can enjoy drinks from the full bar and well-executed sports bar fare. Santisi Brothers is known for its pizzas and Italian fare; the garlic knots are excellent, and we're partial to the Santisi Combo pizza, which comes topped with pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, onions, olives and mushrooms. On any given Sunday, there's a good chance you'll find us watching the game at Santisi Brothers.

Best Tiki Bar

UnderTow

Tirion Boan

There are lots of tiki bars around, brightly colored joints with wicker furniture, drink umbrellas and coconut shrimp. We love those places. But UnderTow is a tiki bar on a whole other level. The Barter & Shake concept takes you underwater into the hull of a 19th-century ship, complete with portholes and sound effects. The current menu is inspired by the Yucatan and includes complex, inventive cocktails for all palates. The showstopper is the In Honor of Nameless Days, a rum- and tequila-based monster flavored with plantain, poblano, coconut, pineapple, lime and garnished with gold. It costs $44 and arrives at your table covered with a skull inside a lion head. (You just have to experience it.) A welcome recent addition to the menu is a snack trio of corn nuts, cheese and chorizo, which helps soak up some of the alcohol and is delicious to boot.

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