The Theodore to Sana Sana: Our Downtown Phoenix Beer Crawl
We headed back to Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix for craft beer at The Theodore, Arizona Wilderness and Sana Sana Cervecería, with everything from 10% triple hazy IPAs to Dedra's long-awaited Chamoyata. Then Taco Vibes pulled up with carne asada, al pastor and a full salsa bar, proving once again that our “quick brewery stop” plans are mostly fictional.
Adam & Dedra
8/21/20268 min read
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Roosevelt Row Beer Crawl: The Theodore, Arizona Wilderness, Sana Sana & Taco Vibes
There are some parts of Phoenix that have become almost automatic for us, and Roosevelt Row is one of them. We can go back again and again, hit places we have already visited, and somehow end up drinking completely different beers and having a completely different day.
That was exactly the plan this time around: spend a Sunday bouncing around downtown Phoenix, revisit a few favorites, drink some good craft beer, find something to eat, and hopefully avoid melting into the sidewalk because Arizona had apparently decided that normal summer temperatures were no longer challenging enough.
Our stops took us from The Theodore to Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. and finally Sana Sana Cervecería, where a 10% chamoy slushie and a perfectly timed appearance by Taco Vibes turned what was already a good afternoon into a very satisfying way to end the weekend.
Starting the Day With Mother Earth
Before getting into our Roosevelt Row adventures, we opened the show with a hazy IPA from Mother Earth Brew Co. The 7.2% beer came in some seriously cool artwork that immediately gave Adam a Ready Player One kind of video-game-collage feeling.
The can also included the phrase “Love Your Mother,” which gave Dedra an opportunity to deliver an important public-service announcement: love your mother.
Apparently The Adam & Dedra Show is educational now.
We also took a brief detour into Arizona sports, Randy Johnson jerseys, the Diamondbacks avoiding a sweep at Fenway Park, and the return of football. Eventually, however, we got back to the subject everyone came for: beer.
The Theodore Deserves More Attention
Our first major stop was The Theodore, a craft beer and wine bar on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix. The Theodore specializes in rotating draft, canned, and bottled selections, which is exactly why we can keep returning without feeling like we are repeating the same visit.
It is also connected to the same hospitality group behind places including The Wandering Tortoise and The Sleepy Whale, so we probably should not be surprised that the beer selection gets our attention.
The Theodore has an industrial feel with a large bar, coolers packed with craft beer, a rotating tap list, and a lounge area with couches that may actually be a little too comfortable.
We briefly sat down there.
Dedra immediately started considering a nap.
That seemed like our cue to relocate before our craft beer crawl accidentally became an afternoon sleepover.
One of our favorite things about The Theodore is the selection. There are plenty of Arizona beers, but the tap list and coolers also give you opportunities to find breweries that we simply do not see everywhere.
And Adam found exactly that.
Two 10% Triple Hazies Walk Into a Beer Bar
Adam started with a 10% triple hazy IPA from Anchorage Brewing Company.
Most of his previous experiences with Anchorage had involved their stouts and barrel-aged beers, so seeing a triple hazy IPA was enough to make the decision for him.
Double IPA? Interested.
Triple IPA? Apparently the order has already been placed.
The Anchorage beer delivered the type of concentrated flavor Adam likes from bigger hazies while still leaning into a fruitier character than some of the heavier examples of the style.
Then things got more interesting.
At the Salty Toast festival in San Diego, Adam had been impressed by Messorem, the Montreal brewery that stood out among the hazy IPAs we sampled. So naturally, after talking about how rarely we see their beer, we walked into The Theodore and found one.
That beer was Mis à Mort, a 10% New England-style triple IPA from Messorem.
Adam drank the Anchorage and Messorem triple hazies back-to-back and then faced an impossible question from Dedra:
Which one was better?
He never really answered it.
The Anchorage leaned a little fruitier, while Mis à Mort felt thicker and a little more floral and hop-forward. Both were 10%. Both were excellent.
Choosing one apparently felt too much like being asked to select a favorite child.
So we are calling it a draw.
Great Notion Takes Over Dedra's Side of the Table
Dedra took a very different path at The Theodore, starting with Seedless from Great Notion Brewing, a 6% gose made with watermelon and dragon fruit.
It was lighter than the thick smoothie-style sours she usually gravitates toward, but that worked perfectly during a Phoenix summer.
When it is approximately 13 million degrees outside, watermelon becomes less of a fruit and more of a survival strategy.
After Seedless passed the test, Dedra decided there was no reason to abandon Great Notion and moved on to Double Blueberry Marshmallow Shake, a much bigger 9% fruited sour.
This was much more in her normal territory: thicker, richer and considerably more filling.
The Theodore also had a surprisingly large amount of North Park Beer Co. available during our visit, which immediately stood out after our recent trip to North Park in San Diego.
That is one of the things we appreciate most about this place. You can walk in planning to try one thing and suddenly find breweries you just traveled hundreds of miles to visit sitting in the coolers in downtown Phoenix.
Meep Meep Meets Gravity at Arizona Wilderness
From The Theodore, we only had to walk a short distance to Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.
Unfortunately, walking “a short distance” in a Phoenix summer still means arriving at your next destination questioning several life choices.
Thankfully, there was beer waiting.
And this time, our beers came as a matched set.
Adam ordered Gravity Is the Enemy, an 8.1% Black Double IPA. Arizona Wilderness describes it as being brewed with Arizona malt, Midnight Wheat and Chocolate Rye, then dry hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, Mosaic and CTZ.
Dedra went with Meep Meep, the Roadrunner-themed hazy IPA.
The obvious connection was impossible to ignore: Coyote and Roadrunner.
This then required Dedra to perform a Roadrunner impression.
We apologize to Warner Bros., animation fans everywhere and possibly Roadrunners as a species.
The beer itself went much better.
Dedra enjoyed the hazy while Adam was pleasantly surprised by just how much punch Gravity Is the Enemy packed for a black IPA. It was a quick Arizona Wilderness stop—one beer each and back onto Roosevelt Row.
Because apparently we had somewhere else we needed to be.
Dedra Finally Gets the Sana Sana Chamoyata
Our next stop was Sana Sana Cervecería, another Roosevelt Row brewery that has quickly become one of our favorite places to revisit.
Sana Sana focuses its beers around culture, community and familiar flavors, and the taproom sits just a few blocks from our earlier stops in downtown Phoenix.
But Dedra had one very specific unfinished piece of business.
The Chamoyata.
We had seen the 10% frozen chamoy drink during Sana Sana's anniversary celebration, but at the time, Dedra made the responsible decision not to order one because we still had a lot of places left to visit.
That responsibility had an expiration date.
This time she got it.
And it was worth the return trip.
The Chamoyata gave her exactly what she wanted from a Phoenix summer drink: cold, refreshing, full of chamoy flavor and, most importantly, not overly sweet.
Dedra immediately declared it a contender for the drink of the summer.
At 10%, however, it is also the type of summer drink that should probably come with a reminder that frozen beverages have consequences.
Foxes, Frogs and Suspicious Glass Sizes
Adam started at Sana Sana with The Fox and the Frog, an 8.9% West Coast Double IPA brewed in collaboration with Mesa's Phantom Fox Beer Company.
Despite the ABV, Adam thought it drank surprisingly light for a double IPA.
That led to another discovery.
Because it was 8.9%, Adam's beer came in an 11-ounce pour.
Dedra's Chamoyata?
Ten percent.
Much bigger glass.
Adam had been perfectly happy until Dedra pointed this out.
Sometimes marriage is about helping your spouse recognize injustices they had not yet noticed.
Adam followed that with Neighborhood Music 2.0, while Dedra later ordered 90's Kid, a 7.5% hazy IPA. Both beers were part of Sana Sana's rotating lineup around the time of our visit.
We probably could have wrapped things up there.
Then a food truck backed in.
Taco Vibes Changed the Entire Plan
While we were drinking at Sana Sana, Taco Vibes arrived.
At that point, leaving was no longer an option.
We ordered carne asada and al pastor tacos along with a carne asada burrito to share. Then we discovered that Taco Vibes had set up an entire salsa bar in front of the truck.
Not two bottles of salsa.
Not red and green.
An actual spread of different salsas, onions, cilantro, pickled vegetables, cucumbers, jalapeños and all the extras that turn tacos into a full event.
Dedra kept her carne asada taco fairly simple because she wanted the meat, corn tortilla, onions and cilantro to do the work. Adam attacked the al pastor with pickled onions and avocado salsa.
Then there was the burrito.
We shared it.
Technically.
There is very little reliable documentation of what happened once the food arrived because conversation basically stopped. Our review became a series of nods, noises and occasional eye contact confirming that the other person was experiencing the same thing.
That is usually a good sign.
The grilled jalapeños were great. The carne asada hit exactly the way Dedra wanted it to. Adam loved the al pastor. And the salsa bar could probably have kept us entertained even without the rest of the meal.
This was supposed to be a brewery afternoon.
Taco Vibes had other plans.
Final Pour
Roosevelt Row remains one of our favorite places for a Phoenix craft beer crawl because the experience can change completely depending on what is pouring that day.
At The Theodore, we found Anchorage and Messorem triple hazies plus two completely different Great Notion sours. At Arizona Wilderness, Coyote and Roadrunner somehow ended up in our glasses. At Sana Sana, Dedra finally conquered the 10% Chamoyata, Adam discovered the questionable mathematics of high-ABV pour sizes, and Taco Vibes showed up at exactly the right moment.
By the end, there was no chance we were cooking dinner.
There was barely a chance we were walking normally.
If you enjoy rotating craft beer selections, Arizona breweries, hazy IPAs, fruited sours and the possibility that a casual Sunday beer run might suddenly include one of the better taco stops of your weekend, Roosevelt Row makes it very easy to keep coming back.
Watch or listen to the full episode for all the beer talk, food reactions and the Roadrunner impression we probably should have edited out.
Craft Beer. Food. Fun.
Cheers.
