The FilmBar marquee still hangs over 815 N. Second St., and the flagstone out front is still the same. Behind it is a room most former FilmBar regulars wouldn't recognize, Phoenix New Times reported. The interior was gutted and rebuilt around a dance floor, a stage and a bar. Across the street, the old Angel's Trumpet Ale House now has vintage neon beer signs and two pool tables under a new name.
Both of those addresses on the stretch of Second Street between McKinley and Roosevelt reopened within ten weeks of each other this summer. In those same months, First Friday stopped being a street closure on Roosevelt Street a block away. Those two changes are tied together. The art walk's monthly energy now depends on private property and the businesses that occupy it. And the Second Street block has become one of the few spots in Roosevelt Row with something open from breakfast to last call, seven days a week.
How the block got here
The two buildings went dark at different times, years apart:
- 2022. FilmBar closed after more than a decade at 815 N. Second St.
- October 2025. Angel's Trumpet Ale House closed after 13 years downtown.
- April 2026. First Friday's Roosevelt Street closure and the vendor market inside it were suspended.
- June 17, 2026. Pinky's opened at 810 N. Second St.
- Aug. 23, 2026. Roosevelt opened to the public at 815 N. Second St.
- Oct. 2, 2026. A city pilot program for arts vending on private property began with that night's First Friday.
For most of the past year, the empty storefronts and the paused street closure meant this corner of Roosevelt Row had less going on. The fall calendar runs on a different setup.
Pinky's covers the daytime
Pinky's comes from industry veterans Robert Cissell and Ariel Bracamonte and developer Chuckie Duff. New Times' opening coverage said the idea came from how few places downtown serve a meal for under $20. When it opened, most of the menu was $13 or less: brined and grilled wings, a Cowboy Melt on sourdough, and an AZ Dog with jalapeños, green chiles and pico de gallo. The one splurge was an eight-ounce ribeye for $30. The opening bar list had $5 beers and shots, plus a frozen prickly pear margarita called the Sonoran Slush.
Breakfast is what sets it apart from the other bars on the block. The opening menu served breakfast burritos and a waffle melt on churro waffles all day, with 99-cent drip coffee. The menus on Pinky's site were updated Aug. 18, so prices may have changed since June.
The hours have changed too. At launch, the owners said Pinky's would open at 6 a.m. every day of the year. Pinky's website now lists 9 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Anyone who remembers the 6 a.m. opening will find the doors still locked at that hour.
Roosevelt picks up at 4 p.m.
Roosevelt opens about when Pinky's is halfway through its day. Its owners are Thomas Turner and Steve Kushnir of Relentless Beats, Ocotillo chef and owner Walter Sterling, and nightclub lighting designer Stephen Lieberman. Longtime Arizona house DJ Michael Hooker is also in the ownership group. New Times reported that they spent two years turning the 4,000-square-foot space into a room built for listening. Turner told the paper Roosevelt has the only Funktion-One sound system in an Arizona nightclub. He also said the room won't run "full bore as a club" every night.
The plan Turner and Hooker described to New Times in August was house-music club nights on weekends. Weeknights would be quieter, with funk, soul, jazz and disco, plus full-album vinyl sessions run with Konstadinos "DJ Cocoe" Tsimahidis of Grand Avenue Records. Turner put it this way:
"So it's really a restaurant, a bar with food and a fun place for the neighborhood. And we're going to let the neighborhood kind of decide what it is."
The movie screenings have started. FilmBar's history is part of the deal. Turner told New Times the landlord wanted film included in whatever came next. Roosevelt's events calendar lists cult-film nights with the Phoenix pop-up series Cinehaze. Cinehaze's listing gives a 6 p.m. preshow and a 7:30 p.m. start, with Roosevelt food and drink specials.
The patio matters too. Glowing lightboxes along the side of the building look like movie poster cases, and Hooker said they will show a rotating lineup of local artists' work. That puts art on private property, outdoors and in view of the sidewalk, which is the kind of setup Roosevelt Row's First Friday now depends on.
The block, hour by hour
When you combine the two schedules, the stretch of Second Street between McKinley and Roosevelt has something open from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays:
- Pinky's, 810 N. Second St.: 9 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
- Roosevelt, 815 N. Second St.: closed Monday; 4 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday; 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
- Lucky's Indoor/Outdoor, 817 N. Second St.: next door to Roosevelt, with a patio built around a 1970s trailer bar.
- Palma, Ghost Donkey and Châm Pang Lanes, 903 N. Second St.: grouped at one address up the block, all listed by Downtown Phoenix Inc.
Mondays are the one gap, when Roosevelt is closed and Pinky's is the only one of the two new places open. Pinky's also had plans for a converted food trailer as an outdoor bar on its patio. No source so far confirms it has been finished.
Roosevelt's owners have bigger plans as well. Turner told New Times the team wants to turn the parking lot next door into an outdoor area, possibly by spring 2028.
First Friday now happens on private property
This is the change that ties the block together. On Sept. 9, Phoenix City Council approved a pilot program that makes it simpler for property owners and small businesses in the Roosevelt/Evans Churchill area to host outdoor, arts-focused vending on their own property. It began with the Oct. 2 First Friday, according to the announcement from Artlink, Downtown Phoenix Inc. and Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation. The city posted the program details on its Downtown Arts Vending on Private Property pilot page.
The three groups said the pilot came out of nearly two years of work on First Fridays along Roosevelt Street. That work included April's decision to stop closing the street and to end the vendor market that operated inside the closure. In practice, artists who used to set up in the middle of Roosevelt Street on First Friday now set up on lots, patios and business frontages, with the property owner's permission.
Cindy Dach, a Roosevelt Row CDC board member and small business owner, said in the same announcement that the program was launched "after listening closely to our neighbors, artists and City partners." Downtown Phoenix Inc. President and CEO Devney Majerle said it gives "artists, property owners and small businesses new tools to succeed and thrive."
First Friday still covers more than Roosevelt Row. The release lists Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona Center, Herberger Theater Center and Historic Grand Avenue as other places that take part across downtown. Within Roosevelt Row, though, the art walk now depends on property owners deciding to open up their space. A block where the storefronts are leased, staffed and open late has more of those spaces to offer than a block with two dark buildings, which is what Second Street was at this time last year.
One note if you look up the art walk online: Roosevelt Row's homepage still describes the A.R.T.S. Market as a monthly event on Roosevelt Street. The September announcement replaced that format.
Dates on the block this fall
- Monday, Oct. 13: Cinehaze screens Shaun of the Dead at Roosevelt. Preshow at 6 p.m., movie at 7:30.
- Monday, Oct. 27: Cinehaze screens The Lost Boys at Roosevelt on the same schedule.
- Friday, Nov. 6: The next Downtown Phoenix First Friday, and the second one under the private-property pilot.
Both screenings fall on Mondays, the day Roosevelt's regular hours list it as closed. Check the event listing for arrival times rather than the weekly schedule.
I've watched downtown blocks go dark and come back more than once, and the comeback usually starts with a few storefronts that keep regular hours. If you own property in Roosevelt/Evans Churchill and want to talk through what this fall's changes mean for your building or your plans, Laura Lee Cahal is glad to help. Let's Connect.
