The Best Places in Phoenix

The floor here runs 26,000 square feet, which is enough room to build up real speed before you remember you haven't skated in twenty years. Skateland is a roller rink, old-school and unashamed about it, with arcade games, a snack bar, and a lighting rig that commits fully to the bit. Kids get character glow skates on Sundays; adults get their own nights on Thursdays and Fridays where no one's kid is cutting across your lane.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Roller Rink · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Milkshakes · Best of the Valley

A few pedals in and Phoenix disappears entirely, swapped for quiet Sonoran desert and the kind of saguaro scenery that makes you forget the city grid exists. South Mountain's trails run the range from a gentle beginner slope to a genuinely spine-jangling technical stretch, so there's something for toddlers on balance bikes and retirees alike. Hikers and dog walkers share the path, so a handlebar bell earns its place in your kit.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Mountain Bike · Best of Phoenix

Removing a glove with your teeth turns out to be a teachable skill, and Spellbound Burlesque is the troupe doing the teaching. They run nearly monthly shows around Phoenix, with local regulars sharing the bill alongside national headliners, and a standing residency every second Wednesday at Century Grand. The whole enterprise leans body-positive and inclusive, which in practice means the performances are less Vegas showroom and more genuinely weird and fun.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Burlesque · Best of Phoenix

Stinkweeds has been a fixture on Camelback forever, the kind of independent record shop where the staff actually knows what's in the bins. The focus leans toward indie labels, which means a healthy selection of local acts and obscure up-and-comers alongside the expected classics and new reissues. Vinyl, CDs, and the occasional find you weren't looking for all coexist here, which is the whole point of going in person instead of just opening an app.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Record Store · Best of Phoenix

Every product on the shelf at this west Phoenix soap and body care shop comes with an ingredient list and an EWG toxicity rating, because the owner believes you should know what you're rubbing on your skin. The focus is vegan bath and wellness goods, from coconut-almond soap to raw sugar scrubs in rotating scents. You can order online, but showing up in person lets you actually smell what you're buying, which turns out to matter.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bath and Body Goods · Best of Phoenix

Pink booths, a soda fountain counter, and ice cream sodas that have been drawing Scottsdale families for what feels like forever. This old-school ice cream parlor is better known for sundaes than sandwiches, but the lunch menu holds its own: turkey salad with avocado, tea sandwiches, chili with cheese. The kind of place where saving room for dessert isn't advice so much as the whole point of showing up.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Old-School Ice Cream Parlor · Best of Phoenix

A conveyor belt sushi spot where the plan is simple: sit down, grab whatever rolls past, and stop thinking about your day. Plates are color-coded by price, and the belt moves fast enough that you can take the edge off with salmon nigiri before you've even decided what you want. There's a full menu too, if you'd rather order, but half the fun is watching the Philly Roll clear the final corner and head your way.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Revolving Sushi · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Ice Cream · Best of the Valley
2. Phoenix New Times Where to find the best ice cream in Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Ice Cream · Best of the Valley
2. Phoenix New Times Where to find the best ice cream in Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Ice Cream · Best of the Valley
2. Phoenix New Times Where to find the best ice cream in Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Ice Cream · Best of the Valley
2. Phoenix New Times Where to find the best ice cream in Phoenix

There are hitching posts out back, which tells you most of what you need to know about T-Bone Steak House. This old-school steakhouse in South Phoenix, built from river rock and adobe and been around forever, does simple things well: New York strip, barbecue chicken, house-made apple pie. The patio catches the sun setting over the Valley, and the crowd arriving just before dusk has clearly done this before.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Restaurant You Can Ride Your Horse To · Best of Phoenix

Murals outside, a fast-moving line inside, and a cook who will ask "con todo" before you can overthink it. Taco Viva is a bright, modern taco shop in the Arcadia area serving tacos, vampiros, tostadas, and carne asada fries that took a Phoenix New Times Best of Phoenix nod in 2025. The orange salsa is genuinely alarming in the best way, and the answer to "con todo" is always yes.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Carne Asada Fries · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Carne Asada Fries · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Cabeza · Best of the Valley

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Vegan Tamales · Best of the Valley

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Large Music Venue · Best of Phoenix

Thirty-five self-pour taps line the wall at this craft beer bar in downtown Phoenix, where you grab a card, pull your own pint, and pay by the ounce. The rotating selection runs craft beers and wines, so a tour of the taps is genuinely the point. Wings, poutine, burgers, and pasta keep things grounded when the sampling gets ambitious. The mural-covered patio draws the after-work crowd on good-weather nights, which in Phoenix is most of them.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Pour Your Own Beer · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Dinner and a Show: Flamenco Dancing · Best of the Valley

The trompo in the window does most of the advertising at this west-side taqueria, shaving al pastor to order in a way that settles the argument before you've even sat down. The menu runs deep: carne asada, spicy chicken, tortas crisped on the flat top, overstuffed quesadillas, and menudo on weekends for the regulars who plan around it. Phoenix New Times named the al pastor among the city's best bites in 2025.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Al Pastor · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times Tacos al Pastor · The 10 best bites we tasted at Phoenix restaurants

Red-stained tortillas hit the griddle with melty cheese and slow-braised beef until the edges crisp just right, and then comes the consommé for dipping. This family-run taqueria in Guadalupe draws from Sonoran street food tradition, specifically the style of Ciudad Obregón, and the quesabirria tacos have developed a serious following across the Valley. Bring napkins and low expectations for decor; the place is not pretending to be anything else.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Quesabirria Tacos · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Salsa Bar · Best of the Valley

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Salsa Bar · Best of the Valley

A wood-clad 600-seat auditorium anchors this performing and visual arts center on the edge of Tempe Town Lake, with a black box studio theater, a gallery that spills into the lobby, and an outdoor amphitheater for when Arizona evenings cooperate. The Tempe Symphony Orchestra, Childsplay, and several other resident companies call it home, so there's almost always something on. Public art installations are scattered throughout, in case you arrive early and need somewhere to look thoughtful.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Open Mic Night · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Guardians of Local History · Best of Phoenix

Neapolitan pizza next door to an Irish pub, sharing the same owners and roughly the same spirit. The Desmond is a casual pizza and cocktail spot in downtown Phoenix where the crust comes wood-fired and the drinks lean toward craft cocktails and imported beers. The pies run from burrata and prosciutto to spicy salami with roasted peppers. It sits a short walk from the ballpark, and the pre-game crowd has clearly figured that out.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Eat Before a Downtown Event · Best of Phoenix

Chiptunes hum over a system where you can buy, sell, trade, or just linger with a controller at the in-store lounge. This retro and modern video game shop stocks titles, consoles, and accessories across every system ever made, plus repair supplies and reproduction cartridges for the obsessives. Coin-op rarities like "Demon Front" sit alongside weekly "Super Smash Bros." tournaments. The Phoenix New Times named it Best Video Game Store in 2024, and the regulars look like they already know why.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Video Game Store · Best of Phoenix

The sausage roll is flaky enough to leave evidence on your shirt, which is how you know this Gilbert strip-mall bakery is doing something right. The Great Gadsby turns out small-batch British baked goods, with French patisserie touches folded in, and the case runs to millionaire's shortbread, sticky toffee pudding, and custard trifles. Popular items sell out, so arriving early or ordering online is the move if you have a specific mission in mind.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best British Bakery · Best of Phoenix

Every Wednesday night at The Hot Chick, a drag queen named Barbra Seville calls bingo numbers with enough side commentary to make ten rounds feel short. It's a weekly event, not a bar night, so come ready: prizes range from gift cards to air fryers to things that would embarrass your mother. Half-off wine bottles and $8 High Noon seltzers run all night, happy hour starts at three, and a DJ keeps things going after the last card is called.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Drag Bingo · Best of Phoenix

A gift shop where the disco-dancing armadillo T-shirts share floor space with monsoon-scented candles and handmade cactus earrings. The Merchantile is a large, multi-vendor retail space organized by local maker, so each booth is essentially its own small shop. If you need something genuinely Arizonan to bring home, this is a better bet than the airport.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Shop for Arizona Merch · Best of Phoenix

Every entree at this old-school Italian chain restaurant comes with bread, soup or salad, coffee or tea, and spumoni ice cream, which makes the price feel almost suspicious. It's casual and family-friendly, the kind of place where portions are generous and no one is pretending otherwise. The Mizithra cheese with browned butter has a following of its own. Phoenix New Times named it the best haunted restaurant, so apparently there's atmosphere in more ways than one.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Haunted Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

A honeycomb dining structure, murals of Prince and Freddie Mercury, bars in trailers, a pool, and the occasional bachata lesson: The Pemberton is a sprawling outdoor complex a few blocks from Roosevelt Row that resists any single label. Wander in for a cocktail, stumble into a live band, or sit down for dinner inside what amounts to a giant hive cell. After dark, the lighting and pop-art murals tip the whole place into something genuinely strange, in the best sense.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Outdoor Hangout · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Downtown Hangout · Best of Phoenix

The intimacy works in your favor here: a mid-sized regional theater company tucked into a relatively small downtown house, where you're close enough to catch every flicker of doubt on an actor's face. The repertoire swings from classic musicals to newer dramatic work, and the room's acoustics make the whole thing land harder than a bigger stage would allow. A reliable anchor of Phoenix's performing arts scene.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Small Playhouse · Best of Phoenix

A converted auto repair shop in the Melrose District turned into a midcentury-styled courtyard complex with two bars, kitschy shops, and enough drag brunch energy to sustain its own ecosystem. The artificial turf patio and specialty cocktails at Yum Bar pull a well-appointed crowd that doesn't need to check the schedule to know when Pride events are happening. The Phoenix New Times named it Best New Gay Bar That's Really Not in 2024, which is about as accurate as it is funny.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best New Gay Bar That’s Really Not · Best of Phoenix

A $600 steak finished tableside, a golden dragon statue, and an LED wall of tropical fish that looks like it was designed by an algorithm that studied Las Vegas for a decade. Three Thirty Three is an Asian fusion restaurant that knows its audience: the dining room is built to be filmed. Expect a loud, theatrical night on the Scottsdale-Tempe border where the appetizers arrive like they have publicists.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Take an Influencer · Best of Phoenix

A science boutique in Mesa where you can buy an actual fossilized dinosaur bone, which is either a totally normal purchase or proof that adulthood has its privileges. Tyrannostorus stocks stuffed animals, books, and specimens alongside goods for ancient Egypt, space, and shark enthusiasts, so the dino-obsessed child you once were will feel right at home, and so will everyone else who still has a favorite prehistoric creature.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Store for Your Inner Dino Nerd · Best of Phoenix

Held in a church parking lot on Central Avenue, this Saturday and Wednesday outdoor market runs well over a hundred vendors across fresh produce, local meats, handcrafted bread, and enough pickled things to stock a bunker. Coffee and breakfast stalls let you eat while you shop, and the mix of knife sharpeners, blown glass, and dog treats ensures you'll leave with things you never planned to buy. Dogs are near-mandatory; well-behaved kids survive too.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Farmers Market · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Farmers’ Market · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Fundido · Best of Phoenix

A red brick building tucked into a Moon Valley shopping center, Vegan & Vine is a casual all-day plant-based café serving brunch, lunch, dinner, and wine. The biscuits with sausage gravy are doing a lot of convincing work, and the house tofu scramble shows up in burritos and breakfast flatbreads alike. Everything is fully plant-based, though the menu doesn't make a big show of it. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top vegan brunch in 2025.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Vegan Brunch · Best of Phoenix

Up to eight players can fight off zombie hordes or battle robots in deep space without leaving Scottsdale, which sounds like a gimmick until you're actually sweating. Velocity VR is a group entertainment venue with multiplayer virtual reality at its center, plus go-karts, axe-throwing, and food and drinks for when someone needs a breather. It scratches the same social itch as laser tag used to, just with considerably better graphics and more steps logged.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Future of Local Gaming · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Place to Have a Romantic Dinner · Best of the Valley

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best French Wine Selection · Best of the Valley

A second-floor patio perched over an active runway, with the McDowell Mountains catching the changing light behind it. Volanti is a casually chic restaurant inside the Scottsdale Airport, drawing both departing travelers and locals with no particular gate to catch. Lunch, dinner, happy hour, and weekend brunch are all on offer, but the real argument for coming is a table outside, where you'll stop mid-conversation to watch a small plane land.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Place to Watch Airplanes and Eat · Best of Phoenix

A Chicago-style speakeasy in suburban Glendale that survived a close call when its founders stepped away, saved by a general manager who bought the place outright and kept the plush seating and famously good acoustics intact. Local blues and R&B acts play the stage most nights, and a recently upgraded patio now lets you take your drink outside. Phoenix's blues scene is thin, so this one carries some weight.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Blues Bar · Best of Phoenix

A map shop that also keeps an enormous warehouse out back, which means the answer to almost any cartographic request is yes. Wide World Maps & MORE! carries road maps alongside wall maps, globes, and geography-themed decor, the kind of place where you walk in for one thing and leave planning a trip you hadn't considered. Old maps, new maps, maps of everywhere. GPS gets you there faster, but it never made anyone dream.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Find Your Way · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Neighborhood Coffee Shop: West Valley · Best of the Valley

Roses in vases, white wicker chairs, and a playlist parked somewhere between Britney and Beyoncé set the tone at this wine bar in Scottsdale's Old Town. The menu runs through tasting flights, wine cocktails, and frosés, with flatbreads and avocado toast for ballast. The New York Times once named Scottsdale the second-most-popular bachelorette destination in the country, and Wine Girl is doing its part to keep that ranking intact.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bar for Bachelorette Parties · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Neighborhood Coffee Shop: Scottsdale · Best of the Valley

1. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Neighborhood Coffee Shop: Scottsdale · Best of the Valley

1. Phoenix Magazine Sincronizadas · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Brisket Birria Tacos · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Falafel · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Ika Mentai · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Honey Bee Pizza · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Ropa Vieja · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Salt & Pepper Pork Chop · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Italian Beef · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Brussels Sprouts Nachos · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

Music-themed rooms with Bluetooth speakers and smart TVs set the tone at this renovated mid-century motor hotel on Grand Avenue, brought back to life as part of Best Western's BW Signature Collection. A shallow lounging pool, foosball, an outdoor bar, and a rotating lineup of DJs, live bands, and karaoke keep things lively well past check-in. Chilte handles dining on-site, and downtown Phoenix is close enough to walk the energy off.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Trendy Staycation Spot · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix Magazine Porchetta Panini · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Golden Hour Cauliflower · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Meringata · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Tallarín Verde de Pollo · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Filet Mignon Tortelloni · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Lamb Barbacoa · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Phoenix Magazine Octopus · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

A small marketplace tucked inside a nondescript office building, Afri-Soul carries clothing, jewelry, accessories, beauty products, and handmade art sourced from across the African continent. The inventory turns up things you won't find in a conventional gift shop, paper bead bracelets, handwoven baskets, hand-painted belts, and bright cotton pieces that follow you home in your memory before they follow you home in a bag.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best African Shop · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Creative Compound · Best of Phoenix

Yoga here is more of a pretext than a practice: the real draw is a herd of baby goats wandering across your mat while you attempt downward dog. Arizona Goat Yoga runs low-impact classes on a farm outside Gilbert, many with themes like '80s or Halloween where guests and animals dress accordingly. Alpacas occasionally join in, and some sessions add cow cuddling for good measure. The staff keep the animals calm, which is more than can be said for the humans.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Greet Some Goats · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Free Art Museum · Best of Phoenix

The large metal tubs with fold-down side flaps are the key detail here: getting a reluctant dog into a bath is half the battle, and someone thought it through. Bark If You're Dirty is a self-serve dog wash and pet shop where you pick your level of clean, from a quick rinse to a full conditioned shampoo, then follow a staff member to the back and handle the scrubbing yourself. Brushes, flexible shower heads, towels, and brave-dog hair dryers are all supplied.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Dog Wash · Best of Phoenix

Bellair Golf Park is a driving range that stays open until 10 p.m., which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. TopTracer technology tracks every shot for those who like data, while everyone else just enjoys hitting things outside of the summer heat. It lands somewhere between serious practice facility and a genuinely good time, without the bill that comes with the fancier simulators around town. The west side's answer to a night out that doesn't require a dress code.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Trace Your Balls · Best of Phoenix

Row after row of paint, paper, clay, brushes, and mediums you'd need a degree to name fill this sprawling art supply store near ASU's campus. It draws everyone from grad students panic-buying portfolio supplies to hobbyists who wander in for one sketchbook and leave with a cart. If something isn't on the shelf, the website usually has it. Either way, you'll leave with more than you came for and a vague sense that your creative era is finally beginning.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Art Supplies · Best of Phoenix

Blue Dragon Vapor is a vape shop chain with several Valley locations, and the main thing separating it from the average smoke shop is that you don't feel vaguely ashamed walking in. The spaces are bright, clean, and well-stocked, with glass cases of hardware, a solid wall of e-juice, and staff who actually know what they're selling. Phoenix New Times named it Best Vape Shop in 2023.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vape Shop · Best of Phoenix

A single painted "BOOKS" on the building exterior is the only advertisement this Sunnyslope used bookstore needs. Inside, towering shelves hold something north of 200,000 titles spanning fiction, nonfiction, true crime, romance, sci-fi, and out-of-print finds that have no business being this affordable. The staff will track something down for you or simply leave you to get pleasantly lost for an afternoon. Either way, clear your schedule.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Used Bookstore · Best of Phoenix

Forty-four pool tables is a lot of commitment to a cue, and Bull Shooters makes good on all of it. This spacious north Phoenix pool hall and sports bar runs 7 and 9-foot tables alongside poker, darts, karaoke, and 34 taps pouring everything from beer to cider. Staff take the felt seriously, so keep your pint on a coaster or expect a word about it. The kind of place where regulars have a favorite table and know exactly which one it is.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Pool Hall · Best of Phoenix

A two-story sportsbook inside a Major League Baseball stadium, which makes it the first of its kind in the MLB, for whatever that's worth to your sense of adventure. The space runs to a loungy patio, more screens than any reasonable person can track at once, and Guy Fieri's casual food operation keeping the calories coming. It's open on non-game days too, which is when the vibe drops to a manageable hum.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Sportsbook · Best of Phoenix

A giant disco ball hangs over the record bins at this wine bar, coffee shop, and record store hybrid near Roosevelt Row, which tells you most of what you need to know. Come in the morning for espresso, stay through the afternoon with your laptop, then let someone else split a bottle with you by evening when the DJs take over. The barista and the bartender are the same person, which keeps the whole operation refreshingly unsnobbish.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Record Store That’s Also a Bar · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Library · Best of Phoenix

Eight thousand square feet of new and used toys, organized into small nooks each run by a local collector devoted to a single franchise, is a genuinely unusual retail setup. This sprawling marketplace in north Phoenix covers G.I. Joe, Marvel, Hot Wheels, Transformers, Star Wars, Funko Pop!, and a dedicated anime section in the back with Gundam kits and Banpresto figures. Plan to lose an hour, possibly two, possibly your self-control around a wall of Hot Wheels.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Toy Store · Best of Phoenix

The Japanese discount chain beloved on the West Coast landed its first Arizona outpost next to 99 Ranch Market, and Phoenix has been restocking its kitchens ever since. Nearly everything rings up under five dollars, which makes it easy to load a basket with bento supplies, Sanrio goods, craft materials, and seasonal decor without doing math in your head. The selection turns over constantly, so repeat visits feel like a different store.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Retail Import · Best of Phoenix

Most convenience stores have given up trying by midnight. El Paisano Market in Tempe stays open until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 4 on weekends, with a full Mexican restaurant inside running nearly the same hours. Hot Cheetos nachos and a rotating burrito of the month sit alongside chicken sandwiches and cheeseburgers, which covers the full spectrum of what people actually want at 2 a.m. There's also a respectable Faygo selection, if you know, you know.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Late-Night Convenience Store · Best of Phoenix

Horror-themed arcade tucked next to Tempe's Yucca Tap Room, Electric Bat runs about 60 pinball machines alongside a curated spread of Japanese rhythm games, all played on house-branded tokens. The pins skew toward beloved classics, the decor skews toward gothic, and a monthly goth night called Play Dead keeps the regulars coming back even when they've cleared every machine. There's a tiki bar inside, which feels like the logical conclusion of all this.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Arcade · Best of Phoenix

A 2020 sci-fi comedy used this retro video game store as a plot point, which tells you something about the depth of its inventory. Fallout Games stocks hardware and titles across decades of gaming history, from Vectrex consoles up through modern systems, with collectibles, vintage Nintendo Power issues, and every cable you've been hunting down in a bin since 2009. The kind of shop where you go in for one thing and resurface an hour later with five.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Video Game Store · Best of Phoenix

Chessmaster Sundays might be the best reason to show up on a weekend, but Grassrootz earns its place all week as a Black-owned bookstore and juice bar in Central Phoenix. The shelves run deep on hip-hop culture, Black history, and fiction, with comfortable chairs nearby for settling in. Children's storytimes, live music, and lectures keep the calendar full, making it less a shop than a neighborhood living room with good books and pineapple ginger lemonade.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bookstore That’s More Than a Bookstore · Best of Phoenix

Neon lights, a DJ booth, and rental skates that have seen things: Great Skate is a classic indoor roller rink doing what roller rinks do, and doing it on a packed schedule. Public sessions run most nights alongside kids' and adult lessons, themed skate events, and the occasional adults-only evening when the parents reclaim the floor. The food and drinks are rink-standard, which is exactly what the mood calls for.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Roller Skating · Best of Phoenix

Harkins put a Sonoran hot dog on the menu and called it the future of moviegoing, which is either visionary or just very Arizona. This dine-in theater at Lake Pleasant Towne Center pairs plush recliners and personal tabletops with a full food and drinks menu you order by pushing a button, like a La-Z-Boy crossed with a TGI Friday's, in the best possible, uh, fine: it works. Phoenix New Times named it the best luxury movie theater in 2023.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Luxury Movie Theater · Best of Phoenix

A giant netted cloud, frozen mid-drift above a downtown park, is not something you stumble past without stopping. Janet Echelman's sculpture hangs over Civic Space Park in steel and polyester twine, lit from within at night so it glows somewhere between storm formation and slow-motion tornado. Daytime shows you the bones of the thing; after dark it earns the gawking. Free to walk under, open to the sky, and significantly harder to explain than to visit.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Art by Night · Best of Phoenix

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor is a full-scale waterpark on the northwest edge of Phoenix, and the Anaconda is its calling card, a multi-person raft slide that corkscrews and spins before depositing everyone into a pool in a satisfying heap. Younger kids have their own splash zones to tear through. When summer in the Valley runs past 110 degrees, "waterpark" stops being a leisure category and starts being a survival strategy.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Waterpark · Best of Phoenix

Le Girls Cabaret sits on the Tempe-Phoenix border, pulling in a crowd from ASU, Sky Harbor, and the surrounding neighborhoods with equal democratic ease. It's a full-service strip club, heavy on neon and velvet, where the performers have a runway-model quality about them that the room seems well aware of. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top strip club in 2023, which tracks.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Strip Club · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Way to Learn About Desert Critters · Best of Phoenix

A small vintage shop on the Scottsdale-Tempe border stocked with psychedelic rompers, prairie dresses, and old Levi's that will make you quietly reconsider your entire wardrobe. Pieces are true vintage, some carefully restored, and the selection rotates enough that nothing feels like a costume bin. Prices are on the higher side for thrift but reasonable for the category, and the occasional fill-a-bag sale draws a line out the door.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vintage Clothing · Best of Phoenix

A movie theater that runs 35mm repertory screenings alongside cult oddities like "Reefer Madness" is already a different animal from the multiplex down the road. Majestic mixes first-run releases with arthouse picks, grindhouse fare, and anime imports, plus weekly horror nights and movie parties with singalongs and themed food pairings. There's a full bar, which makes the celluloid oddities go down easier.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Classic Movie · Best of Phoenix

Colored concrete runs through the contest-style street course here, and the mini ramp sits in-ground where the desert sun can bake it properly. This is a full-featured public skate park in Queen Creek, newer enough that the surfaces still feel fast and smooth. It's a haul from central Phoenix, but skaters making the drive find an 11,000-square-foot layout that doesn't feel like an afterthought bolted onto a rec center.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Skate Park · Best of Phoenix

Once a month in the Melrose District, vendors spread out midcentury color across an outdoor vintage market, fall through spring. Clothes, jewelry, vinyl, and house decor carry the neighborhood's funky retro energy, and a few snack booths keep you going through the browsing. Dogs are welcome, which matters more than you'd think when the find of the morning turns out to be nothing.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Outdoor Vintage Market · Best of Phoenix

The clack of a Remington or an Olivetti fills this old-school typewriter shop, which has been around forever and looks every year of it. The shelves run from clunky pre-war workhorses to sleek midcentury portables, and the staff will sell you one, rent you one, or fix the one gathering dust in your closet. Ideal for anyone who's decided that a glowing screen is the problem and a ribbon-inked page is the solution.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Typewriter Shop · Best of Phoenix

A rotating light tunnel will make you grab for a wall you don't need. The Museum of Illusions is an interactive attraction where slanted rooms make one person look like a giant beside another, and every exhibit comes with a plain-language explanation of why your brain got fooled. It sits inside the Arizona Boardwalk complex and runs well on a hot afternoon when you want air conditioning with a side of mild existential confusion.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Have Your Mind Boggled · Best of Phoenix

A neon sign shop that's been bending glass tubes for Phoenix since the early 80s, Naturalite Neon has lit up everything from Ferrari dealerships to dive bars without anyone knowing to credit them. That anonymity is sort of the point. Half the glowing signs you've admired on a slow summer drive through the city probably came from this warehouse in Avondale, doing quiet, luminous work in the background of Phoenix's whole visual identity.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Neon Signs · Best of Phoenix

A VR lounge in Mesa that leans hard into the basement-gaming aesthetic rather than the cold, sleek future that VR always threatens to become. You can race cars, hit the slopes, or survive a zombie cage, and an hour runs just over twenty-five dollars. The crowd spans hardcore gamers and curious first-timers, which is sort of the whole point. Phoenix New Times named it the best virtual reality lounge in the valley in 2023.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Virtual Reality Lounge · Best of Phoenix

A nonprofit arts center running classes in ceramics, drawing, glass, jewelry, painting, and music across two Phoenix locations, this is the kind of place that assumes you want to actually learn something. Instructors cover theory alongside technique, and most courses run five or six weeks, so the commitment is real but not daunting. A good antidote to wandering a craft store hoping for inspiration to strike.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Art Classes · Best of Phoenix