The flight was also fairly normal - the surprise being it was jam packed. I think a schedule change may have forced a lot of people on this flight, as a few weeks back the seat map was empty, but in the end it was absolutely packed. Luckily for me the guy next to me was both a lot skinner than I and was nice enough to sleep still the entire flight.
My last surprise was the fact that I had never flown into Phoenix before, a little treat to add one more airport to my running list. Phoenix airport was fairly empty but looked great, an interesting combination of San Francisco and Houston for me. Anyway, after that interlude, let's get to Phoenix.
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Day 1-2: Phoenix
I went to Phoenix once with my family on a trip to the Western US back in 1998 or so. That trip also contained my only real time spent in Los Angeles. I've long disregarded my own country in terms of tourism, prefering countries that allow for long flights and different langauges and the like. IN a Covid world, those normal trappings aren't really available, so I'm off to actually explore the US of A. Arizona was a natural choice because it was somewhat far, somewhat 'foreign' to at least life in New York, and I had a colleague there I could entrap with coming with me to the Grand Canyon. Prior to all that, though, is Phoenix proper.
My first night in Phoenix encompassed everything. I had a few hours to kill before meeting my colleague for dinner & drinks, so decided to check out one of Phoenix's more well-known (from my research at least) taco joints, which luckily for me happened to be a few blocks from the AirBNB I was staying at. Taco Boys from the outside seems like a fast food joint, but inside it was magic. There was little seating, though every seat was filled. Behind the counter where you order was a giant live charcoal fire grill that was being manned by 2-3 people. It was wholly authentic, and the tacos were great. I got one cabeza (as brillaintly fatty as ever), one pastor and one asado. All were excellent. Phoenix was off to a good start.
After quick R&R at the AirBNB, my colleague picked me up and we headed to a slightly away from downtown hotspot being Roosevelt Avenue. Within a 4x2 block stretch there are about 10 bars that are all fantastically similar - a mix of indoor and outdoor, perfectly set to the Phoenix weather which was a pristine 65 or so by this point (9pm). Our supposed destination was Arizona Wilderness Downtown, which is a bit larger than the other places in this area, but also was way more crowded. He said he was a bit surprised by this, but we rerouted both due to the fact of the size of the crowd and the fact the food menu was fine but not great. He had a better spot in mind, which probably turned out to be correct.
We had dinner at Sazerac, a bar a block in from Roosevelt Avenue, that had the bar inside but most of the seating in a lovely little patio. They had a taco truck on premises dishing out tacos that while not being as good as Taco Boys, was in his view far better than the food at the beer garden. The place slowly filled up as we went on, staying there till about 10:45 or so. While I've gone out in Princeton for drinsk with friends last summer, this was really the first true sense of normal "drinks" in over a year. And for that, it was perfect.
After the finished with Sazerac, he made his way back home (he's working tomorrow - sucker!), and I ambled my way a block down Roosevelt, passing the now closed Wilderness to The Theodore, a brilliant, again indoor/outdoor, beer bar. They had about 20 beers on tap, half from Arizona, half from elsewhere, non "standard", and a really chill vibe. Granted, its a pandemic-era Thursday, but it was a perfect 40% full. It was a great way to cap off the first night. I may (see; definitely will) make another visit to The Theodore at some point.
For the first day of my vacation, I wanted to get a sense of the city. So of coruse the first thing I did was drive 45 minutes away from teh city - to The Superstition Mountain, a part of Tonto National Park. The drive out there was nice, but the real magic started on the hike, where I was besieged with cactii on all sides, and cacti of all sizes. THere were gigantic, regal ones, small little shrubby ones, some with tine little cute flowers. There were ones that to be honest looked like regular leaf-less shrubs, but were an incredible shade of lime green. There were just so many. It was dry and arid as anything so it makes sense that cacti would reign supreme, but they overwhelmed this mountain.
The trail was called The Heiroglyphs trail, for unknown reasons. It was about 3 miles total out-and-back, with 600ft elevation gain, a phrase I got intimately familiar with when I went to Salt Lake City three years back. That isn't too bad, and to be honest it wasn't tough. It was a constant incline, and quite rocky so the climb back down was tricky in spots, but it was serene, beautiful, and the 'dry' heat made sure I still sweat but not nearly as much as I probably would have in any other place.
After having my fill of cacti (seriously, I still can't get over just how damn many there were), I headed to one of Phoenix's other heralded beauties - Pizzeria Bianco. By now, Pizzeria Bianco is fairly well known country wide. I had heard about it first 4-5 years ago when two ESPN personalities, one being Phoenix-native Amin Elhassan (someone I later met) and the other being Keith Law, both extolled it and called it the best pizza joint in America. Something like that is always hyperbole, but indeed many outlets have called it so.
I was surprised by how low fuss their downtown location was. They had about five tables outside under what seemed like a ratan roof, and then a half-dozen more inside next to their giant pizza oven, smelling so good I kind of want a yankee candle of that smell. There menu was perfectly simple, three red pizzas, three white pizzas (with some sandwhiches and salads and stuff - which I'm sure are fine, but like, why?). I ordered a margherita pizza with fennel sausage as a topping, sat back and waited for that 12" circle of goodness. And it delivered. It was sublime, the pie so thin but a perfect mix of moist while keeping its structure. The fennel sausage was perfect. the sauce was runny but not chunky. The cheese was great. It was amazing. I don't know if its the best pizza in America or what-not - personally, Del Popolo in San Francisco was about as good the time I went there - but it was so damn good nonetheless.
After pizza and a quick stop at the AirBNB to change, I headed back out for an hour of indoor respite. Overall I came at a good time as Phoenix is far from the unbearable desert is becomes in summer. The high was 90, but still getting an hour in a nice indoor museum was welcome. The Phoenix Art Museum was surprisingly sparse and great all at once. They had these giant rooms that were as lightly filled with paintaings as any Art museum I can think of - potentially this is Covid related, as this was the one place that seemed to take it ultra seriously (masks on at all times). On the other hand though, they had paintings from Rembrandt, Monet and Degas. Granted, it was only 1-2 of each, but they also had a whole host of paintings from the 15th and 16th century. They also had a few rooms dedicated to American Indian and Southwest American Art, including one truly stunning painting (below), but I was shocked to see random spatterings of legendary painters in Phoenix of all places.
After the museum, with still a few hours to kill before my colleague got off of work, I headed uptown to one of Phoenix's many breweries. At this point basically any city in America has a score of craft breweries, and Phoenix is very much like any town in America. This one was called Helton Brewing Co., housed in a warehouse about 10 minutes north of downtown. Behind their open bar area with a horseshoe bar table is the vats and brewing area. It is authentic, about nine options on tap, including one of the better milk stouts I've had. It was also an eclectic crowd walking in and out of the place as well.
After a quick afternoon stop at Taco Boys, a lot more full this time, and a quick stop at the AirBNB, I met up with my colleague for dinner at Restaurant Progress. This was in a new neighborhood of Pheoni for me, quite a bit North of the heart of the city. The restaurant was in classic Phoenix style, a building with one half seating outdoors out back. It was a classy place in its decor, its open kitchen, and style. The menu was a collection of interesting dishes, with me getting the curried carrots, a really nice dish with melt-soft carrots in a spicy sauce, and a crispy (lived up to its name) pork belly, and him getting a buttered radish starter and a cod main. Both of us left fully satisfied and ready for more beer.
Phoenix has a plethora of beer bars but what I really like is how committed they are to focusing on teh beer. This time we went to The Wandering Tortoise, which was remarkably similar in setup and stlye (in a good way). Same large central bar, same color coded draft list (a color for stouts, IPAs, lagers, ciders), same eclectic set of people. The one down-side to living near New York is that these places just don't exist. New York has great beer bars but because its New York, they're still small and packed. I love themn, and can't wait to go back to The Blind Tiger again, but this open layout life is so damn nice.
After that we ventured back to the Roosevelt area. There was a brief thought to go to a 2-story club that was supposedly practicing limited capacity and the like (the open floor is a rooftop) but given the line outside (granted, right next door is another club that had a far longer line) we were scared off. Despite being vaccinated (both of us) there was not a willingness to engage. So we headed back to The Theodore (yes, I was the one who suggested this). It was surprsiingly not that much more crowded, which was perfect. Before I start these trips, I list down a whole host of places in each town I ideally want to hit up, but its a bit odd how many times I latch onto a good spot the first night and go back. The most apt example is probably Loyal Legion in Portland (honestly, one of the best beer bars I've ever been to), but The Theodore isn't far off.
Calling an audible and deciding to split Phoenix into two entries - unsurprisingly my first real trip since Cape Town last February has got me in the mind to write a lot more than I expected - also helps that stuff still closes relatively early....
