Weekend (at Bernie’s) Guide

Affordable foodie food, handcrafted cocktails and a casual atmosphere? Let's go gastropubbing

In honor of our newfound love of working out and eating right, we’ve decided to run in this weekend’s PF Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Roadblock Marathon. After all, we’re not so out of shape that we couldn’t huff and puff for a measly 2.6 miles. Wait, what’s that? 26.2 miles. That’s nuts, people. Let’s go gastropubbing instead.

What’s a gastropub? Only the best … trend … ever! Basically, a high-end chef walks into a bar, orders a Manhattan … and starts cooking. It all started two decades ago in the land o’ pubs, (aka the Great Britain), and now the trend of serving up hearty, chef-crafted fare in a casual-yet-boozy environment has taken the Valley by storm. Combined with the renewed interest in classic cocktails thanks to the popularity of TV’s Mad Men, and there are now at least a dozen gastropubs in town. Some of our favs include the Spitfire Grill in Tempe, the Brittlebush in North Phoenix, and Mabel’s on Main and Culinary Dropout in Downtown Scottsdale. Then there’s the Valley’s first-ish gastropub, The Roosevelt, which is owned by Matt Pool of Matt’s Big Breakfast and located inside a charming 100-year-old bungalow in Downtown Phoenix.

And now, two new contestants have thrown their hats into the gastropubs ring. Both are a little fancier than your basic upscale pub, but they offer killer meals and cocktails at darn-near-affordable prices. The first, Beckett’s Table, opened late last year in central Phoenix. Now, no one’s been harder on chef Justin Beckett than us, (we jokingly called him the ‘restaurant killer’), but he’s really nailed it this time around. Grab a seat at the spacious community table crafted from a massive tree plank, and order his chicken pâté plate, a finger-licking-good medley of wood smoked veggies, crunchy baguette slices and too many other good things to list. Plus, at $8 a pop, it might be the steal of the year. 

Across town in Scottsdale, chef Bernie Kantak’s Citizen Public House finally opens its doors this Sunday, January, 16. Housed inside the Valley’s original Trader Vic’s (click here to read more about this historic space and chef Kantak, formerly of Cowboy Ciao), we were given a sneak peek of the menu last night, and all we can say is, mo’ please! We’re talking bar snacks such as bacon fat heirloom popcorn and Kilt Lifter beer-spiked fondue with sausage, pear and toasted country bread. Then there’s the OMG delicious death-by-pig that is the pork belly pastrami with rye spaetzle and Brussels sprouts sauerkraut. Check back for a full review on our sister site, DLT, but really what more do you need to know?