DPJ Blogs
Your Downtown Beer | Beer to Go – Gone?
Posted on 5/16/12 by Rob Fullmer » No Comments
Ambition and Closure. Liquor 24hrs?
It’s the little things sometimes.
I may be one of the few people to notice the mural on the side of the Phoenix Public Market well before the announcement that the indoor market would be closing. The mural depicts a market at the center of a community in the process of rebuilding itself. The market bears a liquor sign with an impossibly ambitious 24 hour sign (currently not legal in AZ or most anyplace for that matter).
Phoenix Public Market’s Urban Grocery never was a liquor store, but it did have the best selection of local beer and wine in all of downtown. The market featured about 2 dozen Arizona produced bottles and cans of beer as well as a few regional craft beers.
The outdoor market will live on. Some have pointed out that it was never a full-service grocer. Others have noted that there are other local gathering places that fulfill the market’s third place qualities.
There may be far more important reasons to note the market’s passing. Your Downtown Beer seeks to work on the practical: “Where does one go to buy packaged quality beer in Downtown Phoenix now that the Phoenix Public Market’s Grocery is closed?”
Downtown Phoenix has good beer available. We’ve established that. If you think about the many dozens of restaurants and beer bars with tapped beers (Copper Blues has over 60 alone) and you add in the extensive bottle list at the Lost Leaf (over 150) you’re looking at hundreds of beer choices, but it’s not as simple as that. All of those places have on-premise licenses — you have to drink it there, you can’t take it with you. When it comes to “beer to go” I can’t resist but make the analogy, “Beer, beer everywhere, but not a drop to take.”
Remembering that Chloe’s Corner took over the Oakville Grocery space and assumed the beer and wine store license, I headed over to Cityscape to see what might be available. To my dismay, Chloe’s was closed for a private event and I was literally shooed away. I couldn’t even press my nose to the glass windows to see what might be available. Rest assured, Chloe. I will be back.
The Lone Arrogant Bastard
Undeterred I popped into CVS and saw several 24 oz cans that are normally seen in slim brown paper bags. A lone Arrogant Bastard bottle mocked me as if it had consumed all of the other beers that might have been in the cooler. Stone Arrogant Bastard is a great beer, but we can do better. We want our locals too.
With many things downtown, you have to know where to go and you may have to widen your search perimeter. Thomas Market Liquor on Thomas and 3rd Avenue fits all of my downtown beer requirements. It has a knowledgeable staff. There are several cooler doors full of regional craft beers as well as fine imports. There is even an entire door filled with beers brewed in Arizona. The beer geek in me noted that the code on an empty shelf indicated there once was bottles Deschutes Dissident. Thomas Market Liquor is just a shade over two miles from the Phoenix Public Market — a short light rail trip or a 15-minute bicycle ride.
Thomas Market Liquor's local beer selection
I settled on a Dogfish Head Theobroma. It’s an ale based upon an ancient Meso-American beer recipe containing cocoa, honey, chilies and annatto. The chiles and spice are a perfect complement a savory pork dish or a dessert with chocolate.
Fortunately, we may be on the verge of a breakthrough when it comes to packaged beer. The Arizona State legislature made a change to Title 4 of the Arizona Revised Statutes that will go into effect in August. The change allows beer bars to fill growlers of beer for off-premise sale. A growler is a 64 ounce glass jug that is filled from the tap. It used to be that only a brewery could fill a growler for sales, “to go.” This law change will allow any beer bar or liquor store with tapped beer to sell them.
There will certainly be a period where businesses work out whether they want to have access to the, “to go” market, so don’t expect a deluge of options right from the get-go. A business has to devote resources and inventory to growlers. Filling a growler without beer loss is not very easy either. One hopes that of the hundreds of beer taps downtown, a few will devote some to off premise sales this summer.
Where do you shop for beer downtown?
Visit: Thomas Market Liquors, 345 W Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ 85013 (602) 274-4780
Bike Chic | Morgan Meronk
Posted on 5/15/12 by Cortney Kaminski » No Comments
Bike Chic is a DPJ series by Fashion intern, Cortney Kaminski. Each week she will be scouting locals who not only ride their bikes but look dapper doing it.
Who: Morgan Meronk
Age: 27
Occupation: Still looking.
Where Spotted: Riding on Roosevelt St. near 1st St.
Why did you recently choose to move Downtown? I was in Scottsdale but I just like where the city is headed and there is such a different crowd here. I also think the nightlife is better.
Where do you like to explore? The other night I went to Film Bar for my first time . . . and I go to Carly’s a lot since it is near my home. Oh, and Sticky Fingers is just great!
Why do you choose to ride your bike around? It’s my transportation. I have been solely riding for about four years now, and it saves a lot of money.
How do you make riding a bike possible in the Arizona heat? I don’t wear black, and try to really only wear white or light colors. Sometimes for work I would bring a pair of clothes to change into, and sometimes I would soak my T-shirt in water and then it would dry by the time I would get to work.
What she’s wearing:
• Target T-shirt
• Hudson shorts cut from jeans
• Movado watch face attached to an American Apparel headband
• Chuck Taylor shoes
Her biking essentials:
• La Jolla bike given to her by a friend
• A stretchy belt used to hold her bike lock
Arizona Theatre Company Serves a Full-Bodied ‘Red’
Posted on 5/10/12 by Bob Diehl » No Comments
The grand color field painter, Mark Rothko, and his first major mural commission, the original Four Seasons Restaurant inside the modernist masterpiece on Park Avenue, the Seagram Building, are the staging for this play. Full scale reproductions of the murals are on stage the entire time. These paintings are powerful. I can, and have, sat with Rothko paintings for a long time.
The 90-minute dialogue between Rothko and his young assistant, Ken are the play. A rich, evocative, muscular play. Grand themes are intelligently and passionately discussed: generational conflict, the meaning of color, the power of non-representational painting to seep into the unconscious, art history debated and lived through in a way that kept me spellbound, and random acts of gratuitous carnage. Art still had revolutionary potential to Rothko’s generation.
A tale well told. It originated in London in 2009, the production captured six Tonys on Broadway in 2010, and different productions were seen Saturday night in four different cities – Berkeley, CA, Hartford, CT, Phoenix, AZ and Dunedin, NZ. Phoenix’s entry is a production of Seattle Repertory Company, a worthy partner.
Two quibbles about it, though. At one point the sound technician forgot to lower the music volume as Rothko (played competently by Denis Arndt in his Phoenix debut) began a soliloquy. Arndt had to repeat his opening line several times before the music came down. Voices are not amplified, and neither actor consistently projects his voice clearly deep into the balcony seating. So if you go, stay in the orchestra.
If you go
You can leverage your investment in “Red’ theater tickets at a number of Valley locations during the production – and “Paint the Town Red!”
Arizona Theatre Company has gathered partners to offer a wide variety of incentives. Two bookstores are raffling off free tickets; District American Kitchen, Coronado Cafe and Gallo Blanco are offering discounts; and several benefits are also available at Phoenix Art Museum and more.
The production runs through May 20. Visit Arizona Theatre Company for details.
Listen Up PHX | The Alchemy Heart Earn Top 10 Spot in Hard Rock Rising Battle of the Bands
Posted on 5/08/12 by Erin Bartynski » No Comments
Local Phoenix band The Alchemy Heart recently participated in the Hard Rock Cafe’s Hard Rock Rising competition. This global battle-of-the-bands started with 18,000 groups from around the world — and The Alchemy Heart made it all the way to the top ten. Winners were determined each round by judges or by Facebook votes from fans, and the grand prize is a chance to perform in London with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, among others.
DPJ music blogger Erin Bartynski sat down with three of the six members (Israel Whittermore, vocals/guitar, Brian Whitman, producer/keyboard/guitar, and Tim Rahman, drums) over a pistachio-and-onion (the “Rosa”) pizza at Pane Bianco, to talk about the up-and-coming band, the competition, and their take on the Phoenix music scene.
About The Alchemy Heart
DPJ: Tell me about The Alchemy Heart. Online, you have the same bio on everything — your Twitter, your Facebook page, your Reverb Nation website –
Brian Whitman: What is our bio? What does it say?
Tim Rahman: Yes, please, read the bio.
Israel Whittermore: (Laughing) Great you guys, we look real professional already. While pulling out his iPhone and searching the web, he explained he and band member Josh came up with it while writing music together over Skype. He was in Phoenix, and Josh was in Kansas for school. Then he read the bio out loud: “A few guys who dream of playing music that changes someone’s life, if only for a second. We want to create something that is hopefully honest, a little original and simply honey to the ears.”
The idea was, you’ve been in these moments, whether it’s music or whatever inspires you, where it feels like everything just comes together, If you’re watching an artist, it’s like, this is what they were made for. So that’s the idea behind the bio: we want to create those moments.
Brian: Aw, that’s beautiful. I’m inspired.
DPJ: How did the band get started?
Israel: We all, throughout the years, have played together in one way or another, whether it was in church functions or in other bands or just writing together. Josh and I have known each other a long time — he’s from here — and it kinda worked out where he left (for school in Kansas) and that’s when we decided to start doing stuff. He comes back for big performances.
Brian: I was initially just the producer, and then I started to play keys a little bit at the shows that Josh couldn’t make it to.
DPJ: How long has the band been together?
Israel: We played a show in June last year together at this little dive bar, and it was good, we got a lot of positive feedback. Our first official show was at the Hard Rock here (in downtown Phoenix) on August 27th 2011. That was a big show, we sold out the Hard Rock…
Tim: Yeah, Israel has a lot of friends.
Israel: …but because of the distance thing, we’ve only played five shows together since.
DPJ: So what should your fans know about you that isn’t in The Alchemy Heart’s bio?
Brian: I think the cool thing about The Alchemy Heart is…obviously it’s driven by Israel. He’s the primary song writer, but everyone who comes and plays in the band..we were already pretty much friends to begin with. So it wasn’t like trying to hire guys out, [but] more like asking your friends to play with you. Which is maybe why it’s so enjoyable.
Tim: I think the reason it works is because we all musically had the same background (playing church music), so we all approached music from the same vantage point, as far as what works and energy and all that kind of stuff. We all came in and put our on spin on it, but it all generally worked together just cause we kind of approached it similarly. We didn’t have any rough moments.
Israel: I’ve always felt like its easier to work with musicians if you can just trust them from the beginning, so for me, even though they’re songs that I’ve written, I’ve never felt worried. Like, Tim is an amazing drummer so I just know Tim’s gonna do it, he’s gonna feel it, he’s gonna hear it, and it’s the same way with Brian and it’s the same with Alex. I trust it’s gonna work. They’re all incredibly talented guys. I’ve always said the way you make yourself look good is to surround yourself with better people…
Tim: Better looking people.
Israel: …and to be able to go, “I don’t know if that works,” or “Let’s try this instead,” and no one feels like you’re going to hurt someone’s feelings.
Tim: Everyone in the band is individually really talented. So everybody has nothing to prove.
Brian: We take it seriously but we also just like to play. And we’d like to play in London.
The Hard Rock Rising Competition
DPJ: Speaking of London, how did you guys initially hear about the competition?
Israel: We had played the Hard Rock before, so one of the managers had emailed me. Also, IAMWE, the band who took second place last year are also from here, and one of them had said it would be a great opportunity for us to maybe get some exposure.
DPJ: So once you made it past the live performance battle rounds at the Hard Rock Cafe with the judges, it was up to Facebook voters to put you in the top ten. How did you encourage people to vote for you?
Brian: (Laughing) We literally harassed people. The last couple of hours we literally called people on the phone walking them through with a laptop, having them log in to Facebook and vote.
Israel: After the first week it was not looking good, we were getting destroyed and were thousands of votes behind. But then we realized, the only thing standing between us and the guys who judge this final round is basically us. It really came down to how bad do we want it and what does it take to start getting votes. So we sent out like 22,000 emails, Facebook messages, tweets, all of the above.
Tim: The day when we really started coming back in the running, I remember getting some really frantic texts from Israel. He was losing his mind, saying “Oh my God guys, oh my God guys, it’s down to only a couple hundred, do what you have to, anything goes!”
Israel: I went to the hard rock at 5:30 p.m. and was literally standing on a table, and it was packed because of the diamondbacks game, and they gave me a microphone and I started explaining, this is the deal, this is how close we are, we could be one of ten bands in the world to have this opportunity. And that’s when we started calling everyone. My sister was even like, “I’ve had 10 people tell me to vote for your band. It’s my brother, of course I’ve voted for him!” In four days, we went from 52nd to 7th. We ended up in 8th place.
Brian: I just remember telling Israel when we got in the top ten, you know what, now, I don’t mind if we don’t win. Because it’s judged on musicianship and it’s not just internet votes, so if we don’t win it’s kind of because of who we are and that it wasn’t what they were looking for. We can almost lose with dignity now.
Unfortunately, The Alchemy Heart did not win the trip and performance in London. However, you can catch them at the Sail Inn on Friday May 11 for their CD release party. Doors are at 8 p.m., and the boys from The Alchemy Heart will be joined by other local bands The Cold Desert, IAMWE, Dr. Bones, The Buxtons, and Future Loves Past.
The day after the announcement was made, Israel emailed us the band’s reaction: As far as the Hard Rock Calling competition goes, obviously we are bummed. However, from the beginning we always felt that we would give our best and have no regrets. It has been an incredible, crazy and sometimes anxious journey and we have learned a lot, we have connected and met some great people and more people have heard our music because of it. So we can’t complain. Now we our just looking towards the release party and then we will see what happens after that!
On Downtown Phoenix: Favorite Spots and the Local Music Scene
DPJ: What’s your favorite downtown Phoenix hangout, since you all live and work around downtown and central Phoenix?
Brian: I like Cibo, it’s probably my favorite restaurant to just go and enjoy a night.
Tim: Thai Basil – I was just there today, I had panang!
Israel: We hit up Seamus McCaffrey’s quite a bit. We like Irish and British pubs
Brian: If you ever wanna find The Alchemy heart, check Hazelwoods. Or Rose and McCaffery’s.
DPJ: What do you think about the scene in downtown Phoenix these days?
Brian: Phoenix the past year or so has really just exploded with people and viability, it’s not just First Fridays that people go out for anymore, there’s people out all the time now which is great.
Israel: The funny thing is, we’d go to Austin for a festival or Chicago for a festival and we’d look around and wonder, why doesn’t Phoenix have this culture? It’s not the people, people want it. Literally in the last couple years we’ve seen downtown and even Tempe change some, and it’s bringing out a lot of good musicians over the last year. I feel like I’ve seen this Phoenix music scene really kind of blossom, where all of a sudden it’s like, ‘woah those guys are local?’ So that’s been great.
Bike Chic | Sherrie Gallagher
Posted on 5/08/12 by Cortney Kaminski » No Comments
Bike Chic is a DPJ series by Fashion intern, Cortney Kaminski. Each week she will be scouting locals who not only ride their bikes but look dapper doing it.
Who: Sherrie Gallagher
Age: 24
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Where Spotted: Taking a shortcut through Artisan Village
What do you enjoy about Downtown? The food, and the cute and little ‘mom and pop’ type restaurants; the ones that aren’t chains.
Where do you like to explore? I love the open view at Giant Coffee and riding over to the library. I love going to the D-backs and Suns games.
Why do you choose to ride your bike around? Because then I don’t have to pay for metered parking and I can get a tan while I am riding!
What is the biggest plus in riding a bike rather than driving? I don’t have to worry about having a few drinks then getting home.
• Shirt from an Etsy shop
• Abercrombie denim shorts
• Steve Madden black flats
• Forever 21 over-the-shoulder bag
Her biking essentials:
• Shared bike with her boyfriend
• iPhone for GPS
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen and chapstick
