Bar 1912 Is Making Magic with Desert Ingredients
If you’ve ever been to Valentine on a busy day and parked in that neighborhood on the street, you’ll see a door on the side of the building as you walk up. It doesn’t look like much, but just like Valentine, it’s doing nearly everything right. The space is cool, the music is always a little unexpected, and the menu is one-of-a-kind. You’ll see things like pine-nut orgeat, Navajo tea, cholla bud, and creosote blossom—real Arizona flavors you don’t ever see on bar menus. Plus, the snack menu is pretty awesome… especially the Sonoran wheat pretzel.
Where: Melrose District
Website: 1912phx.com
Reservations: Nope
Tip: It gets busy, so maybe try to stop in before your next trip to Valentine.
Found On
Bar 1912 Has 6.5 Yumpoints
APR 11, 2024 / MCCONNELL QUINN AND NIKKI BUCHANAN
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This bar is an homage to all things Arizona — 1912, the year Arizona became a state. The Phoenix gem is nestled behind Melrose favorite Valentine. 1912 boasts a chic and moody ambiance, complete with a beautiful vinyl listening bar. The drink menu is inspired by Arizona’s original economy, featuring the five Cs: cotton, citrus, climate, cattle, and copper. Bartenders are well-versed in the cocktails’ origins and their historical significance.
FEB 1, 2024 / RENE ANDRADE
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1912 is a beautiful, chic bar inside a restaurant called Valentine—kind of like a speakeasy because you come through the back door, and there’s a neon sign in front that says ‘cocktails.’ They have record players playing different music, and these guys have some of the best drinks that I have seen. It’s an amazing thing they’ve got going on.
NOV 9, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN AND JAMIE KILLIN
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Tucked behind its sister venue Valentine, this stark-white, Mission Revival-designed enclave also pays homage to the 48th State, building cocktails around indigenous ingredients and Arizona’s economic drivers, the “5 Cs” (cotton, cattle, citrus, climate, and copper). Don’t miss the Cattle, a silky riff on the Manhattan, fat-washed with beef tallow. Blaise Faber gets credit for the suave cocktails; Valentine chef Donald Hawk provides sophisticated bar bites, and the staff spins their favorite vinyl selections.
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Whoever declares a desert devoid of life is simply not looking closely enough. It might just be the case beauty tucks itself away from the sun. Such is the case of Bar 1912, a cocktail lounge hidden behind Valentine, a restaurant itself crouching beside an antiques store in a former dry cleaner’s building. Such is the case with the Desert martini, part of the bar’s Arizona terroir menu. The Desert Martini draws from the state’s biome: a cactus paddle vermouth, a blend of foraged desert botanical gin (notes of coyotillo blossom and Buddha’s hand citrus), finished with olive and onion and resin-y creosote bitters. It’s herbaceous, aromatic and as refreshing as a rare rain on parched soil.
