Honor Amongst Thieves Will Open in June — Here's An Idea of What to Expect

At an event on Monday night at Okra, the Valley's cocktail community caught a first glimpse at what’s in store at one of metro Phoenix's most highly-anticipated bars. Set to open at The Colony in June, Honor Amongst Thieves will be located above Stock and Stable, a new restaurant concept from two of the names behind midtown's The Clever Koi. 

The restaurant, Stock and Stable, will have its own bar, which will serve lighter, playful, and citrus-centric cocktails. It will open a couple weeks before the bar upstairs, Honor Amongst Thieves, makes its debut in mid-June. And while Stock and Stable's bar will close around 10 or 11 p.m., Honor Amongst Thieves will be open until 2 a.m.

Beverage Director Stephanie Teslar will lead the push at both and brings plenty of experience with large scale projects to the task. Most recently she served as regional bar ambassador for the Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants Group, a job that included installing a well-reviewed cocktail menu at Blue Hound Kitchen and Cocktails in downtown Phoenix.

With the imminent opening of Honor Among Thieves, the uptown blocks of 7th Street will suddenly have two serious craft cocktail options — the first being Okra, where co-owner and well-known local mixologist Micah Olsen runs the bar. The restaurant and bar, a second project from the folks behind Central Phoenix's Crudo, opened relatively recently in the second half of 2015.

“Micah reached out to me, being very good friends, and didn’t see why we couldn’t cross-promote each-other,” Teslar says of the idea for Monday night's event.

Teslar says that while Stock and Stable’s bar will feature “patio sippers” and cocktail pitchers, Honor Amongst Thieves will be more of a “throwback-style” whiskey bar.

“Think 50’s and 60’s era smoking lounge, an Athletic Club your dad might’ve gone to,” she says. “We’re going to have classic cocktail influence… and we’ll do spins on martinis, but it’s going to be a little more unique than the apple martini — accentuating the vermouths and things like that.”

At the bar takeover event, dubbed “There Goes the Neighborhood: A Hot Comedy About Cold Cocktails,” the menu included five drinks, two of Olsen’s and three of Teslar’s. One of Teslar's creations included a tropical-tasting spiked Thai tea, but the two others will be more along the lines of what will be served at Honor Amongst Thieves. Those drinks included the Misery Loves Company, a drink similar to a classic boulevardier, and the Pitch and Roll, a martini made with extra dry vermouth and a celery gin.

“We have a huge industry focus,” Teslar says of the bar's future clientele. “It won’t be so much about the cocktails as it will be about the experience.”