Phoenix from the Convention Center

Updated last: February 23, 2021 (to reflect permanent closures and changes, not temporary measures due to COVID-19).

Originally published May 30, 2016.


Let’s say you’re in town for a thing at the Phoenix Convention Center. You have a spare hour here and there. Maybe a spare afternoon. And then you have a flight to catch. How can you get a little taste of Phoenix while you’re here?

Or maybe you’re a local, looking for somewhere new to eat or hang out while you’re downtown for an event like Phoenix Fan Fusion (formerly Phoenix  Comicon) or before you head to a symphony performance.

Phoenix convention center and symphony hall

Here are some tips for a Phoenix experience with the Convention Center at the epicenter. All these locations are easy to get to from there without a car.

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At the Convention Center

View: There are places to sit and experience the Arizona climate outside of all 3 of the Convention Center buildings (North, South, West). In the North Building, check out the view from the second- and third-floor (200 and 300 level) terraces on the south side of the building. Look for the mountains beyond the downtown. (Building maps)

Phenix convention center and food trucks

Food: While all the Phoenix Convention Center Food is managed by Aventura, a Phoenix-based division of Aramark, they do contract with local companies such as City Central Coffee in the Metro Marché food court in the North Building. Some events (like Phoenix Fan Fusion) may also have locally-owned food trucks outside.

 

Symphony during Phoenix Comicon

Music: The West Building of the Convention Center is actually connected to Phoenix Symphony Hall, where there is a variety of performances throughout the season. Check the Phoenix Symphony’s online schedule for concert and ticket information.

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Bike Share: There are bright green Grid Bikes you can rent by the minute from kiosks outside the Convention Center, in Heritage Square, and several other locations downtown. Sign up first online or via the Social Bicycles app – membership is required even for a single “Pay as You Go” ride.

Pizzeria Bianco

In the Neighborhood

There’s tons of stuff to see/do/eat within walking distance. Here are some recommendations, in order of their (rough) distance from Phoenix Convention Center.

Cartel

.2 mi Cartel Coffee (1 N 1st St)

Relax and sip some really good coffee. It’s very close to the Convention Center, but just far enough away to be much less hectic.

They share space with Kaleidoscope Juice, in case you also need a smoothie, salad, or breakfast sandwich.  Update: This Kaleidoscope location has closed. However, you can still find them in Scottsdale, Gilbert, and North Phoenix.

 

CityScape Phoenix

.3 Cityscape (1 E Washington St)

Two blocks of mixed-use space, including residences, offices, fitness centers, a hotel, salon, barbershop, drugstore, comedy club, shopping, and restaurants.

CityScape Phoenix

  • Patriots Park – Before the high rise buildings of CityScape, there was Patriots Park. The newer development includes a park-like central plaza with a grassy area, splash pad, and a solar-powered charging station.
  • Check the event schedule for music, comedy, and free outdoor movies.

CityScape Phoenix

  • The Arrogant Butcher offers a straight-up delicious variety of new American dishes, plus charcuterie and a raw bar.

AZ Center

.3 Arizona Center (455 North 3rd Street)

The best thing about Arizona Center is probably its Garden Grotto. Pathways wind through desert plants and past a pond. There’s a fair amount of shade and lots of benches. I feel like a little garden walk is a great remedy for convention hall chaos.

Arizona center
There is also shopping and restaurants.

Heritage Square Phoenix

.4 Heritage Square (113 N 6th St)

Part of the original Phoenix townsite, the Square is now home to several museums, a couple restaurants, and cultural festivals throughout the year.

Pizzeria Bianco outside

Diamondbacks baseball field

.5 Sports Venues

 

Light rail Phoenix

Just stops away…

The Valley Metro light rail is a convenient way to get around Central Phoenix (some tips). There’s just one line and automatic ticket kiosks at each station.

You can catch westbound trains off Washington in front of the West Building / Symphony Hall. The eastbound stop is on Jefferson, just across from the South Building.

travelexpo-dtphx

Hop on the westbound train (it’ll curve north) to check out these places, listed by number of stops from the Convention Center.

Her secret is patience sculpture

2 stops: Civic Space Park area – Van Buren/Central Ave

Lola Coffee

3 stops: Roosevelt Row – Roosevelt/Central Ave

  • First Fridays – Roosevelt Row, the arts district of Roosevelt Street, comes alive for the monthly First Friday night artwalk, when the street is taken over by pedestrians and art galleries are open late. Boutiques and cafes have extended hours. There is live music, an outdoor arts market, free trolleys to transport you from place to place, and a party atmosphere.
  • Third Fridays are a newer addition with fewer crowds and more gallery openings.
  • MADE Art Boutique offers locally handcrafted items.

Desoto market

  • DeSoto Central Market – Food court of great local restaurants, bar, and coffee shop with lots of room to meet up with friends.
  • Pita Jungle is a vegetarian-friendly, Mediterranean-inspired restaurant with a nice, big patio and local art on the walls. They offer specials for happy hour and reverse happy hour (9pm to close).

Lola Coffee

  • Lola Coffee Bar is right next door to Pita Jungle. It’s a warm, welcoming place to hang out.
  • FilmBar – Cinema showcasing indie, local, cult, and classic films with a beer and wine bar.

Phoenix Art Museum

4 stops: Phoenix Art Museum – McDowell/Central Ave

Collections include American, Asian, European, Latin American, and Western American Art, fashion, photography, and contemporary installations, such as the interactive You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies.

phoenix-art-13

The museum also hosts traveling exhibitions, like Hollywood Costume, Michelangelo, and Super Indian – Fritz Scholder’s bold, bright pop art.

Michelangelo

  • Extended hours/voluntary donations times on Wednesdays (3-9pm) and First Fridays (6-10pm), plus all afternoon on Second Sundays (12-5pm). During these times, no admission ticket is required for general entry. You have the option of making a donation via a cash box in the lobby.

heard-museum

5 stops: Heard Museum – Encanto/Central Ave

Fantastic museum of the historic and contemporary culture of indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially the Southwest. Collections include work on canvas, jewelry, pottery, texiles, and video interviews.

Downtown Phoenix sunset

Martha’s Vineyard Local Ingredients

Martha's vineyard

I mostly know Martha’s Vineyard through podcasts. Of course, I’ve heard it mentioned on the news as a place where presidents and hoity-toity people go to vacation.

But the year-round residents are a close-knit community – one that, I learned from This American Life’s annual poultry slam episode, is sometimes plagued by roving bands of wild turkeys.

Martha's vineyard

The most recent podcast to bring Martha’s Vineyard to my attention was The Moth. One of the storytellers is a farmer and chef-owner of a restaurant on the island with food sourced from the area and his neighbors. The menu changes daily and may include ingredients like the mussels his friend grows just off the nearby shore or shiitake mushrooms from a family farm down the street.

Martha's vineyard

The restaurant is called Beach Plum, and they also have an inn and rental cottages. It sounds like a really lovely place to be.

Photos by Gabriela Herman via Beach Plum Inn.

Microblog Mondays: Write in your own space

Yuma Favorites: Part 2

Yuma

It’s only a 3-hour drive from Phoenix to Yuma, but we still got a little punchy.

Yuma

After one of the signs saying how many miles we had left, I told Phillip, “Yuma sweetie.”

At some point, we ended up singing “Yuma be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for…”

I think we each found our lunatic.

Candlewood Suites Yuma

Finally, we got in to our room at the Candlewood Suites Yuma. Even though we were a couple of tired lunatics, we couldn’t resist rifling through the kitchen to see what was in there. They had us supplied with pots and pans for the stove, popcorn for the microwave, and then Phillip made a discovery…

“Ooh! A toaster! I really want something to toast now.”

Yuma Candlewood hotel

Even on trips like this when I plan to pick up food at local markets, I still end up traveling with a pretty serious stash of snacks. But I didn’t have anything particularly toasterable. (Chia-pomegranate Clif bars seemed like a bad idea.)

So while I explored Yuma the next day, I would also be on a quest for local produce – and something for Phillip to toast.

Yuma Garden Company produce

Hay Yu(ma)!

A world record holder for sunny days and the Winter Lettuce Capital of the World, Yuma also happens to be located at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers.

Yuma river

Because of the climate and access to water, agriculture has been important in the area for centuries. Long before Arizona was a U.S. territory, tribes along the Colorado River used the flooding cycle for farming.

Yuma Lettuce

Like Phoenix, Yuma has a growing season that’s kind of the reverse of most of the U.S., running from fall to spring. The hot summers mean agricultural workers pack up and move operations to Salinas, California (the summer lettuce capital) – also Yuma Jazz Company’s concerts move indoors, snowbirds fly home, businesses catering to visitors shut down or scale back sometime in the spring.
Yuma Garden Company

Yuma Garden Company

The Yuma Garden Company is full of dried herbs and teas in apothecary jars. Outside is a plant-filled patio with vegetables and citrus from the owners’ farm and tables for sitting and sipping tea. In April, there were also heaping baskets of tomatoes and peppers everywhere.

Yuma garden co

Their rustic boho space felt warm and established, even though they’d only been open 3 weeks when I visited.

I picked up grapefruit and a bunch of purple carrots.

Yuma
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Martha’s Gardens Date Farm

Just east of town is Martha’s Gardens, a date farm with a store/cafe and better date shakes than we had in Dateland itself. They informed me they could even add espresso shots. Sold. It was like a delicious, datey affogato.
Yuma

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They offer farm tours, but there’s a fee, a minimum of 10 people, and the schedule IRL may not match what’s online. We thought we were there past tour season, but, apparently, that’s not the case. And the sign-up book had spaces through at least June. (I peeked.) So…I guess…call ahead and keep your fingers crossed.

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Field to Feast Farm Tours

The Visitors Bureau offers seasonal, hands-on agricultural experiences where you learn to harvest your own vegetables, tour a farm, and then enjoy a fresh-from-the-field lunch.
Yuma

North End Eats

Speaking of lunch, here are a few options for food around the downtown area.
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Lutes Casino

At one point in the Lutes Casino building’s 115-year history, it was an actual casino owned by R.H. Lutes. Currently, it’s an amiably-divey hamburger joint that claims to be “where the elite meet.” They serve salsa in syrup pitchers and have some weird food mashups. Want a hot dog on a cheeseburger? Or wrapped in a tortilla and fried?

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My reply is no, but both are on the menu.

Lutes taco dog Yuma

The special of the day was an Angus burger so good it made me think this might be where the elite meet after all.

They probably just don’t order the taco dog.

Yuma

Das Bratwurst Haus

Das Bratwurst Haus is a German restaurant, apparently catering to the winter visitors. True to his German roots, Der Husband had to go check it out. And then required apfelkuchen, which is like a lovely hybrid between apple pie and cake.

Yuma

North end coffeehouse yuma

North End Coffeehouse

Situated in half of the historic Gandolfo theater, North End Coffeehouse has their own roasting company, in-house baker, and is a welcoming spot to spend time.

Yuma

Not only did they have some good, well-crafted coffee to remedy the weak brew from the hotel that morning, they had one bagel left.

I got it to-go, so Phillip could test out the toaster.

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Breakfast

Our second morning in Yuma started with an herb bagel from North End Coffeehouse and sweet grapefruit from Yuma Garden Company. I also remembered reading a tip somewhere about doubling up on hotel coffee packets, so that helped to rectify the weak coffee situation.
Coffee

Once we were fueled up and checked out, I wanted to show Phillip some of the historical sites I’d scoped out the day before.
Breakfast

Yuma-st Remember This

The Quechan Reservation

The Fort Yuma/Quechan Reservation straddles the Colorado River, extending into both California and Arizona – probably because the Quechan tribe was there before these state boundaries, before the need to transliterate their name as Quechan or Kwatsan or Kwtsaan, before the Spanish referred to them as the Yuma.

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To learn about Quechan history and culture, check out the interpretive trails in Sunrise Point Park and the cultural center inside Quechan Casino.

I’d seen a sign for crafts (yes, please!) the day before, so Phillip and I went in search of the museum gift shop whose museum had to close due to structural damage.

We never did find it and, honestly, that was partly due to getting in an argument over directions. Real life isn’t all late-night Billy Joel and apfelkuchen.

Yuma Quechan Reservation

I now have a better idea how to find the museum gift shop:

  1. Go when it’s actually open (weekdays 8am-5pm).
  2. Follow the signs north of Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge.
  3. Don’t get in a fight with your significant other.
  4. Look for a modular building next to the museum.

The Quechan Senior Center Gift Shop (472 Quechan Drive, Winterhaven) also has handcrafted items.

Yuma

Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge

When automobiles were still a new thing and Colorado River steamboats a recent memory, a highway across the U.S. was a pretty big deal. The single lane steel bridge over the Yuma Crossing made a crucial connection, which earned it the impressive name “Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge.”

Also, bends in the river/the state line mean that you can go north over the bridge and end up in California without even realizing it.

yuma city hall

A few other notes on historical sites in the area…

  • The St. Thomas Mission on Indian Hill has Saturday and Sunday Masses, or you can call (760) 572-0283 to arrange a visit at another time.

Yuma

Yuma train

Yuma county courthouse

  • The Art Deco-ness of the Masonic Lodge catty-corner from the Courthouse caught my eye.

Art Deco Masonic lodge yuma
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See Yuma Later

We took a different route home through the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Its visitor center is really close to Martha’s Garden but not open on Saturdays. The Refuge itself, however, is always open. There are no gates and only one designated trail (in Palm Canyon, which we visited a few years ago).

Yuma Kofa

We didn’t have time to hike this time, but we are already thinking about when we can return to the area. Maybe we’ll go back during next year’s ArtBeat or once Candlewood Suites finishes the renovations they have scheduled for this year. (We’ll also have to get in town early enough for the evening reception – apparently, they do a whole dinner on Mondays and Thursdays. I need to investigate.)

Yuma Kofa

For this trip, we did stop along the road in Kofa long enough to listen to the quiet, look for desert blooms, and watch the evening light transform the Refuge’s jagged mountain ranges.

Yuma Kofa

Big thank yous to…

  • IHG/Candlewood Suites Yuma for hosting our stay, especially to General Manager Gel Lemmon and Director of Marketing John Lizarraga, who are both fabulous people who took time to fill me in on the area.
  • Ann Walker of the Yuma Visitors Bureau for providing a ton of great resources.
  • Brian Golding, Sr., EDA Director of the Quechan Indian Tribe for providing information on Quechan cultural sights.

Edited: A reference to “Candlewood” was changed to “Candlewood Suites” for clarity and per the request of IHG Corporate Communications.

Up or Down?

arrow up dc

“Will you be up here over the holidays?”
“No, I probably won’t be down for awhile.”

My cousin and I used to have conversations like this when she lived in Tucson. I say “up” when someone is going north, as if we’re all on a giant wall map. Other people say “up” when they’re headed to higher elevation.

arrow down plane

Tucson is south of Phoenix, but it’s at a higher elevation. If you were headed to Phoenix from Tucson, would you say you’re going up to Phoenix or down to Phoenix?

tucson-i10

I don’t think one is more correct than the other, but the language geek in me is curious what everyone else says.

Microblog Mondays: Write in your own space

Happenings List: May 2016

This is our monthly curated roundup of maker/artist/explorer events!

Angle brackets (>>) point to related info on our site.

Yuma Jazz

+Arizona

>>Check out our post on free movie events around the state!

Latino Cultural Festival

May 14, 10AM-8PM at Altadena Main Library, Phoenix.
Book readings and signings, art market, live music, Latin American food and beverages.

Elstree 1976 presented by Phoenix Comicon

May 19, 7:30pm at FilmBar, Phoenix.
Documentary about the bit-part actors and extras who were in scenes filmed in suburban London in 1976.

Yuma Jazz Company: Lutes Summer Jazz Series

Starting May 27, 7pm at Lutes Casino, Yuma.

>>We saw YJC perform when we were in Yuma.

Sewing Classes with Oxford Dogma

phxcc-crowd

Phoenix Comicon

Jun 2 – 5 at Phoenix Convention Center.
Convention for fans of pop culture.

>>Check out our guide for newbies!

CraftHack

June 13, 6pm at Gangplank Chandler.
Meet other artists and crafters and learn something new or bring your own project to work on!

Hilton Indoor Fine Art Festival

Jul 16, 10a-6p at Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort.
Juried fine arts festival with artisan displays from around the region and live strolling acoustic violin, jazz and bluegrass performances.

swca-anaheim-walk

+California

Maker Costume Expo

May 21-22 at the Anaheim Convention Center

>>Where to eat in and around the Convention Center.

#BlogHer16: Experts Among Us

Aug 4 – 6 at JW Marriott LA Live, Los Angeles.
BlogHer annual conference.

sculpture by Ken Newman

+Colorado

V for Vegetables art exhibit

Now – May 15 at Denver Botanic Gardens, York Street, Gates Garden Court Gallery.
Explore the historical and contemporary graphic traditions surrounding the victory gardening movement and celebrate the virtue of growing food in your own backyard.
>>Denver Botanic Gardens.

Animalia exhibition

June 10 – August 21 at Loveland Museum/Gallery, Loveland.
Art with animals as the subject, which explores their complex relationship with humans.

  • Strings in the Gallery: June 10, 6 – 8 pm. Performance by the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra.
  • Thought to Finish: Natural Artist Demo: July 8, 5:30 pm
    Natural artist Laney will produce a wildlife painting in front of viewers from beginning to end.
  • “The Rat Race” sculpture (and photo) above by Ken Newman will be included in the exhibit.

+New York

NYCxDESIGN: Brooklyn

May 7 – 17 at Industry City, Brooklyn.

  • May 15, 5pm: Visual Magnetics X The Sill – Exhibition by Instagrammer @PlantsOnPink and materials innovation company Visual Magnetics. RSVP mandatory

+Oregon

Mexican Folk Embroidery, 4-Week Course

Starting May 25 at WildCraft West Portland Studio.

 Monticello

+Virginia

Devils Backbone Oyster Roast

May 14, 12pm at Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows, Roseland.
Fresh oysters from Rappahannock Oyster Co., special beer and live music at Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows.

Events at Monticello

INTERNATIONAL

+Mexico

Festival de la paella

May 28-29 at Finca Sala Vivé, Ezequiel Montes.

Rosarito Art Fest

May 28-29 at Hotel Festival Plaza, Rosarito.
Family-friendly festival featuring fine art, live music, crafts and food. Free admission.

501st-stormtroopers

+UK

Star Wars Celebration

July 15 – 17 at London Excel Centre, London.
Star Wars fan convention.
>>Things we saw at last year’s Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim.

WORDfest on Beckenham Green

July 16, 12pm at Beckenham Green, Bromley.
Free community festival of all things book-related – crafts, workshops, bands, groups, poets!