Rips Ales & Cocktails sits on North 16th Street near the Coronado neighborhood, a low-slung Phoenix dive that has been pouring since the 1950s postwar desert boom and still opens its doors at 8am every day of the week.
Who would love it: regulars and newcomers who want a cheap drink, a jukebox and zero pretense. Who would hate it: anyone after a designed cocktail or table service, because the appeal here is exactly the opposite. The bar carries real Phoenix history. It opened during the 1950s boom and counts country outlaw Waylon Jennings among the names that drank here, a lineage the family owners lean into while keeping the room a working neighborhood bar rather than a museum.
The space is small, dim and built for the regulars, the kind of retro-meets-current dive that Phoenix New Times keeps listing among the city's authentic holdouts. Expect a jukebox, a patio, cheap pours and a crowd that ranges from morning-shift regulars to late-night refugees from fussier bars.
For ordering, keep it honest: a cold domestic, a well whiskey or a simple highball. This is not the room for a charred-tomato anything, and the prices reflect that, which is the point of a dive done right. The early open means it doubles as a rare 8am option in a city where most bars wait until afternoon.
Best time to go depends on the version you want. Early afternoons are quiet and conversational; the room gets louder and looser as the night runs toward the 2am close. The 16th Street location near Coronado puts it within reach of the central neighborhoods rather than the downtown core, so it rewards anyone willing to leave the obvious strip.
The character of Rips is in the details a polished bar would scrub away. The patio, the year-round string lights, the worn stools and the jukebox all read as accumulated rather than designed, the product of a room that has stayed open through decades of changing tastes around it. The 8am open is the tell: this is a bar for shift workers, early regulars and anyone who treats the place as a second living room, and the family ownership keeps the welcome unforced. Local coverage groups it with the small handful of genuine Phoenix dives that have survived the city's cocktail boom, and the 16th Street corridor near Coronado has slowly drawn its own crowd of nearby residents. The smart approach is to match the room: order something simple, talk to whoever is next to you, and let the night find its own pace toward the 2am close.
Practical notes for a first visit: this is a cash-friendly, walk-in-only room, so leave the reservation app at home and bring small bills for the jukebox. The 8am open makes it a genuine morning option, the afternoons stay quiet enough for conversation, and the patio is the move when the inside fills late. The 16th Street location near Coronado is a short ride from downtown and the central neighborhoods, and rideshare is the smart way home after the 2am close. Order simple, tip the bartender well, and the regulars will warm up fast. Happy-hour pricing keeps the rounds cheap, the well pours are honest, and the room asks nothing of you beyond showing up and settling in.
It is a benchmark for the city's no-frills scene. See how it stacks up in our best dive bars pillar, browse the wider city on the Phoenix bar guide, and for another old-school neighborhood holdout compare Coronado.
Sources
- Phoenix New Times — history and dive-bar listing
- Yelp — 3045 N 16th St listing, hours and photos
- Rips Bar official site — address and hours
