Blue Hound Kitchen and Cocktails sits inside the Kimpton Hotel Palomar at 2 East Jefferson Street, on the CityScape block in the center of downtown Phoenix. It works as the rare downtown room that takes its cocktails as seriously as its kitchen, a short walk from the Footprint Center and the convention crowd.
The hook is the pairing. Blue Hound runs a full New American menu alongside a cocktail list built to stand on its own, and the bar holds its own slot in the downtown drinking map that Visit Phoenix and the Downtown Phoenix guide both keep it on. The room sits a level up from the street, which gives it a calmer read than the sports bars that ring the arena.
The space leans modern and warm. A long bar anchors the room, booths line the edges, and the windows pull in the downtown light through the afternoon. It reads dressed-up enough for a date or a client dinner but loose enough for a single drink before an event, which is the balance a hotel bar in a stadium district has to strike.
The drink list rewards a conversation with the bartender. Seasonal craft cocktails carry the menu, backed by a wine list and a beer selection for anyone not in a cocktail mood. The kitchen sends out shareable New American plates built to stretch across a table, and the happy hour, which runs Sunday through Thursday from 3pm to 6pm, is the value window locals use. Expect downtown hotel pricing outside those hours.
Timing matters near the arena. Pre-event the room fills with ticket holders grabbing a plate and a drink, and it eases once the game tips off. Brunch on a weekend is the quieter read, with the bar pouring from 3pm into the late evening. The crowd is downtown professionals, hotel guests, and event-goers who wanted a real cocktail before the crowd.
Reviewers on OpenTable and Tripadvisor circle the same notes: the strength of the cocktail program for a hotel bar, the quality of the food, and a location that puts the room within a block of most downtown events. The value reads best at happy hour, when the list and the kitchen both come down to a friendlier number.
Who it is for: cocktail drinkers, pre-event diners near the Footprint Center, and hotel guests who want more than a lobby pour. Who it is not for: anyone after a rowdy sports bar or a cheap round, since this is a hotel cocktail room that trades volume for polish.
The location does much of the work. CityScape packs offices, hotels, and the Footprint Center into a few downtown blocks, and Blue Hound sits at the center of it, which makes the room a reliable first stop before a Suns game or a concert. The walk to the arena takes only a couple of minutes, so ticket holders use it as the calmer alternative to the sports bars on the same block.
The kitchen carries real weight. Blue Hound built its name on a New American menu that draws diners on its own, and the bar benefits from the overlap, since a strong food program keeps the room busy through the slow hours between lunch and the dinner rush. Solo drinkers do best at the bar, where the bartenders have time to talk through the seasonal list.
Blue Hound belongs in the downtown Phoenix cocktail conversation, next to the city's other serious rooms. See where it lands in our guide to the best cocktail bars in Phoenix, browse the full Phoenix bar guide, and read the wider editorial on the best bars in Phoenix.
