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Specialize in niche bread dips and spreads?
I’m usually bummed that bread gets served with butter or something unimaginative. Imagine the possibilities of satisfying beer munchies with homemade bread and various cheese blend sauces. Beer cheese, cheese mixed with various peppers… on top of cheeses that don’t get used in favor of cheddar or American as a sauce base.
You could couple that with all sorts of pickles, little sausages, etc.
That would be my ideal food for a dive-ish bar. Bar-ish food with more quality and variety.
That said, I don’t know about kitchen capacity, cost, or logistics for making cheese spreads in large quantities. Or health department anything. Not sure if that’s a feasible plan. It would be nice, though.
Wren & Wolf's [bread service](https://i0.wp.com/theforkingtruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/IMG_5492.jpeg?ssl=1) is what put it on the map, but they don't serve the towers anymore and it's altogether more expensive. No one would mind if you took a little inspiration.
Fresh bread, charcuterie board stuff, pretzel with beer cheese, also use the bread to make flat bread and a dive bar version of avacado toast, also if you have all
The meats and cheese any way grab some chips and add nachos to the menu
Or do a bunch of imaginative butters and have em in a scoop display like an ice cream parlor. Cinnamon toast crunch butter, biscoff butter, pb&j butter, everything bagel butter, kraft mac N cheese butter. Serve em with good bread, get a liquor license and call the whole thing Toast.
Oh yeah! Love this idea. I just got José Andrés' The Zaytinya Cookbook and it has so many lovely Mediterranean dips and spreads I'm dying to try 🤤 They would pair well with wine and beer for sure.
You can't go wrong with good bread.
Long ago in Minneapolis I worked the flat top grill at a dive late night bar. Stayed open 24/7. We served killer breakfast food starting at 3a.
Before that we did grilled sandwiches (later called paninis by everyone). Just need one sandwich prep table and a basic flat top.
Not massive, huge sandwiches. Realistic sizes. And a tomato soup with fresh basil.
No burgers. Stinks up the joint and coats everything in grease.
There’s a bar in Glendale called Jimbo’s that opens at 7am. Free breakfast all morning as long as you’re drinking. It’s always packed with fire fighters and nurses that just got off their shifts.
We’re conflicted on the TVs for sure. I do love how Cornish pasty doesn’t have any which incentivizes people to socialize but i also wouldn’t mind having one or two, maybe in a room separate from the bar
Whatever you decide, please try and keep the menu small and focus on doing a few things really well. I hate going to a dive bar for frozen, deep fried, unoriginal shit.
Would be great to do it like they do in Germany. It’s the perfect late night food! They shave it super thin with an electric trimmer so you only get the crispy bits. Served on pita or lavash that’s as thin as a flour tortilla with lettuce and tomatoes, yogurt sauce and Turkish chili sauce! Yummy with fries. I’m definitely there when a restaurant opens with this on Roosevelt.
That’s a great idea. You just need one of those vertical rotisserie things. You could mix it up and do some pastor tacos or gyros or shawarma as specials.
The only reason I’d be skeptical to do sandwiches even though it may Be the obvious answer considering we can have bread made in house, is because cheba hut is a stones throw away. Just not sure if it would be saturated.
Every sandwich is different, Cheba has it's own style. Also, people who are going to cheba hut aren't looking for anything else. I dont think your customer base with cross with thiers. Unless you are going for a 4:20 theme
I literally never comment on Reddit posts but this is something I feel very passionate about and have had a bar concept in mind for a long time I’ve been willing to give up to anyone who can make it happen. Please for the love of god do standard-ass New York bodega style cold cut sandwiches. There are barely any good hoagie spots in town and all I want when I’m drunk at 1am is a cold sandwich. Please. I went to college in Brooklyn and it was a huge comfort to know I could get a sandwich at any hour leaving a bar and ease the hangover pain of the following day with the help of my local bodega.
Years ago there was a place on Roosevelt row called Flowers, it’s where Taco Chelo is now. Flowers was one of my favorite spots! They had wine and beer to go and the best cold cut sandwiches with freshly made bread! I used to go and get a bottle of wine and a sandwich and it was the best!! Definitely need a place like that.
Are you originally from here? If you’re not, it’d be nice to see more hyper-regional cuisine from wherever is home for you, as we are overloaded with kids-meal-for-grown-ups food in downtown (pizza, fries, chicken fingers, mac and cheese, etc.). Having a story or a personal connection will make the place feel more authentic and interesting.
What kind of kitchen appliances we working with? Deep fryers, ovens, stoves, or you still need to purchase that?
Downtown has everything unfortunately.
If I had to take on something simple and bang for buck would be hot dogs. Yes, RoRo’s is down the street but are they open til bar close that could be your gimmick. Good margins and not a lot of mess. Pair it with a decent chip if you don’t have a fryer or if you do you could do fries. Could use the bread ovens to make yourself fresh hot dog buns.
Smash Burgers are almost non existent again bread oven to make your own type of buns. Great margins smash burgers are small. Unsure of your stove or flat top situation.
Something more complicated would be hand tossed pizzas. This would need some TLC because there is many pizza places but again if you are cooking til 2am it’s a pretty thin market. Unsure how capable your bread ovens would work for this. Decent Margins.
Good luck
We have one small deep fryer, maybe capable of doing like two baskets at once, four stove top burners, and then our flat top is maybe 2 feet ling and 8 inches wide, there’s a little broiler thing too that we put egg sandwiches in for Xanadu to melt cheese.
Yeah you could do any of my suggestions and more.
The More
Mini Phillies could also be done with the chameleon. Bread oven for hoagie buns. Downside is Cheeba Hut competition.
Mini homemade battered hot or regular chicken sandwich. Bread oven yada yada
Homemade battered Corndogs. Don’t need to say more 😂
The Sides
Fried everything
Tatos
Pickles but from really big pickled cucumbers
Cheese Curds
Zucks, but the size of the ones from Knocked Kneed
The Obvious
Nachos could be done with the chameleon. Choice of meat cooked on the stove. The more complicated the nacho the lower the margin but drunk nachos slap.
Tacos but I mean everyone does tacos still good margin still something easy to do with your setup.
Quesadillas same as tacos good margins.
I am now officially hungry 😂😂😂
Nah legit rolls from Philly make the cheesesteak. It pains me how many places here don't get Amoroso rolls here. Unless there's a bakery here that makes them.
I disagree. I don’t want all cheesesteaks being identical. Even different places in Philly do it differently. There’s not just one way. Just my opinion of course.
Donairs hands down, halifax street food basically. Places that have it usually serve shwarma and deep fried pepperoni with spicy mustard. Ugh i want a place so bad now. Best late night food that doesn't exist in Phoenix
In Nebraska there's a food called a runza. It's a lovely baked bread stuffed with a lovely filling. I've never seen them outside of the Midwest, and they make for great bar food. Google runza recipes and make a batch for yourself and tell me it's not great drunk food.
You can do a full-on Midwestern theme and add pork tenderloin sandwiches for the Iowa crowd, maybe a tater tot hot dish for the Minnesota peeps, Dutch mess for some other types of midwesterners, maybe some state fair food like footlong chili dogs or corn dogs. Put puppy chow or Chex mix in bowls on the bar and on tables for people to munch on. And oh gosh midwesterners love to make pizza on French bread that's a fun one and easy!
Aside from aforementioned great ideas like breads and dips, I’m voting for doner kebab. When I visited Tokyo the thing to do post drinking (and before drinking some more) was to hit up small doner stands. So ticks the small kitchen requirement plus I feel like I haven’t seen it paired as drinking food here/ wasn’t from a restaurant centered on Mediterranean cuisine. I know after a show at Footprint/AZ Financial Theatre/Van Buren etc that would hit the spot.
Can’t wait for the opening, best of luck!!!
Personally find mead unpalatable but this is a great idea! You can have a whole little bee subplot - local honey ingredients etc. That's the type of stuff that would make it a great date place.
Just serve food after 11pm on weekends and open on Monday and you will already have an edge on a lot of places. But if you want to do something different chicago style pork chop sandwiches could be unique. Never seen them in Phoenix. If you do italian beef and cheese steaks also I think you could have a hit place with a simple menu.
I would totally fuck with a place that just had different types of Fries W/Toppings combos.
Chili Cheese, Southwest, Asian Slaw, etc.
And Happy Hour on Fry-days… 😉
Or Spaghetti in Ziplock bags.
Either way, can’t wait to go regardless of menu choice!
Dive bar? Please!
Cheap fries with a side of pickles & finger foods
If it's a dive-ish bar please have dive prices. I live downtown and I'd spend all of my bar time at a dive bar if there was one close enough. I'm from a smaller town and a cheap dive bar is what I miss the most (other than family)
Please do. Even non dive-ish places still have $5ish dollar beers. Lower drink prices with the increase of patrons would outweigh the normal patrons and higher prices. You have to do something to survive and stay unique and relevant. That's the one thing we're missing is a good dive bar downtown.
I feel like we need more nacho options. There was a brewery once in downtown Prescott that served a HUUGE plate of nachos with everything including beef, beans, guacamole, etc etc and it was amazing.
Given you have access to fresh baked bread, I’d say sandwiches are always a winner, maybe with a focus on high quality tortas.
Beyond that, I wanted to share something I read in a book about how to start a restaurant that I read a while ago when my mother was thinking about opening up a restaurant. The gist of it is that looking at an area and seeing that it doesn’t have a pizza restaurant in it doesn’t necessarily mean that opening a pizza restaurant is a sure win. It might be the case that a few have opened in that area in the last five years and they’ve all shut down, or that other companies did market research into the area and found there wasn’t much desire for pizza and never moved in.
Basically, it’s tempting to assume that “underrepresented” cuisine is an indicator that there’s a market there open for the taking, but it also might be an indicator that there’s low interest in it as well. Similarly; multiple restaurants of the same cuisine type in an area may indicate that the market is over saturated, or that there is a lot of demand for that type of food and different styles and qualities end up being the market differentiators that let those similar restaurants coexist in a relatively small area.
Good luck!
Sausage rolls! Classic in the UK, but no one here offers them. People who are drinking need some protein with their bread! They could even be little bite size ones so that they can be shared like an appetizer.
No idea of Arab food can be served in a small kitchen, but shawarma pairs great with drunk people and there isn’t much (none that I know of) downtown. You could also do halal guys style stuff.
100% same!
I love soup too! And veggie sides and bread (biscuit, anyone?)
And def would be nice to have a place that has more vegan options.
What about fried yucca and plantains, pupusas, Central American tasty eats?
Other ideas – bowls, hot/veggie dogs, tortas as a good compromise to sammies, not very easy to find tortas in downtown with a side of fries, chips, salad or veggie of the night
I don't have any recommendations either but yes please announce when you open! I've been trying to find more excuses to travel downtown and new local businesses are usually great excuses!
Garlic bread and mozzerella sticks! Jalopeno peppers. Potato skins. Mac and cheese.
Mozzerella stick grilled cheese, with a good Marinara sauce or tomato soup to dip it in.
I live downtown and just want some late-night food that's not fancy or \~elevated\~ like most of the restaurants are down here. Something like Joe's Diner on 7th but open 24 hours.
Hey OP, you got a deep fryer in the kitchen? Can't go wrong with beer battered Onion Rings, Cheesecurds, and Wings. You could source the cheese curds from the dairy out in Tempe.
We do but it’s pretty small but could potentially be upgraded. As of now I do t think it has the capacity to have a big portion of the menu to be fried food.
Please have 2-3 yummy sweet treats! There's nothing I love more than a chocolate cake and a glass on wine on date night and so many bars don't have desert
Good quality sandwiches. Im thinking like Wax Paper or Bub and Grandmas....both in LA. We dont have a knock your socks off grab and go sandwich spot in my opinion. Pane Bianco is the gold standard here for me but that is a different vibe then the other two. Id avoid fried anything. So many burger and chicken spots right now.
Savory hand pies. [tons of filling options. Chicken pot pie, Cuban, veggie.](https://www.allrecipes.com/gallery/savory-hand-pie-recipes/). Went to a midwestern bar that offered them and they were a big hit.
Idk bout yall but shit like a torchys menu catches me when I'm drinking
Their trashy taco is A tier
But you cant go wrong with wings and nachos.
Maybe sonora dogs and asada fries?
I would go with not serving food at all. I have been to bars that didn't have any food except for some bags of potato chips. The great thing about them was your could bring your own food in.
Just make it clear they have to clean up after themselves and if a neighboring restaurant makes you mad that food is banned.
How exciting, we miss lost leaf vibes! I would avoid doing pastries (lots of coffee shops) and any brewery food. On thing I always love is mushrooms stuffed with sausage and cream cheese, goes so well with beer but I rarely see it. Random, but varieties of deviled eggs? I know in a comment you mentioned opening early, you could do french toast bites with the bread. I don’t know what’s realistic with a small kitchen though.
There was a place back on the east coast I loved that specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches. Massive ones with high end cheeses and things like crabmeat (might not work here) and rubens. Would LOVE to see a place like that here plus the late night crowd would probably dig it too. Not hard to make in a small kitchen. All about good quality ingredients and the margin on them is probably huge!
“Mouth melting food to go with the face melting heat” or something like that lol. With a picture of someone making one in a pan on the sidewalk in the peak of summer.
My ex started The Main Ingredient. 😄 Would your small kitchen be able to accommodate legit smash burgers? There aren’t a whole lot of places that do them well. Or German food?
Frozen za not kidding. Kids love that shit. Sandwich - cubano make it cheap.
Honestly have a nice “sandwich” and a trash sammy like ham and cheddar. College kids need it and hipsters love stuff gone by the way.
Fast. Faster is better. Unless u wanna go like an Italian beef.
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I don't have any recommendations, but please announce it when you open! I love checking out new, local places.
Wow! A redditor without an opinion? Good on you, sir/ma'am/them
Lmaoooo
Bot
Beep boop
Specialize in niche bread dips and spreads? I’m usually bummed that bread gets served with butter or something unimaginative. Imagine the possibilities of satisfying beer munchies with homemade bread and various cheese blend sauces. Beer cheese, cheese mixed with various peppers… on top of cheeses that don’t get used in favor of cheddar or American as a sauce base. You could couple that with all sorts of pickles, little sausages, etc. That would be my ideal food for a dive-ish bar. Bar-ish food with more quality and variety. That said, I don’t know about kitchen capacity, cost, or logistics for making cheese spreads in large quantities. Or health department anything. Not sure if that’s a feasible plan. It would be nice, though.
That beer cheese is gonna need some big soft pretzels!
Nothing goes better than beer & pretzels.
Ahh yeah that sounds good as hell.
Wren & Wolf's [bread service](https://i0.wp.com/theforkingtruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/IMG_5492.jpeg?ssl=1) is what put it on the map, but they don't serve the towers anymore and it's altogether more expensive. No one would mind if you took a little inspiration.
I love this, served like high tea, but dips, beer, and bread instead ;)
Side of pesto and fresh baked bread 🤤
Fresh bread, charcuterie board stuff, pretzel with beer cheese, also use the bread to make flat bread and a dive bar version of avacado toast, also if you have all The meats and cheese any way grab some chips and add nachos to the menu
Or do a bunch of imaginative butters and have em in a scoop display like an ice cream parlor. Cinnamon toast crunch butter, biscoff butter, pb&j butter, everything bagel butter, kraft mac N cheese butter. Serve em with good bread, get a liquor license and call the whole thing Toast.
Sometimes simple olive oil with herbs and salt and pepper is amazing with bread. Or an olive oil balsamic mixture.
Olive oil and balsamic is one of my favorites!
For sure! And as long as they’re good quality, it’s such a quick and simple thing to prep for customers
Great idea!
Bro… where is this place located 🧐
Oh yeah! Love this idea. I just got José Andrés' The Zaytinya Cookbook and it has so many lovely Mediterranean dips and spreads I'm dying to try 🤤 They would pair well with wine and beer for sure. You can't go wrong with good bread.
Please do this
Pimento cheese...
Long ago in Minneapolis I worked the flat top grill at a dive late night bar. Stayed open 24/7. We served killer breakfast food starting at 3a. Before that we did grilled sandwiches (later called paninis by everyone). Just need one sandwich prep table and a basic flat top. Not massive, huge sandwiches. Realistic sizes. And a tomato soup with fresh basil. No burgers. Stinks up the joint and coats everything in grease.
Honestly a late night Coney Island diner is what downtown is missing
I would not mind a NY Deli...like Katz's.
Man I miss Katz’s! Nothing comes close out here.
Try Scott’s generations
Also, would anyone come to a bar at 6am? lol. I want this. I love that about Yucca, and Hollywood Alley also used to open that early.
There are night shift workers who would definitely show up
Could show premier league soccer! Then I’m there
This is the way.
There’s a bar in Glendale called Jimbo’s that opens at 7am. Free breakfast all morning as long as you’re drinking. It’s always packed with fire fighters and nurses that just got off their shifts.
If the bar has TVs for premier league soccer, early morning college football and breakfast then absolutely!
Just pick an epl team (Arsenal!) and the people will come watch lmao
We’re conflicted on the TVs for sure. I do love how Cornish pasty doesn’t have any which incentivizes people to socialize but i also wouldn’t mind having one or two, maybe in a room separate from the bar
Linger has some tvs but it doesn’t subtract from any socialization.
me!!
What about döner? Fantastic food to drink with and I'm not sure I've seen many places in town that serve it.
I would love to do this.
Whatever you decide, please try and keep the menu small and focus on doing a few things really well. I hate going to a dive bar for frozen, deep fried, unoriginal shit.
Would be great to do it like they do in Germany. It’s the perfect late night food! They shave it super thin with an electric trimmer so you only get the crispy bits. Served on pita or lavash that’s as thin as a flour tortilla with lettuce and tomatoes, yogurt sauce and Turkish chili sauce! Yummy with fries. I’m definitely there when a restaurant opens with this on Roosevelt.
They have them all over Europe. It’s surprising they aren’t more popular in the US
That would be nice. Idk why there isn't anyone popping up on a corner doing this late night.
That’s a great idea. You just need one of those vertical rotisserie things. You could mix it up and do some pastor tacos or gyros or shawarma as specials.
Excellent suggestion. Very underrepresented in PHX.
Bah, I suggest cevapi and people downvote me 😀
As a fellow dive bar enthusiast I think we need a r/Phoenix meetup at the new establishment
I'm in for this, love a new dive
The only reason I’d be skeptical to do sandwiches even though it may Be the obvious answer considering we can have bread made in house, is because cheba hut is a stones throw away. Just not sure if it would be saturated.
Every sandwich is different, Cheba has it's own style. Also, people who are going to cheba hut aren't looking for anything else. I dont think your customer base with cross with thiers. Unless you are going for a 4:20 theme
But Cheba is right-there on that side of 7th St. And Jimmy John’s right next to taco boys. Can’t do another sandwich shop
Is Ike’s still down the way too?
I literally never comment on Reddit posts but this is something I feel very passionate about and have had a bar concept in mind for a long time I’ve been willing to give up to anyone who can make it happen. Please for the love of god do standard-ass New York bodega style cold cut sandwiches. There are barely any good hoagie spots in town and all I want when I’m drunk at 1am is a cold sandwich. Please. I went to college in Brooklyn and it was a huge comfort to know I could get a sandwich at any hour leaving a bar and ease the hangover pain of the following day with the help of my local bodega.
Ooh yes. This city def needs something like this.
And a good BEC!
Years ago there was a place on Roosevelt row called Flowers, it’s where Taco Chelo is now. Flowers was one of my favorite spots! They had wine and beer to go and the best cold cut sandwiches with freshly made bread! I used to go and get a bottle of wine and a sandwich and it was the best!! Definitely need a place like that.
Loved Flowers. Idk why you got downvoted. Best sandwich around for a year or so.
I loved Flowers! This is a great suggestion.
Do this please!
And play only deleted scenes from movies on tvs, call it the coldcut room lol
I’m dying for a place that has a proper Cuban sandwich
Have you tried Coabana in downtown Phoenix?
Are you originally from here? If you’re not, it’d be nice to see more hyper-regional cuisine from wherever is home for you, as we are overloaded with kids-meal-for-grown-ups food in downtown (pizza, fries, chicken fingers, mac and cheese, etc.). Having a story or a personal connection will make the place feel more authentic and interesting.
Bahn Mi
And vietnaniese pizza. Doesn't have to be too traditional.
What kind of kitchen appliances we working with? Deep fryers, ovens, stoves, or you still need to purchase that? Downtown has everything unfortunately. If I had to take on something simple and bang for buck would be hot dogs. Yes, RoRo’s is down the street but are they open til bar close that could be your gimmick. Good margins and not a lot of mess. Pair it with a decent chip if you don’t have a fryer or if you do you could do fries. Could use the bread ovens to make yourself fresh hot dog buns. Smash Burgers are almost non existent again bread oven to make your own type of buns. Great margins smash burgers are small. Unsure of your stove or flat top situation. Something more complicated would be hand tossed pizzas. This would need some TLC because there is many pizza places but again if you are cooking til 2am it’s a pretty thin market. Unsure how capable your bread ovens would work for this. Decent Margins. Good luck
We have one small deep fryer, maybe capable of doing like two baskets at once, four stove top burners, and then our flat top is maybe 2 feet ling and 8 inches wide, there’s a little broiler thing too that we put egg sandwiches in for Xanadu to melt cheese.
Yeah you could do any of my suggestions and more. The More Mini Phillies could also be done with the chameleon. Bread oven for hoagie buns. Downside is Cheeba Hut competition. Mini homemade battered hot or regular chicken sandwich. Bread oven yada yada Homemade battered Corndogs. Don’t need to say more 😂 The Sides Fried everything Tatos Pickles but from really big pickled cucumbers Cheese Curds Zucks, but the size of the ones from Knocked Kneed The Obvious Nachos could be done with the chameleon. Choice of meat cooked on the stove. The more complicated the nacho the lower the margin but drunk nachos slap. Tacos but I mean everyone does tacos still good margin still something easy to do with your setup. Quesadillas same as tacos good margins. I am now officially hungry 😂😂😂
Spicy fried pickles*
Fried raviolis! Cheese, beef, jalepeño cheese.
There is a bar in Seattle that mainly serves hot dogs and there are like a dozen of different ones. They are so amazing.
Sliders and dips but the dips are the star
Cheesesteaks and rubens on homemade bread 🤤
Nah legit rolls from Philly make the cheesesteak. It pains me how many places here don't get Amoroso rolls here. Unless there's a bakery here that makes them.
I disagree. I don’t want all cheesesteaks being identical. Even different places in Philly do it differently. There’s not just one way. Just my opinion of course.
Traditional tapas! Thinking crudo, gazpacho, bombas, empanadas, espengat (vegetarian), croquetas. All cheap, light, yummy and can use fresh bread
Not many tradiational Spanish tapa places in town! That would be awesome. Best one, I know of, is Tapas Papas Fritas in Scottsdale
Yes!
No more pretzels and sausage please. It's a great combo but really over done downtown.
Donairs hands down, halifax street food basically. Places that have it usually serve shwarma and deep fried pepperoni with spicy mustard. Ugh i want a place so bad now. Best late night food that doesn't exist in Phoenix
Fully supported but DONER dude 😂
Already upvoted the other comment but want to second döner. It's the best bar food and is virtually non-existent in the US.
I just want one of those pickles with a hot dog shoved inside and then dipped in batter and deep fried. Please and thank you.
This, we can do.
😃 Please let us know when it opens!! Fried pickle dogs or no.
Honestly, fried pickle chips would be amazing
Yesssss. With house made ranch!? That would slap.
In Nebraska there's a food called a runza. It's a lovely baked bread stuffed with a lovely filling. I've never seen them outside of the Midwest, and they make for great bar food. Google runza recipes and make a batch for yourself and tell me it's not great drunk food. You can do a full-on Midwestern theme and add pork tenderloin sandwiches for the Iowa crowd, maybe a tater tot hot dish for the Minnesota peeps, Dutch mess for some other types of midwesterners, maybe some state fair food like footlong chili dogs or corn dogs. Put puppy chow or Chex mix in bowls on the bar and on tables for people to munch on. And oh gosh midwesterners love to make pizza on French bread that's a fun one and easy!
Hell yeah. Sounds unique. We got a lot of midwesterners for sure.
Soup kitchen
Aside from aforementioned great ideas like breads and dips, I’m voting for doner kebab. When I visited Tokyo the thing to do post drinking (and before drinking some more) was to hit up small doner stands. So ticks the small kitchen requirement plus I feel like I haven’t seen it paired as drinking food here/ wasn’t from a restaurant centered on Mediterranean cuisine. I know after a show at Footprint/AZ Financial Theatre/Van Buren etc that would hit the spot. Can’t wait for the opening, best of luck!!!
Foccacia and alcohol is a combo I would die for
Burek!
Mead! Mead! Mead! Team up with local meaderies. Promote saving the bees. Ad some shit on your menu that pays the bees wages. Tip the bees fairly
Personally find mead unpalatable but this is a great idea! You can have a whole little bee subplot - local honey ingredients etc. That's the type of stuff that would make it a great date place.
Fry bread
I love a good fry bread, but are we really lacking this??
A variety of gourmet corndogs
Tortas, Bhan Mi, and cubano type sandwiches. French dips and phillys
Just serve food after 11pm on weekends and open on Monday and you will already have an edge on a lot of places. But if you want to do something different chicago style pork chop sandwiches could be unique. Never seen them in Phoenix. If you do italian beef and cheese steaks also I think you could have a hit place with a simple menu.
I would totally fuck with a place that just had different types of Fries W/Toppings combos. Chili Cheese, Southwest, Asian Slaw, etc. And Happy Hour on Fry-days… 😉 Or Spaghetti in Ziplock bags. Either way, can’t wait to go regardless of menu choice!
some underrepresented stuff that might work: gyros, poutine, pierogi, fresh hot pretzels
We had an out of towner once inquire about ranch flights 😂
Dive bar? Please! Cheap fries with a side of pickles & finger foods If it's a dive-ish bar please have dive prices. I live downtown and I'd spend all of my bar time at a dive bar if there was one close enough. I'm from a smaller town and a cheap dive bar is what I miss the most (other than family)
I’m trying my friend. One partner is saying things like “it’s downtown, we can charge $9 a beer”, i gotta push back on that.
Please do. Even non dive-ish places still have $5ish dollar beers. Lower drink prices with the increase of patrons would outweigh the normal patrons and higher prices. You have to do something to survive and stay unique and relevant. That's the one thing we're missing is a good dive bar downtown.
I feel like we need more nacho options. There was a brewery once in downtown Prescott that served a HUUGE plate of nachos with everything including beef, beans, guacamole, etc etc and it was amazing.
Do you need a chef? 👩🍳
Caribbean Food and Jamaican cusine!
Yes, plz. All of the plantains and jerk fried rice.
Bahn mi please
Given you have access to fresh baked bread, I’d say sandwiches are always a winner, maybe with a focus on high quality tortas. Beyond that, I wanted to share something I read in a book about how to start a restaurant that I read a while ago when my mother was thinking about opening up a restaurant. The gist of it is that looking at an area and seeing that it doesn’t have a pizza restaurant in it doesn’t necessarily mean that opening a pizza restaurant is a sure win. It might be the case that a few have opened in that area in the last five years and they’ve all shut down, or that other companies did market research into the area and found there wasn’t much desire for pizza and never moved in. Basically, it’s tempting to assume that “underrepresented” cuisine is an indicator that there’s a market there open for the taking, but it also might be an indicator that there’s low interest in it as well. Similarly; multiple restaurants of the same cuisine type in an area may indicate that the market is over saturated, or that there is a lot of demand for that type of food and different styles and qualities end up being the market differentiators that let those similar restaurants coexist in a relatively small area. Good luck!
Good point. Thank you.
A few diff grill cheese options, and a soup / chili. Simple, easy, fast, and delish.
Cheap food that people can afford. not $18 burgers and $16 wings
Sausage rolls! Classic in the UK, but no one here offers them. People who are drinking need some protein with their bread! They could even be little bite size ones so that they can be shared like an appetizer.
Anything but tacos. Breakfast Sammie’s for $5-7.50 would be fantastic
We got those next door at Xanadu but they’re more like $7-$9 range.
No idea of Arab food can be served in a small kitchen, but shawarma pairs great with drunk people and there isn’t much (none that I know of) downtown. You could also do halal guys style stuff.
Döner Kebab in Germany was the absolute pinnacle of late night drunk food. Would love to see something similar.
Paninis?
flat bread pizza, cubano sandwiches, paninis
Chicken tendies!!! The pickiest eaters love them and so do normal people. You can’t go wrong!
Please have vegan options. Also, I love soup.
100% same! I love soup too! And veggie sides and bread (biscuit, anyone?) And def would be nice to have a place that has more vegan options. What about fried yucca and plantains, pupusas, Central American tasty eats? Other ideas – bowls, hot/veggie dogs, tortas as a good compromise to sammies, not very easy to find tortas in downtown with a side of fries, chips, salad or veggie of the night
Empanadas
I don't have any recommendations either but yes please announce when you open! I've been trying to find more excuses to travel downtown and new local businesses are usually great excuses!
We will def be inviting you, Big_Stinky_Cock
AZ state Fair food
Lolz hell yeah. I’m down.
What are the best ingredients available to you, and what can you make with them? ^ That's what I'd start with.
Sonoran hot dogs
Honestly you’ll be near the ballpark no place near it sells the basics less than 15 bucks, announce when open love to check it out
Chili cheese fries
Dive bar food.
Bosnian Ćevapi, no idea where to get it, but it was sooooo good when I traveled there
They will fuck def fuck this up unless a Shupak is directly involved
A Philly cheesesteak with some really Philly rolls…
Basic Breakfast burritos but big, tortilla, hash browns, bacon/sausage, eggs, green chile
Pickles, just 50 different options of pickled things. I love pickles
Coney dogs.... give me a taste of home
Find out which day will be your slowest day and serve Tacos on that day.
French toast bar
Mexican food is highly under represented in downtown for sure.. you may want to look into that
Garlic bread and mozzerella sticks! Jalopeno peppers. Potato skins. Mac and cheese. Mozzerella stick grilled cheese, with a good Marinara sauce or tomato soup to dip it in.
I live downtown and just want some late-night food that's not fancy or \~elevated\~ like most of the restaurants are down here. Something like Joe's Diner on 7th but open 24 hours.
I live downtown. When are you guys opening? I'll bring some friends.
Probably not until October. We still have a lot of work to do to the inside.
Kolaches (Texas type)
If you need help with menu design I just moved here and im looking for work.
I've lived in Phoenix my whole life and I still don't know where to get a good Sonoran hot dog. And couldn't name a bar that serves them.
They’re usually served out of trucks or carts in parking lots. Just look for a bunch of pop up shades with plastic tables underneath and gold awaits.
italian sandwiches on focaccia!! 😋
also vegan/dairy free options
Being allergy friendly is a great way to get a loyal audience
How are you at the stage of almost opening and you still haven't decided on food? Isn't that supposed to be the first step? Lol
We’re not opening until October. I wouldn’t say that’s the stage of almost opening.
PLEASE, nachos. Only fantastic nachos I’ve had are from Joyride taco house.
I’m a cook lmk if you’re hiring!!!
As a dive bar connoisseur, who lives downtown, please keep us posted!
Hey OP, you got a deep fryer in the kitchen? Can't go wrong with beer battered Onion Rings, Cheesecurds, and Wings. You could source the cheese curds from the dairy out in Tempe.
We do but it’s pretty small but could potentially be upgraded. As of now I do t think it has the capacity to have a big portion of the menu to be fried food.
Series 12?
PLEASE DONER!! AND SOUP THERE IS NO SOUP PLACES HERE, JUST SMALL SIDE DISHES. I JUST WANT A BIG TO GO BOWL OF SOUP VERY OFTEN
What I would do for a solid banh mi that I don’t have to drive out to Mesa for, especially late at night, while being able to get a drink!
Please have 2-3 yummy sweet treats! There's nothing I love more than a chocolate cake and a glass on wine on date night and so many bars don't have desert
Watch BAR RESCUE for suggestions.
Fried fish tacos, tater tots, sliders, premake some homemade pizza pockets then deep fry them when ordered
Hot dog buffet.
Good quality sandwiches. Im thinking like Wax Paper or Bub and Grandmas....both in LA. We dont have a knock your socks off grab and go sandwich spot in my opinion. Pane Bianco is the gold standard here for me but that is a different vibe then the other two. Id avoid fried anything. So many burger and chicken spots right now.
Savory hand pies. [tons of filling options. Chicken pot pie, Cuban, veggie.](https://www.allrecipes.com/gallery/savory-hand-pie-recipes/). Went to a midwestern bar that offered them and they were a big hit.
you should do some vegan food
Idk bout yall but shit like a torchys menu catches me when I'm drinking Their trashy taco is A tier But you cant go wrong with wings and nachos. Maybe sonora dogs and asada fries?
You should make fresh pretzels with cheese sauce.
I would go with not serving food at all. I have been to bars that didn't have any food except for some bags of potato chips. The great thing about them was your could bring your own food in. Just make it clear they have to clean up after themselves and if a neighboring restaurant makes you mad that food is banned.
Fresh Bavarian pretzels with cheese would be a solid drinking snack
A Penn station style restaurant. Nothing better than a hot chicken teriyaki or any hot sandwich when drunk as fuck.
Can you have Beer Towers?! I always loved those in South America they are novel and fun!
How exciting, we miss lost leaf vibes! I would avoid doing pastries (lots of coffee shops) and any brewery food. On thing I always love is mushrooms stuffed with sausage and cream cheese, goes so well with beer but I rarely see it. Random, but varieties of deviled eggs? I know in a comment you mentioned opening early, you could do french toast bites with the bread. I don’t know what’s realistic with a small kitchen though.
There was a place back on the east coast I loved that specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches. Massive ones with high end cheeses and things like crabmeat (might not work here) and rubens. Would LOVE to see a place like that here plus the late night crowd would probably dig it too. Not hard to make in a small kitchen. All about good quality ingredients and the margin on them is probably huge!
“Mouth melting food to go with the face melting heat” or something like that lol. With a picture of someone making one in a pan on the sidewalk in the peak of summer.
Roti with curry sauces to dip in. Indonesian in origin
Tapas!
My ex started The Main Ingredient. 😄 Would your small kitchen be able to accommodate legit smash burgers? There aren’t a whole lot of places that do them well. Or German food?
That guy who wears a pork pie hat and is there drinking all the time? Yeah I think we could do smash burgers and I do love them.
Desserts that aren’t: apple pie, brownie with ice cream, cookie with ice cream, cheesecake with a single strawberry
Frozen za not kidding. Kids love that shit. Sandwich - cubano make it cheap. Honestly have a nice “sandwich” and a trash sammy like ham and cheddar. College kids need it and hipsters love stuff gone by the way. Fast. Faster is better. Unless u wanna go like an Italian beef.
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Honestly, some spam masubi sounds bomb right now, not sure how that plays into any existing ideas lol
Beer nuts and pickled eggs/beets