Don Woods' Say When crowns the Rise Uptown hotel with a late-1960s rooftop lounge, the cocktail-pedigree rooftop the Bitter and Twisted team built to look like a penthouse party that never ended.
The bar sits on the penthouse level at 400 West Camelback Road, atop the Rise Uptown hotel in uptown Phoenix. It comes from Ross Simon, the operator behind downtown's Bitter and Twisted and Little Rituals, and ABC15 reported the whole penthouse floor was designed straight out of the late 1960s and early 1970s, an intimate indoor bar opening onto a large open-air patio.
The view and the design carry the room. The open-air patio runs fire pits and lounge seating with skyline views toward Camelback Mountain, while the indoor bar keeps the retro look going for nights the desert wind picks up. The result reads more like a private rooftop apartment than a hotel bar.
The drinks are where the pedigree shows. Phoenix New Times reported the menu runs a rotating selection of forgotten classics, the kind of old, half-remembered cocktails a bar with this team's chops can pull off. The smart order is to ask what is on rotation and trust the bartender; the list changes by design.
The name has a story. ABC15 reported Don Woods was a real estate investor who worked out of one of the towers later repurposed into the hotel, and the bar carries his name as a nod to the building's past, which fits the time-capsule design.
The crowd skews to a going-out set and hotel guests, and the room is built for an evening rather than a quick stop. PHOENIX magazine has covered its happy hour, and regulars on its Google and Yelp listings repeat the same notes: come for the view and the retro patio, and time it for sunset.
Best time to go is golden hour into the evening, when the patio faces the sunset and the fire pits come on. Per its hours the lounge runs Thursday through Monday from 4pm and closes Tuesday and Wednesday, so a midweek plan needs a check. Who it is for: a date that wants a view and a real cocktail, a group after a rooftop with a point of view, and anyone who likes a forgotten-classics list. Who should skip it: a crowd after a big, loud club, since the appeal here is the design and the drinks.
The Bitter and Twisted lineage is the reason to trust the list. Ross Simon's downtown flagship has collected national cocktail awards, and Say When carries that bench up to the roof, which is rare for a hotel bar. The indoor room doubles as a hedge against the heat, so the lounge holds a crowd from the first cool evenings of fall through the spring, when the patio is at its best.
For more in the category, see our guide to the best rooftop bars in Phoenix, browse the full Phoenix bar guide, or compare it against our citywide rooftop bars roundup. It pairs well with the uptown poolside bars for a day-to-night plan.
