Tempe’s iconic Palo Verde Lounge has closed. Will it ever reopen?

One of the Valley’s most beloved dive bars has shut down after 62 years in business. Tempe’s iconic Palo Verde Lounge, a popular hangout for decades of locals, closed its doors last week, possibly for good.

The closure comes after owner Charles “Chuck” Marthaler died on Aug. 18 following a long battle with cancer.

The PV was a Tempe institution known for its loud music, weird vibes, unapologetic grime and welcoming spirit. Punks, artists, musicians, bikers and other misfits crowded into its tiny, bunker-like setting over the decades.

Marthaler, who owned the Palo Verde since 2005, was almost always there, helping shape the place and becoming as much a fixture as its well-worn bar and profane bathroom graffiti.

Many regulars gathered at the PV this past weekend to raise a toast to Marthaler and the beloved dive he owned for 21 years. During the gathering, one question hung in the air like the familiar funk that sometimes lingered in the place: What will happen with the Palo Verde now?

That’s unclear. For the moment, the Palo Verde Lounge is closed, possibly for good. Employees say it’s unknown who, if anyone, will take over the bar’s ownership following Marthaler’s death.

Palo Verde was a place with ‘no pretension, no judgment’

The Palo Verde, known to its regulars as the “Dirty Verde,” was an acquired taste with a lengthy history going back more than six decades. The bar first opened in 1964 as the Park Inn Tavern before becoming the Adobe Lounge in the early 1970s. It was renamed Palo Verde Lounge in 1982.

Ashliegh Garcia, a longtime bartender, says the PV has been a beloved gathering spot in Tempe for decades.

“It’s always been this community space,” Garcia told Phoenix New Times earlier this year. “I met somebody not too long ago who used to drink here in the late ’70s and ’80s and they showed me this photo of them doing a human pyramid inside the bar.”

Cheyenne “Uno” Tapia, vocalist for Phoenix punk band Asswipe Junkies, says the Palo Verde has a way of pulling people inside.

“People just wind up there,” Tapia says. “They’re walking by and cross the street to see what’s going on.”

Marthaler was one of them. The PV’s late owner started drinking at the dive in 1994 before becoming a doorman, bartender and eventually owner. Under Marthaler’s ownership, though, the Palo Verde not only stayed the same, it got weirder, dirtier and more memorable.

It also became a place with “no pretension, no judgment,” as Marthaler told Phoenix New Times in 2021.

The PV was one of Tempe’s last true dives with all the trappings. It was cash-only and opened at 6 a.m. The bar was etched with names and equipped with mismatched stools. Rowdy shows took over many weekends with punk, metal and hard-rock bands playing shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd.

Even after a thorough cleaning, the place was sill unkempt and unsightly. The smoking patio was foul. The bathrooms were even worse.

Regulars wouldn’t have changed a thing, though. And underneath all the graffiti and grime was the real reason the crowds kept coming back to the PV: the sense of community that Marthaler helped foster.

Glenda Cota, a former Palo Verde bartender, wrote on Facebook about how Marthaler and his bar brought people together.

“He was genuinely, at his core, a great dude,” Cota wrote. “I really hope he understood the magnitude of what he meant, and what he did for such a huge community of outcasts, musicians, hooligans, alternative folks, daytime drinkers, new people in town looking to make friends and lost folks.”

Will the Palo Verde Lounge reopen?

The Palo Verde’s future remains very uncertain at the moment. Garcia told AZCentral the bar “will most likely be closing,” with no plans to reopen.

In the meantime, the PV’s staff and regulars will gather at Yucca Tap Room at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20 to celebrate Marthaler, share stories and raise a toast in his memory.

The gathering is open to anyone with a connection to Marthaler or the Palo Verde, according to a post on Yucca Tap’s social media about the event.

“This is for all of us,” the post stated. “If you knew Chuck, drank at Palo, worked there, played there, or just want to come pay your respects, you are welcome.”