Seamus McCaffrey's Irish Pub

Phoenix arrived late to many things, but Seamus McCaffrey's has been on Monroe Street since 1996 — which by Arizona standards makes it practically ancient. In a city that demolished most of its pre-2000 drinking establishments to make way for stadium developments and hotel bars, this place survived by doing exactly one thing well: being an actual pub.

The room is properly dark, which is rarer than it sounds in Phoenix. Dark wood, stained glass touches, a bar worn smooth by 30 years of regulars' elbows. The Guinness is poured in two stages with a rest between them. There are 100+ Irish and Scotch whiskeys behind the bar, organised by region for the people who care and available in generous measures for everyone else. Nobody is trying to impress you with a cocktail list — that is precisely the point.

Friday and Saturday nights bring live trad sessions, the kind played by musicians who learned in kitchens rather than conservatories. The Irish diaspora in Phoenix is larger than most people realise, and a lot of them end up here on St. Patrick's Day, but also on unremarkable Tuesdays, which is when the bar is most itself. If you want to understand why Phoenix locals have quietly loved this place for three decades, arrive on a Wednesday at 7pm.