![]() Both bars are owned by Matt and Katy Fulton and Daniel Caprario, the same people who own The Whining Pig (the craft beer and wine bar with multiple Valley locations) and the recently opened Rough Rider, another cocktail bar in Roosevelt Row.īar Manager Ashlee Mahoney tells me that Beverage Director Kyla Hein likes to take an educational approach to cocktails, and to that end, the bar will be offering weekly classes starting September 6. I wonder if it can be as cool as this one. Just so you know, Pigtails Downtown has a sister craft cocktail bar in Desert Ridge. The Spice Melange | Photo by Nikki Buchanan I could drink this gorgeous thing by the gallon. Coconut fat-washed Plantation rum provides silky mouthfeel and a faintly savory base for this spicy, almost heady mix of ginger, cinnamon Demerara (think cinnamon simple syrup made with crunchy, golden Demerara sugar) and turmeric, with a little coconut mix and lemon for good measure. My drink -the Spice Melange ($15) - is unquestionably fun, refreshing and a little tiki. Is this fun and refreshing? Sure, but I think it could easily fall into the “cool & nerdy” category as well. For balance, there’s a bit of lemon and tart-sweet apricot. ![]() Sure, it’s listed as “fun and refreshing,” but this drink has a touch of grown-up complexity- maybe from the walnuts, which lend a faintly bitter quality or the La Gritona tequila, often described as “brooding.” It’s unquestionably nutty though, thanks to sherry (which has a nutty almond or walnut-like quality all its own) and falernum (a liqueur that brings notes of almond, ginger, cloves and allspice, all faintly detectable here). Served in an old-school, etched lowball glass, The Nutty Professor ($14) arrives with a sugar-macadamia nut rim that borders on the snackable. The Nutty Professor | Photo by Nikki Buchanan Maybe because it’s 111 degrees outside, we both wind up going for something fun and refreshing. My buddy and I spend a long time narrowing down our choices. The cocktails, arranged in four categories - light & citrusy, fun & refreshing, bold & boozy, cool & nerdy - are every bit as evocative. Your eyes naturally go to the rough-hewn back bar, glittering with liquor bottles and flanked by row upon row of plants, which lend dreamy, tropical ambience to the space. Push through that door and you find yourself in a wonderfully intimate little hideaway featuring a few booths and a bar that runs almost the length of the room. ![]() Just inside that glass door (which simply says Pigtails) is an anteroom furnished with nothing but an oyster and shrimp-stocked raw bar and a white swinging door announcing “cocktails” in pink neon. That’s certainly the case at Pigtails Downtown, a dimly lit sliver of space entered through a quietly marked glass door that fronts Central Avenue in CityScape. On the other hand, they sell top-quality liquor - not hooch - yet still maintain the cool slinky style of the forbidden haunts of yore. ![]() They’re never raided by the popo, which eliminates the thrill factor, no question. Modern speakeasies are another thing entirely. Maybe I’ve read The Great Gatsby too many times, but I’m fascinated by the speakeasies of the ’20s and early ’30s - back when bars, liquor and the drinking of liquor were made illegal by the Volstead Act, which, of course, just encouraged people to seek out illegal bars selling illegal liquor, where they could happily drink illegally as long as they did it quietly so as not to alert the coppers. “There was a demand for it, and they are just so fun to play.Pigtails Downtown interior | Photo by Nikki Buchanan ![]() “People are circling back to pinball,” he says. The historic Van Buren building, the retro feel at Ziggy’s, the light up dance floor and the games all bring a nostalgic feel to Stardust, Bracamonte says. Because of its proximity to the Van Buren, Stardust also will have music-themed games including a Beatles game, ACDC, Guns and Roses, Metallica and more. He hopes to expand the repertoire to include 20 rotating games from his collection, which he estimates includes between 350 and 400 games. Many are now being played at Cobra Bar's locations in Phoenix and Tucson, though Stardust is his first first pinball-focused bar.īracamonte is particularly excited about games including Arabian Nights, Attack from Mars and Centaur. Next, your eyes will be drawn to the edges of the room lined with brightly colored pinball machines inviting guests to insert tokens and play.īracamonte of Cobra Bar curated the 16 pinball games inside the lounge. ![]()
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