48 Hours of Drinking in Phoenix

Wright Bar at Arizona Biltmore draws a steady local crowd in Camelback. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Drop bags. Find a hotel-adjacent bar within a five-minute walk. Order something simple to anchor yourself to the city.

Bourbon Steak Bar Phoenix draws a steady local crowd in Scottsdale. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. The polished room you'd take a first date to. Sit at the bar. Talk to the bartender. Stay one drink — you're scouting, not committing.

The Corner Grill & Sports Bar draws a steady local crowd in Mesa. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Walk into the city's drinking quarter (the heart of the night, not the tourist version). Two drinks, two rooms. Pace yourself — Saturday is the long day.

Arizona Wilderness Brewing draws a steady local crowd in Gilbert. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Sunset. Find a rooftop. Order whatever the house specials around sundown. Take photos but don't lose 90 minutes to your phone.

Chris Bianco won the James Beard Award for his pizza. But the bar he built next door at Heritage Square is, in its quieter way, equally considered. Bar Bianco a Eat somewhere with serious bartending built in. The right room is one you order both your dinner and your nightcap from.

Barter & Shake is the Arcadia neighbourhood cocktail room with a tight programme and a strong dealer's-choice service that's quietly become one of Phoenix's wel The bar that made you book the trip. The pre-research one. Reservation-only ideally. Stay until last call.

Binkley's Restaurant Bar draws a steady local crowd in Phoenix. Booking is recommended on weekends. Walk-ins are usually possible early in the evening. Mary, Mimosa, or whatever low-ABV house play the room runs. Eat. Pay. Walk.

Bitter and Twisted Cocktail Parlour occupies the ground floor of the historic Security Building at 1 West Adams Street in downtown Phoenix, a 1928 Art Deco towe Find the hotel bar at your departure airport equivalent — somewhere quiet, low-volume, well-staffed. End the trip on a martini and a clean conversation.