Scottsdale munchies, sorted

A dark little cocktail lounge tucked between the galleries on Main Street, with brick walls, gold accents and a hidden room behind a bookshelf. It feels like a speakeasy without the attitude. The kitchen keeps cooking late, which is rare on this side of Old Town.

Order the filet bites and the truffle fries for the table, then the Beverly Burger with gouda if you need something serious. The pretzel gets love too. It gets loud on weekends, so come on a weeknight if you want to hear your friends.

A cozy Italian spot at the corner of 5th Avenue and Goldwater that serves its full dinner menu deep into the night, every night. That's the trick here: real handmade pasta and pizza at an hour when everybody else is down to fries.

The menu runs from a funghi pizza to squid ink spaghetti loaded with calamari, shrimp and mussels. Booths are comfy and a little private. Steak is not the move, go pasta.

A local street taco chain with an Old Town shop that stays open until the wee hours, which makes it the last stop on a lot of Scottsdale nights. You pick your meat, cheese and toppings, and the tacos come small and fast.

It's counter service, it's cheap, and it's exactly what you want at closing time.

A burger joint on 2nd Street opened by former Oregano's execs who clearly understand comfort food. The menu has around 20 burgers, and they lean creative without getting dumb.

The Backyard BBQ Burger is the stoner pick: onion rings stacked right on the patty, Colby jack and a pineapple barbecue sauce that's sweet enough to count as dessert. Bring a friend so you can split two.

A no-frills burger counter tucked in among the shops off Scottsdale Road. Angus beef, caramelized onions, sliders, breakfast burgers and thick shakes. This is where you go when you want a double cheeseburger and a chocolate shake and zero conversation about it.

The heavy hitter is the burger topped with a fried egg and bacon. It does pickup and delivery, which matters when the couch has claimed you.

A build-your-own burger spot up in north Scottsdale, which is useful when you're up near the preserve or the golf courses and Old Town feels like a road trip.

The namesake Blu Burger is a Black Angus patty with gorgonzola, caramelized onions and applewood-smoked bacon. Funky cheese and sweet onions is a combo that makes sense at any altitude.

Family run since 1947, in a building whose original two rooms date to 1928 and have been a pool hall, a meeting spot and a church along the way. Look for the giant Mayan head on the front, now the restaurant's logo. Inside there's a margarita room with skylights and big fake tropical birds, and a patio whose roof slides open so you can eat under the stars.

Tortillas are handmade and the food is made from scratch daily. Start with a cheese crisp and the table salsa, then get the Mexican Flag enchiladas so you can have the red sauce and the green sauce at once.

The original Barrio Queen opened here in 2011, and it's still the most fun room on Stetson: Day of the Dead artwork inside, a heated patio outside, and a wall of more than 400 tequilas.

There are around 25 tacos to pick from, plus breakfast items all day. Get the tableside guacamole, which is the thing everybody raves about, and the cochinita pibil. Kitchen consistency can swing on a slammed weekend, so a weeknight is your friend.

Family-owned and focused on Central Mexican cooking, in a Spanish Colonial-style space down in south Scottsdale. This is the grown-up Mexican dinner on this list, the one you take your visiting parents to and still enjoy.

The mole poblano is silky and deep. The alambre ribeye tacos and the pork pozole are the regulars' orders, and the margarita list runs more than a dozen deep.

A wood-fired pizzeria crossed with a pub, on Main Street in the Arts District. The crust is thin but hearty, the mozzarella is made in house, and the beer list is all about Arizona craft. It shows up on national best-pizzeria lists, which you will understand after one slice.

Pair it with a gallery stroll on Main if you're early. Then sit down and order more pizza than your group needs.

The pink building on Scottsdale Road has been scooping since 1958 and barely changed the menu, the decor or the location since. It's family-owned, an official Founding Business of Scottsdale and on the city's historic preservation register. It's also, honestly, the most iconic munchie stop in town.

Sit in a booth and go big. The Pinnacle Peak sundae is the showpiece, the Camelback Soda is the house classic, and the malts are the real deal.

A Scottsdale date shop going on 75 years. It spent 33 years on Scottsdale Road before moving in fall 2024 to a midcentury plaza near Hayden and Osborn. The date shake is the order: ice cream and date milk, nothing fussy. It tastes like caramel that grew on a tree.

Pick up a box of dates for later too. They're the best edible souvenir you can bring home from the desert.

Artisan ice cream since 2008, with a rotating menu of flavors that sound weird and taste incredible. Salted butter caramel, sweet corn, brown butter pecan and honey lavender have all made the case.

The Toffee Banoffee sundae is the play when you're not messing around. Ask for samples. They're used to people who can't decide.

A newer ice cream shop pouring two dozen flavors made with natural ingredients where they can. The flavor board reads like a stoner wrote it: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, a Cookie Cup, and Whisky Irish Cream for the 21+ table.

The Old Town breakfast standby, right on Scottsdale Road. It's a bar and grill that does breakfast right: eggs Benedict, a top sirloin and crimini omelet, and a house-made turkey burger for the lunch crowd.

The Hangover breakfast sandwich is named for the exact situation you're in. Order it with a coffee and a big water and don't make any plans for at least an hour.

Chef Matt Carter's Latin kitchen on Brown Avenue in Old Town, a candlelit room with a glowing Himalayan salt block wall. It's a dinner spot most nights and a great brunch on weekends.

At brunch, go for the chorizo scramble made with local Schreiner's chorizo, plus the tableside guacamole, which is the most praised thing on the menu. At dinner, the butternut squash tacos and the pineapple habanero pork shoulder are the moves.

Chris Bianco started making pizza in the back corner of a Phoenix grocery store in 1988, and his pies became the ones people fly in for. The Town & Country location, near 20th Street and Camelback, is the easiest shot from Scottsdale. The original downtown room in Heritage Square is the pilgrimage.

It's a sit-down, take-your-time place. Go with a small group, order a few pies and pass them around.

A family-run Native American restaurant opened by Cecilia Miller, who won a James Beard award for it, and now run by her son Richard Perry. The menu centers on frybread, the puffy fried dough with a heavy history and an even heavier comfort factor.

Get the Native taco: frybread folded around refried beans, cheese, tomato and lettuce. You'll want a nap after, which is the point.