The Tempe Playbook

Charleen Badman won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2019 — the only Beard-winning kitchen in this Playbook's scope. Co-owner Pavle Milic built the wine program almost entirely from Arizona vineyards years before anyone thought that was a serious idea. The room has anchored a tiny Old Town arcade since 2009 and the menu changes constantly.

Reservations: Essential — book the moment travel dates lock; Tuesday-Saturday dinner only

A 4.8 rating across 1,500+ reviews in a city drowning in fine dining — the most consistently beloved special-occasion room in Scottsdale. Every server is sommelier-trained and pairs each course. Candlelit patio, no shortcuts.

Reservations: Essential — seatings end around 10:30, so it works after early kickoffs only

Soft-opened March 2025 as the Tempe debut of Teddy Myers' Pretty Decent Concepts (Wren & Wolf, Chico Malo) — a wood-fired feast-of-fire room with a dedicated dry-age steak program, hanging meats over the open pit, and a life-size stuffed jaguar watching the dining room. PHOENIX magazine's September 2025 review put it atop the short list for the Valley's best new restaurant of the year.

Reservations: OpenTable — book ahead; Mill Avenue fills fast on game weekends

Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin — the husband-wife team behind Tacos Chiwas and co-owners of Bacanora — opened this ode to their Chihuahuan roots in 2023, inside Tempe's car-free Culdesac development on the light rail line. Hernandez built the mesquite-fired Santa Maria grill himself; the couple imports 600 pounds of dried Chihuahua chiles every six months.

Reservations: Recommended — book ahead for game weekends

Gio Osso opened Virtù in the courtyard of the Bespoke Inn in 2013 and landed a James Beard semifinal nod plus Esquire's Best New Restaurants list in year one. Twelve years later he's still in the kitchen almost every night, and OpenTable has named it an Icon three years running. The hidden-courtyard setting is the most romantic room in the market.

Reservations: Essential for dinner; weekend brunch is the easier book

Serving burgers over an open mesquite fire since 1972 — a chuckwagon-themed shack that has fed fifty years of Sun Devils. Cash only, no substitutions, build your own burger at the cart. On game days the kitchen expands into the parking lot for an old-school cookout that's been running nearly as long as the restaurant.

Reservations: None — counter service

Named for the 1933 Old Adobe Mission it sits beside — the candlelit black-and-white dining room against the whitewashed adobe next door is one of Old Town's defining sights. Tableside guacamole ground on a salt block. The pork shoulder 'feeds two' and comfortably feeds three.

Reservations: Recommended for dinner, essential on game weekends

A 1910 boarding house turned neighborhood institution in 1986, wrapped in a giant tree-shaded patio in the Maple-Ash neighborhood. Staff and regulars swear the upstairs is haunted by a dancing couple — the ghost story is part of the furniture. Professors, punks, retirees, and undergrads all share the patio; it's the most democratic room in Tempe.

Reservations: Table requests via their site; walk-ins rule the patio on game weekends

The family-run breakfast institution on University Drive since 1974 — the owner still works the floor and sends regulars home with muffins. Zero pretense, huge portions, the diner every Tempe generation claims as theirs.

Reservations: Walk-in only

Chef Bernie Kantak invented the famous chopped salad at the late Cowboy Ciao and carried it here when he opened Citizen in 2011 — the dish has its own fan pages. Fifteen years in, it's the bridge between Old Town's fine-dining tier and its bar tier, two doors from FnB.

Reservations: Recommended — walk-ins take the bar

Opened in 1994 in a converted hacienda-style house on the Tempe-Scottsdale seam, built around interior-Mexico cooking — Oaxacan mole, lamb adobo — when the Valley mostly meant Sonoran combo plates. Thirty years on it's still the area's benchmark for regional Mexican, ten minutes from the stadium.

Reservations: Recommended on weekends

A market-and-kitchen hybrid that has anchored Apache Boulevard for decades — order shawarma at the counter, then shop the import aisles while it's made. The kind of unglamorous, deeply loved institution every real college town has one of; Tempe's happens to serve some of the Valley's best Middle Eastern food at student prices.

Reservations: None — counter service, closes 7:30 pm

The pink-on-pink parlor has held its corner of Scottsdale Road since 1958. Family Circus cartoonist Bil Keane lived nearby and drew the Sugar Bowl into his strips for decades — originals hang on the walls. A time capsule with a lunch counter, exempt from tourist-trap cynicism because the locals never left.

Reservations: Walk-in only

Opened 2024 by the operators whose earlier rooms — Kazimierz and Second Story Liquor Bar — built Scottsdale's serious-cocktail reputation before both closed; The Ends is where that pedigree lives now, pitched as a tribute to Anthony Bourdain's idea of the good life. No sign on the door, just the symbol.

Reservations: Strongly recommended — the room is small and books out

Holding the same high-visibility Old Town corner since 2013 — twelve years is a lifetime in a district where concepts churn every eighteen months. House-made maple sausage, a patio built for people-watching, and the Scottsdale-side answer to Harlow's for the crew staying at the Valley Ho.

Reservations: Walk-in — expect a weekend wait after 9

The homegrown roaster that launched Arizona's specialty-coffee scene from Tempe in 2008 — Cartel Coffee Lab until the 2022 rebrand, beans still roasted in-state, and the flagship cafe now sits on Ash Avenue in Maple-Ash, the same block as Casey Moore's. The correct last stop before a flight.

Reservations: Counter service; doors at 6 a.m. daily

The official ASU Game Watch Party headquarters — Sparky and the Spirit Squad make appearances, and the patio becomes maroon-and-gold central three hours before kickoff. Founder Julian Wright is a Mill Avenue lifer, and the house lagers have taken national brewing medals.

Bike-culture beer garden with fire pits and TVs everywhere; wall-to-wall maroon on game day.

Reservations: Walk-in — arrive early on game day

The second-story patios over the Mill & 5th intersection are the best people-watching perch on the avenue, and on game day the whole building turns into a maroon sports hub with the sound on for the Devils. It's loud, it's young, and it's exactly what it says it is.

Two stories of patios over Mill's busiest corner; every screen on.

Reservations: Walk-in

Open since 1988 on the Civic Center green, with rotating art installations that change like gallery shows — disco balls one season, doll pyramids the next. It serves real food until midnight every night, which makes it the market's best post-night-game dinner insurance.

White-tablecloth-adjacent lounge with a cloud on the ceiling; late-night glamour without the velvet rope.

Reservations: Reserve online or walk in — the kitchen runs till midnight

The serious-cocktail room on Main Street — plush, moody, modern-speakeasy velvet, with bartenders who treat a Vieux Carré like a thesis defense. Open until 2 a.m. seven nights, which is rare air for a cocktail bar in this zip code.

Velvet booths, low light, a room that rewards dressing up a notch.

Reservations: Recommended for groups; weekends book up

The strongest evidence that Mill Avenue is trying to grow up — a newer room built like an underground subway station, brick arches and neon, with the Idle Hands cocktail bar tucked away for proper drinks. It gives the avenue something it hasn't had in years: a place to drink well after 10 pm without a DJ deciding your night.

Subway-tunnel brick, street art, game room in back.

Reservations: Walk-in; Idle Hands, the hidden cocktail room, takes reservations

Pouring since 1972 and open 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every single day — a Tempe rock-and-roll institution where the punk show is free and the pinball collection is serious. Generations of Arizona bands cut their teeth on this stage.

Pinball, a tiki corner, local bands most nights.

Reservations: Walk-in

Universally acknowledged as the diviest dive in Tempe — cash only, dark at noon, a loud jukebox, and a crowd that runs from first-time 21-year-olds to regulars who've held their stool since the 80s. Nothing has changed in decades, which is precisely the appeal.

Windowless, low ceilings, warped pool tables, glorious.

Reservations: Absolutely not

Scottsdale's oldest tavern, pouring since 1959, famous for disappearing under tens of thousands of Christmas lights every holiday season — by November game weekends the canopy is already glowing. Line up at the bar, pay cash, take your drink to the patio. The anti-Scottsdale Scottsdale bar.

Open-air shack, biker-friendly, zero fuss; opens 6 a.m.

Reservations: Walk-in

A registered historic landmark in Scottsdale's first bank building (1921) — when the bank folded, the vault stayed and the saloon moved in. Live country music seven nights a week, and every dollar stapled to the wall comes down annually for charity.

Swinging doors, dollar bills on every surface, boots on the floor.

Reservations: Walk-in

The most iconic 21st-birthday destination at ASU and home of the Devil's Disco: big-screen block parties spill onto 6th Street every Friday and Saturday before a home game. Twenty-two-year-olds and forty-five-year-old alumni doing the same thing on the same patio.

Live DJ, packed patio, buckets in the air.

Reservations: Walk-in

Founded 1996 inside an 1892 creamery building a mile from the stadium, and home of Kilt Lifter. AB InBev bought the brewery in 2015, so it's no longer the indie it was — but the 8th Street hall remains the single most game-day-coded room in Tempe, and thirty years of Sun Devil Saturdays outrank the ownership asterisk.

Brick creamery hall, packed with alumni on game day.

Reservations: Resy for tables — book game-day slots ahead