BEST BEER SELECTION 2003 | Papago Brewing Company | Bars & Clubs | Phoenix
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BEST BEER SELECTION

Papago Brewing Company

Meagan Simmons
Tired of going out and looking for a beer but having a limited selection to choose from? Looking for a place that offers the full gamut to fill your goblet? The Papago Brewing Company knows your pain. The owners believe that there is more to beer than Pabst Blue Ribbon and Coors Light. Featuring 30 different beers on tap as well as two engines for cask-conditioned ales, this place aims high and soars. It has a wide variety of imported, domestic and microbrew beers (more than 450) to wet your palate. Not to mention more than 100 unique and hard-to-find wines, ports and meads to quench your thirst. So, all you liquid dieters who are looking for an extensive menu of the finest suds in the land, head over to Papago Brewing Company and knock back some of nature's bliss.

Readers' Choice for Best Beer Selection: Timber Wolf Pub

Readers' Choice for Best Brew Pub: Four Peaks Brewing Company

BEST SPORTS BAR

Horse & Hound

Any dive with more than one television, beer, a pool table, a Golden Tee machine and a couple of obnoxious drunks in hockey jerseys can call itself a sports bar. But to count as a really notable sports bar, there has to be something that grabs you. The Horse & Hound has a couple of things going for it. For one thing, it's freakin' enormous; the actual bar is like a figurine compared to the rest of the massive space, taken up by tables, memorabilia and more TVs than a police station property room. For another, it doubles up on the vices for its more adventurous patrons. An adjoining room serves as an off-track-betting parlor, with screens to monitor the ponies and the greyhounds (hence the Horse & Hound name). So it's not just a watering hole; it's more like a Chuck E. Cheese's for stressed adults in need of their own playground.

Readers' Choice for Best Sports Bar and Best Bar to Watch the Game: McDuffy's

BEST STRIP MALL HOOT 'N' HOLLER

Yucca Tap Room

Jennifer Goldberg
The Yucca Tap Room doesn't look like much from street level. The front marquee is nearly impossible to read at night from the street, and the entrance is obscured by rows of loading docks along the Southern Avenue strip mall where it resides. Open the door and walk in, however, and the place induces delighted shivers for the unpretentious faithful. The Yucca is a relaxed, redneck dive for straw-hat-wearing lovers of roadhouse rock and country music, a one-room joint with stage in the front, a central bar and shots of whiskey the size of washtubs. Gifted Sonoran troubadour Andy Hersey performs on Wednesdays, making for an enjoyable honky-tonk night of cavorting and snorting.

BEST ENGLISH PUB

George and Dragon English Restaurant and Pub

Benjamin Leatherman
Generally when Phoenicians get pissed, it's because it's 115 degrees and the seat-belt buckles are branding "GM" into their chests. Of course, back in the mother country, "pissed" means inebriated or just plain drunk. What better place to do that than the George and Dragon, where in the tradition of similarly named alehouses all over the world, you can work in a darts match, a steak and kidney pie, some fish and chips, and a Status Quo selection or two on the jukebox between pints. The pub's George and Dragon day bashes are an annual rock and bacchanalian ritual that's almost Christmas for "Blighty" and blottos alike.

But just how British is the place? Last year, Morrissey fans chose the Dragon as their after-concert meeting place to punctuate the evening's fun and drive everyone else to drink to the Smiths' canon of wonderfully miserable hits.

Readers' Choice for Best English Pub and Best English Restaurant: George and Dragon English Restaurant and Pub

BEST BARTENDER

Mama Lita

Once upon a time, Angelo's Lounge must have been quite a bar. All the signs of past success are there: the dusty disco lights, a waterless fountain, woodland scene wallpaper stained gray with smoke. Customers still shoot pool and play "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" on the jukebox, but the main draw to the place is the same as it has been for three decades: Mama Lita, Angelo's 69-year-old bartender. Mama, as she prefers to be called, holds court with regulars from behind the expansive bar, shuffling down to one end to check on the television, back to the other to refill drinks or swap out ashtrays. Mama's from Greece, she'll tell you. Her husband Angelo brought her here and they ran the place together from 1973 until Angelo's health interfered. Lita's attentive and friendly, and it's her robust sense of humor that makes Angelo's Lounge a place one wants to linger -- well, that and the stiff drinks she pours.

BEST PLACE TO DEBUT YOUR DREADLOCKS

Sail Inn

Poor hippies. Mill Avenue used to be a place where patchouli and sage were always in the air and the irie goodwill ran wild. Now, it would be a miracle to find so much as a drum circle that wasn't broken up by the cops in five minutes. Fortunately for the city's disgruntled Deadheads, dread heads, parrot heads and maybe even a few redheads, there's the Sail Inn. This place has taken its nautical theme and run with it. The main dining area has shiplike wood paneling and a Day-Glo aquarium mural decorating the wall behind the stage. There's Phish on the jukebox and $5 beer in generous-size pitchers. And the live music that ranges from bluegrass to reggae to Grateful Dead covers to a sorta Middle Eastern-influenced group called Maruma is perfect for dancing in long twirly skirts or shaking dreadlocks to the beat.

BEST CRAIC-HEADS

Fibber Magee's

Irish pubs in the U.S. like to brag about their "authenticity" -- Guinness on tap and a bartender in a silly cap with a pompom. Luckily, the Valley's Irish pubs are a little more true to themselves than most. For atmosphere, we'll take Fibber Magee's. The wooden floor creaks like the ships used during the potato famine; stained-glass windows advertise the homeland's beers. Penciled renditions of James Joyce and an ancient Irish bicycle sit on the walls. On packed Friday and Saturday nights, the bar offers music, mostly from bands that play traditional Irish folk tunes, i.e., the most festive drinking music on Earth. The prevailing spirit unleashes what the Irish call craic, an insatiable desire to be merry, lit and carefree.

BEST DIVE BAR

Chez Nous

Of course, we mean "dive" in the most affectionate sense of the word. Chez Nous is a Phoenix institution because it's so darn welcoming -- as unpretentious as it gets, and that applies to the drink prices, too. Frankly, it's impossible to bar hop once you stop by here, because you'll find no reason to venture elsewhere. It could be high noon outside, but it's always a nighttime adventure inside the dimly lighted bar. As the house band plays favorite funk hits, the minuscule dance floor gets packed with the most diverse, jubilant crowd in town. Whether you're dressed up or down, nursing a martini or knocking back beers, you'll fit right in at Chez Nous.

Readers' Choice: Chez Nous

BEST LESBIAN BAR

Ain't Nobody's Bizness

Girls have always been about having fun. The Biz is a cornerstone of the gay community that has been housing local lesbians since '93. Live bands play from time to time, but the real draw is the DJs, who play eclectic dance music from Top 40 hits to patron requests (yes, they actually will play the song that you ask for). There's also a karaoke night and weekly drink specials to pack the house. If you want to fit in, we suggest ordering a beer served in and drunk from a mini-pitcher. If you're looking for a certain style to your woman, the Biz will definitely have her there. Always pulling in the largest and most diverse crowd, the place is also receiving a much-needed face-lift, and more rest rooms are being added. So expect a bit of change to this classic bar.

Readers' Choice: Ain't Nobody's Bizness

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