We Accidentally Found Our Future Retirement Home - Starfire Restaurant and Rooftop Brewery
A trip to Starfire Restaurant and Rooftop Brewery turned into one of our most unexpected brewery adventures yet, complete with a guard shack, golf cart ride, underground parking garage, rooftop views, great food, and surprisingly impressive beer. We also squeezed in a quick stop at The Shop Beer Co., debated the importance of homemade ranch, and once again proved that no brewery visit is complete without Dedra buying another hat.
Adam & Dedra
7/24/20267 min read
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Starfire Rooftop Brewery: Golf Carts, Retirement Living, and Surprisingly Great Beer
Some breweries are easy to find.
You pull into a parking lot, walk through the front door, order a beer, and begin making questionable decisions involving double IPAs and appetizers.
Starfire Restaurant and Rooftop Brewery is not one of those places.
Getting to Starfire involved a gated entrance, a suspicious-looking guard shack, a golf cart ride, an underground parking garage, an elevator, and several moments where we wondered whether we were visiting a brewery or accidentally checking ourselves into retirement living.
Honestly, by the time we arrived, we were ready to move in.
Starting the Show With Hoptimus Haze
Before getting into our Starfire adventure, we opened the episode with Hoptimus Haze from Chapman Crafted Beer in Orange, California.
The beer came in at 8% ABV and featured Mosaic, CTZ, and Chinook hops. Despite being a double hazy IPA, it was surprisingly clean and not overly thick or aggressively dank.
That was important because Dedra has recently discovered that some hazy IPAs have what she describes as a “Windex aftertaste.”
We are not entirely sure what causes this.
We are also not entirely sure how much Windex Dedra has tasted for comparison purposes.
Thankfully, Hoptimus Haze avoided the household-cleaner flavor profile. Instead, it delivered some bitterness, piney notes, and a little bit of that Christmas-tree character that can come from Chinook hops.
It also caused Adam to accidentally spit on Dedra while describing the beer.
Apparently, it was a juicy hazy.
The Journey Into Starfire
Starfire is located inside a retirement community in Tempe.
That alone made the arrival slightly different from the average brewery visit.
We pulled up to a gated entrance where the woman working the guard shack gave us the unmistakable look of someone wondering why three people carrying brewery energy had arrived at a retirement community.
Dedra nervously said, “Starfire?”
The guard immediately understood, gave us directions, and explained that someone would pick us up.
We assumed she meant a shuttle.
Instead, a very nice gentleman arrived in a golf cart.
At this point, the brewery visit officially became an attraction.
He drove us around the property, passed the guard shack again, took us into an underground parking garage, and dropped us off in front of an elevator.
Nothing says “casual brewery visit” like being escorted through an underground garage and instructed to take an elevator to an unknown floor.
Fortunately, the elevator button was clearly labeled Starfire.
That felt reassuring.
Mostly.
Welcome to the Retirement Brewery of Our Dreams
When the elevator doors opened, we found ourselves inside a large dining area with floor-to-ceiling windows and incredible views across the property.
The sun was beginning to set over Phoenix, giving the entire room a beautiful glow.
The kitchen was completely open, allowing guests to watch the chefs prepare everything. It felt a little like Chipotle, except you were seated at a table and were not allowed to stand at the counter repeatedly asking whether your burrito was ready.
The dining room was filled with residents having dinner, many wearing name tags.
We assumed the name tags helped the staff identify residents and charge meals to the correct accounts.
Although for a brief moment, we considered introducing ourselves as Herbert and putting everything on Robert’s bill.
This is one of several reasons we probably should not be allowed to live there.
The Mystery of Olivia
A few friends were meeting us at Starfire, so Dedra tried to text them instructions about entering through the guard shack.
Unfortunately, talk-to-text decided that “tell the guard shack you’re here for Starfire” should become something involving a woman named Olivia.
When our friends reached the entrance, they confidently greeted the guard as Olivia.
Her name was not Olivia.
When they finally reached our table, they informed us that the woman at the guard shack was definitely not named Olivia.
Naturally, as we left later that evening, Dedra waved and yelled, “Bye, Olivia!”
We are either building strong relationships with local brewery staff or slowly getting banned from every establishment in Arizona.
Only time will tell.
The Beer at Starfire
Starfire may have an unusual location, but the beer deserves to be taken seriously.
Adam ordered the a brown ale (Sorry, forgot the name), a lighter brown ale with a smooth malt character. After drinking barrel-aged stouts and hazy IPAs earlier in the day, the brown ale provided a welcome change of pace.
It had enough malt flavor to feel like a proper brown ale without becoming too heavy.
Dedra started with Sonderlust, an imperial double hazy IPA at 8.3% ABV.
Despite the higher alcohol content, it had a smoother mouthfeel and lighter flavor than expected. It did not hit as hard as some imperial hazies, which was probably good since Dedra was driving.
Starfire also makes several fruited and smoothie-style sours.
One of the most memorable was Baptized in Bloody Water, made with strawberry, watermelon, hibiscus, and lime.
The flavor reminded Dedra of a pink Starburst.
We are not sure whether the pink Starburst is technically strawberry, watermelon, or a secret flavor created entirely through food coloring and nostalgia.
Whatever it is, the beer captured it.
The only danger is that the beer drinks so easily that you could forget it contains alcohol until you attempt to stand up.
Our Light Between-Lunch-and-Dinner Appetizer
We had already eaten lunch, but it was not quite dinner.
Some people might call this an afternoon snack.
We ordered a beer-braised beef burrito, a salad, and some onion rings.
This was apparently our version of an appetizer.
The salad was a classic salad with ranch, but the beer-braised beef burrito was the standout. It was packed with flavor and gave us another reason to appreciate the open kitchen and the chefs working behind it.
The onion rings were crispy, and the ranch may have been homemade.
This led Dedra into a detailed childhood memory about the exact day she fell in love with Hidden Valley Ranch.
She remembers coming home from school, hearing rain outside, eating leftover salad from a wooden bowl, and realizing that ranch dressing had changed her life forever.
Most people remember their first kiss.
Dedra remembers her first meaningful salad.
The Rooftop Bar and Patio
After eating, we explored the area behind the main dining room and discovered a more casual bar.
This section felt more like a traditional brewery, with televisions, bar seating, and people stopping in primarily for drinks.
The real highlight was the outdoor rooftop patio.
It had string lights, glass walls, open views, and an incredible setup for Arizona’s cooler months.
Because the patio faces east, it avoids much of the brutal setting sun. During the fall, winter, and spring, it would be an ideal place to spend several hours drinking beer and pretending you live at the retirement community.
There were also elevated walkways and paths connecting other parts of the property to the brewery.
Imagine living somewhere that allows you to walk from your apartment directly to a rooftop brewery.
We may have found our retirement plan.
A Quick Stop at The Shop Beer Co.
Starfire was close to another Tempe favorite, The Shop Beer Co., so naturally we made a quick stop.
Dedra resisted ordering Church Music and instead chose Wheeze the Juice, a lighter fruited sour from Phantom Fox.
She normally prefers thicker smoothie-style sours, but after the burrito, onion rings, salad, and several beers, she decided a lighter sour was the responsible choice.
That is called personal growth.
Adam took the opposite approach and ordered a barrel-aged stout with hazelnut and vanilla.
Because after drinking barrel-aged stouts earlier in the day, the logical decision was apparently to finish with another barrel-aged stout.
The Shop has a warm, old-fashioned interior with plenty of wood and a slightly mercantile feel. It also has a great outdoor area where rotating food trucks serve throughout the day.
If timed correctly, you can eat from the first food truck, wait for it to leave, and then immediately inspect the second food truck’s menu.
This is the kind of valuable brewery strategy we provide free of charge.
Church Music Is Everywhere
One thing we continue to notice is how widely Church Music from The Shop is distributed throughout the Phoenix area.
It appears at breweries, taprooms, bars, and restaurants all over the Valley.
One of our regular stops, Rooftop on Miller, keeps Church Music on tap. Our bartender, Christy, has served us enough times that she no longer asks what we want.
She sees us and brings over two Church Musics.
That level of service is both impressive and slightly concerning.
It is always great to visit a place where the staff remembers you, the regulars recognize each other, and new customers are immediately questioned by Dedra about where they live, how long they have lived there, and whether their friends own matching puffy jackets.
Starfire Is Worth the Adventure
Starfire Restaurant and Rooftop Brewery is easily one of the most unusual brewery experiences we have had.
The journey alone makes it memorable.
You enter through a gated retirement community, get transported by golf cart, ride an elevator from an underground parking garage, and emerge into a rooftop restaurant with great views, an open kitchen, solid food, and surprisingly impressive beer.
The beer program rotates frequently because Starfire produces smaller batches. The food menu also changes, giving visitors plenty of reasons to return.
We definitely plan to go back when the weather cools down and that rooftop patio becomes impossible to resist.
We also need to confirm whether Olivia still works at the guard shack.
Until next time, cheers!
