Lauren Cusimano
Audio By Carbonatix
The beer and bar scene is pretty hot and heavy right now. New bottle shops, neighborhood bars, and simple beer-drinking spots have been opening at a steady pace lately – and no one is complaining. Across the Valley, here are five new places where you and friends can go have a drink tonight.
Century Grand
3626 East Indian School Road
Barter & Shake Creative Hospitality recently opened Century Grand – an art deco-inspired concept aiming to immerse guests in the experience of sipping modern cocktails in an early 20th-century train station. Century Grand offers an extensive whiskey list, an array of interesting wines, and, of course, meticulously fashioned cocktails. Chef Sacha Levine, formerly named Best of Phoenix’s vegetable wizard, has prepared a menu of mostly shareable items, harking back to comfort dishes made in humble American homes of the 1920s and ’30s.
Not a new place, but certainly a new vibe.
Lauren Cusimano
Linger Longer Lounge
6522 North 16th Street, #6
Okay, Linger Longer Lounge is not new, but it has recently come under new ownership. Jade Noble and Cal Cronin of Gracie’s Tax Bar and Manny Tripodis, owner of the recently closed Rogue Bar, purchased the spot from Tucker Woodbury, the head of Genuine Concepts, in late August. If you’d frequented Rogue Bar, you’ll recognize some of the décor inside the revamped LLL. Retro beer signs glow, a jukebox blasts classic rock, ’80s jams, and Tenacious D, and Saint Pasta serves elevated Italian food from its new, permanent kitchen. And you can bet this “dive” bar has a dance night on the docket.
The Churchill has recently welcomed the new cocktail bar So Far, So Good.
The Churchill
So Far, So Good
901 North First Street
The cocktail bar in back of The Churchill, the 14,000-square-foot food court in downtown Phoenix, has closed. However, the Pobrecito space has been relaunched as So Far, So Good – another cocktail bar overseen by Pobrecito’s general manager, Sam Olguin. “So Far, So Good is an approachable neighborhood cocktail bar, where we’re not pigeonholed to a certain type of spirits or theme, but instead we’re focused on serving up a variety of interesting but straightforward drinks,” Olguin says in a press release. Giddy up.
Ted
Lauren Cusimano
Ted’s Refreshments
404 South Mill Avenue, #101, Tempe
If you’re afraid of actual dive bars, Ted’s Refreshments is a great primer. The former Blasted Barley Beer Company spot just off Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe is now home to a Midwestern bar-themed nightlife stop. Owned by Julian Wright – also behind the nearby Pedal Haus Brewery – Ted’s offers pool tables, pitchers, and a small menu of bar food. Plus there’s mango White Claw so, you can’t miss.
It’s on at The Theodore.
Justin Evans
The Theodore
110 East Roosevelt Street
An anticipated downtown beer shop, The Theodore was recently brought to Roosevelt Row by the same people behind The Sleepy Whale in Chandler (including Justin Evans of The Wandering Tortoise). The beer and wine bar is also a bottle shop, and offers mead, cider, and coffee to boot. The best seats in the house may be outside, though, on the tight sidewalk patio beneath the cartoonishly good mural of the bar’s namesake, Teddy Roosevelt.
