Federal Pizza fills a 1950s former savings-and-loan on North Central Avenue, an Upward Projects wood-fired pizzeria with a full bar, a long draft list and one of the better mid-century patios in uptown Phoenix.
Who would love it: anyone who wants good beer and a charred, chewy pizza in a designed room rather than a brewery warehouse. Who would skip it: drinkers after a quiet cocktail den, because this is a family-friendly restaurant first and a bar second.
The building is the draw before the drinks are. Phoenix Magazine traces it to a First Federal Savings branch designed by modernist architect Alfred Newman Beadle, reopened in 2012 as the third restaurant in Upward Projects' North Central district. The bar anchors a high-ceilinged room that opens onto the patio Phoenix actually uses nine months a year.
For value, order off the tap wall: more than a dozen craft drafts run $5 a pint or $7.50 a pitcher in-house, with a couple dozen bottles behind them and growlers to fill on the way out. The kitchen's Big Star pie and the wood-roasted Brussels sprouts are the usual table order, and the cocktail and wine lists hold up if beer is not your night. Across more than 1,800 Yelp reviews the crust and the patio draw the most repeat praise.
Best time to go is a weekday early evening before the family dinner rush, or a shoulder-season afternoon when the patio is in play. Weekends run latest and busiest, so expect a wait for the patio when the weather turns.
It earns its spot in our best craft beer bars in Phoenix guide and answers the search for craft beer near me in the uptown corridor. For a brewery-forward follow-up, pair it with Four Peaks Brewing in Phoenix or SunUp Brewing in Phoenix. More sits in our Phoenix bar guide.
Sources: Federal Pizza official site (2026); Phoenix Magazine; Pizza Today; Yelp reviews (n=1,835).
