Best Neighborhood Bar, South Phoenix 2012 | Brad's Place | Bars & Clubs
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Best Neighborhood Bar, South Phoenix

Brad's Place

Cozy neighborhood bars are hard to come by in the corporate strip-mall haven of Ahwatukee, but there is at least one place you can go where everybody knows your name. Brad's Place is a little bit dive bar, a little bit sports bar, and a whole lot of neighborhood friendliness. The beers are always cold, the burgers are big, and if there's a Vikings game on, you'd better be rooting for the Vikes.

Best Neighborhood Bar, West Valley

Enoch's Lounge

So you say like to sing, huh? This colorful West Valley watering hole, tucked away in the corner of a Peoria strip mall behind a McDonald's, offers some extremely lively karaoke nights four nights a week from Thursday until Sunday. It's just one of the many draws of Enoch's, which also offers a daily happy hour commencing at 6 a.m. each day and a menu filled with tasty bar grub. People-watching also is a favorite pastime, as patrons run the gamut, from the blue-collar crowd and neighborhood regulars who stop by after the workday is done to the beautiful babes who pack the place on nights and weekends. Still bored? Try your hand at billiards, darts, or perhaps some arcade games, or maybe just listen to the informative-yet-inane pontifications of some barstool philosopher perched next to you.

Best Neighborhood Bar, Southeast Valley

Groggy's

As the cocktail-swilling frog depicted on the vintage neon-filled sign portends, Groggy's is a neighborhood bar of the dive variety. As such, this Mesa drinking destination possesses just the right mix of laid-back charm and slummy thrills, not to mention all the appropriate hole-in-the-wall trappings: a claw game stocked with adult novelties, hipster college kids from nearby schools, a menu of cheap and greasy snacks, and chairs with a little bit of wobble to 'em. Thankfully for pool sharks, the joint's billiards equipment is kept in pristine condition — that is, all the cues are straight and the felt on each of the half-dozen tables doesn't boast any stains or rips. Games are always 50 cents, daily food specials are available, and the weekday happy hour offers $2.50 well drinks and $2 domestic pints. While one can drink and dine on the cheap, try not to overindulge unless you wanna resemble the inebriated amphibian outside.

Best Neighborhood Bar, Tempe

Baer's Den

Baer's Den used to be one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of bars, as its teeny-tiny former location tucked alongside a motel was literally about the size of a one-car garage. After moving about 200 feet down Apache Boulevard earlier this year, however, this sports and spirits paradise is now housed in bigger and much more prominent digs. Thankfully, owner Scott Baer kept the bar's wood-paneled walls, as well as the cozy aura and amiable atmosphere that's not unlike the convivial dives that the East Coast native used to frequent before moving out west more than two decades ago. Since there are more HDTVs around the place and the bar and patio are both larger, there's less jockeying for elbow room amongst the ASU coeds who frequent Baer's for a drink or a glimpse at the game. Sun Devils looking for an after-class adult beverage or residents from the surrounding neighborhood enjoying any of the 10 beers on tap or $2 tequila shots on Tuesdays aren't the only ones who cruise into Baer's Den, as it's a major haven for Red Sox fans and other devotees of Boston's fabled sports franchises. So it might behoove you to never besmirch Tom Brady or utter the names Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner when stopping by for a cocktail.

Best Neighborhood Bar, Scottsdale

Roadrunner Lounge

Lauren Cusimano

For some barflies and day drinkers, neighborhood watering holes practically serve as virtual homes away from home. This seems particularly true at this homey Scottsdale dive, which boasts den-like décor and has the well-worn comfy feel of a personal bar set up in someone's basement, right down to the pressboard walls and cheesy billiards-themed fabric lining the barstools. Heck, even the smoking patio could double as a laundry room, as patrons sit at a makeshift table made from an old washtub sink or set their drinks on a percolating water heater. As such, stepping into the Roadrunner on any given night is like stopping by a neighbor's house to down some cheap beer (cans of Milwaukee's Best and Pabst Blue Ribbon are always $1.50) or a strong cocktail, check out the game, or possibly engage in a friendly game of pool. The place always seems packed with a colorful mix of people who sometimes engage in the sort of weirdly inspired conversations you'd hear only at a backyard barbecue or house party.

Best Happy Hour, North Phoenix

Cafe Bink

Timur Guseynov

A food lover's dream is being able to afford just one six-course tasting from top Arizona restaurant Binkley's. At $96 per person, it probably won't happen for us anytime soon, but now that Binkley's sister restaurant, Café Bink, has a happy hour, we can try a little bit of Bink for just a little bit of cash. From 3 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, you can experience creative tastes from James Beard Award finalist Kevin Binkley without a Binkley price tag. Roast beef sliders ($2.50), wagyu beef burgers ($7), award-winning fries ($5), and crisp green salads ($4) all are on the dirt-cheap menu. Pair your gourmet eats with half-price glasses of wine, draft and bottled beers, and well drinks for the best happy hour deal in town. You may have to ditch work to drive to Carefree (which isn't technically in Phoenix, but it is north), but sometimes you have to sacrifice a silly report to please your taste buds.

Best Happy Hour, Central Phoenix

Christopher's Restaurant & Crush Lounge

Lauren Saria

When we need more than just a cheap plate of nachos and a room-temperature Coors Light, we call up our favorite happy hour buddies and head over to James Beard Award-winning chef Christopher Gross' restaurant at the Biltmore. From 3 to 6 p.m. every single day of the week, you can score gourmet burgers, truffled frites, wood-fired pizzas with exotic toppings, and cheese plates — all of which are half-price at Christopher's Kitchen Bar or at Crush Lounge. If you're thirsty, all well cocktails, wine, and beers also are half-price.

Best Happy Hour, Downtown Phoenix

The Main Ingredient Ale House & Cafe

Evie Carpenter

After a long day at our 9 to 5, there is nothing we want more than to be drinking a pint of cold craft beer and listening to our favorite old-school jams on the patio of The Main Ingredient. The renovated 1920s Coronado neighborhood bungalow turned restaurant always has an enticing selection of local and craft beers on tap and a glass of wine for as little as $4, as well as cocktail specials. Main Ingredient doesn't feature specials on food, but with its drink prices so cheap, we're willing to shell out $4 for a bowl of housemade salsa and our favorite chips, made at La Tolteca.

Editor's note: This Best of has been edited from its original version.

Best Happy Hour, South Phoenix

Hillside Spot

Jackie Mercandetti

As far as we're concerned, the only spot to go for happy hour in Ahwatukee is chef Doug Robson's Hillside Spot for a bowl of crispy chips served with his nearly famous extra-hot red sauce for just $1. There's other stuff on the menu, like the absolutely horrible-for-you-but-tastes-so-good fried cheese crisp and an open-face grilled cheese sandwich — but the real draw is that hot sauce. Local brews from Oak Creek Brewing and Four Peaks are just $3, or you can knock $3 off specially selected wines by the glass. Happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. We highly recommend the patio, but sitting at the bar watching the kitchen do its thing is fun, too.

Best Happy Hour, West Valley

Johnny Fox's Public House

Robbie Fox's little brother Johnny is just as much as a happy hour troublemaker as his older Tempe sib. Half off the entire menu from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday means $3 Jameson shots, $6 shots of Macallan 15-year, and $7 bowls of lamb stew. The public house is full of old-school Irish character and gets packed during happy hour and on weekend nights. But for $3 shots of Jameson, we're willing to brave the crowd. Bottoms up!

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