Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company Downtown Phoenix Review
| Location | 201 E. Roosevelt St. Phoenix, AZ 85004 |
| Phone Number | (480) 462-1836 |
| Hours | M-Th 11am-11pm, F 11am-midnight, Sat 9am-midnight, Sun 9am-10pm |
| Website | https://azwbeer.com/dtphx/ |
AZ Wilderness Brewing Co. opened its first location in Gilbert, AZ in 2013. After hearing glowing reports of how good their beer is, we visited there a few times on our way back from Queen Creek’s Pork Shop to buy the best bacon ever made.
Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company Downtown Phoenix opened on Roosevelt Row in March of 2019. Since this brewery restaurant is closer to where we live, we decided to stop in on a hot summer afternoon for lunch and a few brewskies.
The Place
The downtown outpost of AWBC sits on the southeast corner of N. 2nd St. and E. Roosevelt St., a.k.a. Roosevelt Row. The building previously housed a florist’s shop but was apparently a residence many years ago.
Owners Jonathan Buford and Patrick Ware were inspired by beer halls in Europe with communal tables. They set up the new facility as a large, open space indoors with long picnic-style communal tables running down the center. There is a very long bar spanning the back of the room but they only have about 4 stools and they are at the far end sort of like a break area for staff, I think.
Several glass garage doors open from the indoor space onto the gigantic shaded patio. This area contains communal tables as well as smaller tables to seat groups of four.
The entire facility can seat around 250 people but has the capacity for 650! Yeah, it’s big.
Although there was a misting system operating, it was way too hot (105 and sunny) for us to sit outside when we stopped in. We saw a few people who were brave enough to risk death by blast furnace, but most people sensibly stayed indoors.
The decor inside is quite rustic with a concrete floor and plywood slabs for a ceiling over the bar. There are open beams over the dining space.
The dining room was at ⅓-½ capacity when we were there but we were still shocked by how LOUD it was. On top of the noise from people, music of an unidentifiable nature blared from the sound system. Good luck having a conversation here, especially when it’s really busy. Your best option would be to sit outside, provided Phoenix’s hellfires are not ablaze when you visit.
The Food
When you enter, you walk straight past beer cans in the to-go fridge to the counter to order food. They asked if we wanted to start a tab so we could order beer and refills. I’m not sure how it would work otherwise because you order your food from the first counter and proceed to the very long bar (without many stools) to order beverages.
The menu has basically two focuses: vegan food and “regular” bar food. AWBC’s style is to use high-quality (often organic) local ingredients.
We’re discovering that burgers are some of the safest bets at craft brewery restaurants. So we ordered a Downtown burger with onion rings and a vegan burger with fries. This turned out to be a wise move because both were really good!
The huge Downtown burger was cooked barely pink, as requested and was made of deliciously juicy local grass-raised beef and served on a fresh bun from a local bakery. The burger was topped with skinny fried onion rings, lots of pepper jack cheese, corn guac and a tasty chipotle ranch sauce. The Belgian onion rings were thickly coated in a light, fried batter whose subtle flavor complimented the sweetness of the onions. And the sriracha ketchup served with the onion rings took the lunch to the next level!
The house-made Vegan Counter Culture burger is a black-bean patty coated with crispy fried bread crumbs. It’s topped with big pieces of roasted red pepper, avocado, fresh micro greens and chipotle ranch sauce. While the bean patty itself was a bit bland, all the toppings and the sesame seed bun had so much flavor the gestalt was quite good. The french fries were excellent, too. Not too thin nor too thick, crispy and flavored with a touch of salt and herbs.
Bottom line: we loved the food. It’s casual pub food with the quality of a fine dining restaurant. Highly recommended.
The Beer
We typically order pints of beer to go with our meals. But since we’re sharing the experience here, we ordered beer samplers so we could get a better idea of what the AZ Wilderness Brewery had to offer.
They had about 34 taps but were serving about 17 different AWBC craft beers during our visit. They make a bunch of different styles–from traditional Kolsch to cactus-flavored sour beer. We had pretty high expectations based on our previous visits to the Gilbert restaurant. We were not disappointed.
We appreciated the fact that they served beer samples in a glass that was not filled to the rim with beer. It makes it really tough to appreciate the aroma of beer in overfilled glasses!
Here’s what we tried at the downtown Phoenix brewery restaurant…
Beer Reviews
| Beer-ABV/IBU | Notes |
|---|---|
| Don’t F#%k It Up Blonde Ale 5.5%/15 | Appearance–light gold, sl. hazy Aroma–malty honey, cookies Taste–honey, malt, bread Mouthfeel–light body, fluffy Overall–very unique with a noticeable hone flavor and aroma |
| Hefeweizen 5%/12 | A–straw yellow, hazy A–banana, clove T–bread, fruit, warm spice M–med body O–prototypical hefe, delicious A Favorite of the Day |
| Kendrick Kolsch 5% | A–light/med gold, clear A–spicy banana orange T–malty fruit little bit of spice, sl sweet M–light-med body O–delicious kolsch A Favorite of the Day |
| La Ciudad Hazy IPA 6.4% | A–light gold, hazy A–grass, pine, floral, grapefruit T–++bitter, piney with citrus peel, not sweet M–med-heavy body O–really nice hazy without being overly juicy |
| Oktoberforest Marzen/Festbier 6% | A–light amber, clear A–toffee, toasty, some fruit T–hints at sweetness not very bitter M–light body O–lighter beer with sweet maltiness but balanced with a mellow flavor, easy drinking |
| Picture Perfect Zwickelbier 5.4%/25 | A–med gold, clear, persistent head with good lacing A–bread, melon T–pine, citrus; very dry M–med body, med to high carb O–a little too dry to be perfect with food but a very decent beer |
| Refuge IPA 6.8%/75 | A–med gold, clear A–pine, hay, dank, tropical fruit T–+++bitter balanced by fruity malt but bitterness is higher than sweetness M–med body O–IPA lover’s IPA. |
| Wilderpils Pilsner 4.8% | A–light gold, clear A–bread, sl. lemon T–similar to aroma, not much malt, tangy and bitterness dominates M–light body, med-high carb O–pretty good pilsner; a little heavy on top notes |
Overall Impression
Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company Downtown Phoenix is a huge brewery restaurant in a convenient downtown location. Their modern pub food is well-prepared and made from high-quality ingredients.
Their fresh craft beer styles lean toward traditional European styles and the ever-popular American IPAs. The quality of all the food and beverages we tried was well-above average.
We thought it was too loud indoors on a weekday at lunchtime. The combination of too-loud music and voices bouncing off the hard surfaces made conversation difficult. We’d love to try the patio when we return on a cooler day.
Additional Details
A few more tips to help you plan your visit…
- Only 1.2 miles from Chase Field–a 20-minute walk or 8-minute drive
- Beer samplers with four 5 oz. glasses available
- They offer a few wine selections and some creative house-made mixed drinks
- No TVs to be found anywhere on our visit but a small stack of board games is available
- No specific kid’s menu but lots of items on the menu that kids like
- Dog-friendly patio (designated area)
- Make a craft brewery crawl with nearby Pedal Haus Brewery and Greenwood Brewery. A 1.1 mile drive or bike ride will get you to the amazing Roses By the Stairs Brewery.
Map
Sources
- Tirion Morris, The Arizona Republic. (2019a, October 18). Arizona Wilderness is one of Phoenix’s most famous breweries. Meet the guy who makes the beer. The Republic | azcentral.com. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://eu.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/beer/2019/09/27/arizona-wilderness-brewing-company-chase-saraiva-head-brewer/2289466001/
- Lauren Saria, The Arizona Republic. (2019, February 19). Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.’s “choose your own adventure” bar is now open downtown. The Republic | azcentral.com. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://eu.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/beer/2019/02/19/arizona-wilderness-open-downtown-phoenix-brewery-restaurant-roosevelt/2875060002/
