Quartz Is the Angular, Glam Bar Your Taste Buds Desire
Quartz is very, uh, angular—especially the Cave, which is their bar-within-a-bar concept you should absolutely check out. It’s not rigid though, or especially gaudy, even though the menu will lead you to believe you’re going to a nightclub in Dubai. It’s more like a really good neighborhood bar with a lot of polish and a heavy glam aesthetic. Like, sure, you can get a Sea of Aquamarine cocktail and you’ll probably want to post it on Instagram, but you can pair it with a New York hot dog, which you’ll probably also want to post on Instagram, but will regret in the morning. I have to mention the Cave one more time though—you’ll need a reservation, but the drinks in there really are something.
Website: quartzphx.com
Reservations: SevenRooms (for the Cave)
Tip: If you’re doing life right, you’ll pre-game at Quartz before your concert at the Van Buren, which is only a few steps away.
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Quartz Has 7.5 Yumpoints
APR 26, 2024
Foodists Awards: 2024 Finalists
MOST CREATIVE HANDCRAFT COCKTAIL PROGRAM
OUTSTANDING BAR/NIGHTLIFE EXPERIENCE
APR 11, 2024 / MCCONNELL QUINN AND NIKKI BUCHANAN
Eater: 14 Vital Phoenix Bars to Visit
Co-created by hospitality groups known for their major contributions to the valley’s culinary scene, Quartz is a gem-themed cocktail lounge located in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Despite its modern and sophisticated ambiance, the bar is designed to resemble a massive rock wall. Its menu, ever-evolving and dynamic, showcases expertly made cocktails boasting eccentric flavors, such as the “anahata emerald,” reminiscent of a midori sour, and the “rohang ruby,” a spicy mezcal margarita.
MARCH 27, 2024
Phoenix Magazine: Where to Eat, Drink & Play During the Final Four: Downtown Phoenix
A cocktail bar with a menu inspired by gemstones? Forget Sedona, we’re seeking healing energy here. Sip your birthstone drink in the main bar and then book a reservation in The Cave, Quartz’s inner sanctum, where mixologist Maxwell Berlin and beverage director Paul Waxman have crafted incredibly complex cocktails – and an otherworldly aesthetic experience – inspired by Earth’s great deserts.
DEC 28, 2023 / FELICIA CAMPBELL AND BAHAR ANOOSHAHR
AZ Central: The 10 best new restaurants and bars that opened in metro Phoenix in 2023
We really didn't want to like Quartz Bar. The concept was so over-the-top with the combination of drinks inspired by birth stones, Star Wars references and a separate back bar where drinks were concocted as odes to the deserts of the world. (What does any of that even mean?) But we had to find out for ourselves. The Cave, a reservation only area that serves more experimental drinks (one server described them as "challenging"), is where the wow-factor is. The front bar doesn't look like much, but when you step into the back, it feels like a mirrored ode to the 1970s disco era, but with millennial sensibility in the muted pinks and cozy arched alcoves. The drinks are downright bizarre, featuring ingredients like fizzy olive, hay, camel hump fat, mint water and Berbere chili-spiced tequila. Some drinks were strange and delightful, some were just strange, but not a single one was boring. What sold us on the place was the fact that the bartenders are not cocktail snobs, but cocktail nerds, their earnest passion for the envelope they're pushing makes it rabbit hole you'll want to fall down with them.
DEC 24, 2023
Liquor.com: Liquor.com's ‘Best of 2023’ Honorable Mentions
New Bars
NOV 9, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN AND JAMIE KILLIN
Eater: 15 Fabulous Cocktail Bars to Try in Phoenix
As its name suggests, this geode-decorated bar, presided over by creative barkeep Maxwell Berlin, offers 12 gorgeous jewel-toned cocktails inspired by the birthstones of the calendar year and filled with interesting ingredients (aquafaba, lambanog, and ginger jaggery, for example). Under the same roof and directly behind Quartz sits The Cave, where customers can have an immersive 90-minute experience set in a mirrored, shimmering space that feels like a world apart. The cocktail menu, predicated upon the landscapes, people, customs, and animals of the world’s great deserts, is even more geeky and fancy. Brief descriptors such as “bubbly and creamy” or “crisp and clean” help customers decide what they might like — although the answer is probably “everything.”
NOV 1, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN, MARILYN HAWKES, CRAIG OUTHIER
Phoenix Magazine: 2023 Best New Restaurants
At this luminous bar-within-a-bar on Van Buren Street, themed around the world’s great deserts, mixology wild man Maxwell Berlin creates what may be the city’s most exotic cocktails, incorporating rare ingredients such as gesho leaf and pink peach huesillos in startlingly delicious ways.
