Love, love, love, love, love Kobatl! Ron & Gina are awesome bartenders! Oh, and Drewbie too! And Arturo, and.... well, just about everyone. :-) Kobalt is not a wild crazy party place (most of the time) but it is one of my favorite places to sit down and have a great cocktail or martini. I rarely drink beer, but they have a decent selection of it, bottles only though, no tap.
My favorite thing about the bar, besides the friendly (and often hot) staff is the atmosphere. It's located in Park Central mall, right off the Osborn light rail stop, so super easy to get to and super safe to get home (don't risk a DUI! Take the train!) if you live near a light rail stop. There's also a bike rack out front, I love riding my bike down Central to Kobalt (maybe stopping at Hula's for a bight to eat first, but that's another review). Careful leaving your bike overnight if you get too drunk though... I've had a wheel, seat and eventually the entire bike stolen. BUT that was 3 incidents and I had left it there overnight many times. Helpful hint: if you're too drunk to ride, call Discount and ask for a minivan cab, they're the same price and they have room for your bike! Some cab drivers will take it in their trunk too, but not all (the Kobalt bartenders won't mind asking the cabbie when they call though).
The atmosphere is great because it has WINDOWS!!! A LOT of them. The exterior walls are all glass, ceiling is high/vaulted and glass too. So there is a very open, atrium feeling. Great place to day drink because you can enjoy the fact that there is daylight and you're not just sitting in some dank, dark, windowless cave. The vibe is definitely more upscale than many Phoenix gay bars, but without any air of pretention or snobbery.
Their Patio is great, possibly my favorite in PHX, definitely in the top 3. (Bunkhouse and Bar 1 being the other two) I don't smoke, but I love sitting out there when the weather is nice. A large portion of it is covered, so it's great on the few rainy evenings we get.
As far as entertainment goes... (which is something I wrote a lot about in another review) I think this is where Kobalt falls a little short. I hate saying that because I really don't want to say anything bad about the place, but there's not much to see or do but chat with the friendly bartenders if you're there by yourself. (Although Kobalt gets a decent crowd so the bartenders are usually pretty busy) They have some good-sized TVs, but they're usually on a TV station with the sound off and captions on, or they're playing a closed-circuit loop promoting the bar's events, or a slideshow of previous events and fun staff photos. Sound system at Kobalt is good, and they usually play good music, so that's a plus. There's also a jukebox (which you can control remotely via iPhone or Android! Cool geek factor) But that's about it. They do some shows, I love it when I catch T.C. Taylor there! She is awesome! But I don't really think it's a regular thing, since they have no real stage or dressing area like The Rock or Ice Pics. I guess what I'm trying to say when it comes to entertainment at Kobalt is: Bring Friends. It's one of the best places to sit with a group of friends and chat and drink, but kind of boring if you're on your own.
Oh! I will say though, on the entertainment front... one of my FAVORITE places for Karaoke! They have Karaoke 2 nights a week (I think) The crowd is hit or miss, sometimes there's a ton of people and sometimes just a few, but the rotation usually goes pretty fast, so you get plenty of chances to sing. The bartenders usually sing too, Drewbie and Kela (I hope I spelled that right) are great! :-) They're sound system is perfect for Karaoke, they have some of the best mics in town, and everyone just seems to sound better there. Kind of like singing in the shower, but you can keep your clothes on. (Which is kind of a shame because some hot boys go there, and work there!)
Crowd varies widely at Kobalt... young, old, gay, lesbian, etc. Really depends on the night. Friday happy hour is their biggest night and it is usually packed with very attractive guys! Fridays get really crowded, you'd think it was New Year's Eve or something! Other nights are just right, not too slow so you're sitting by yourself in an empty room, but not too crowded that you can't move.
So in conclusion (Finally! And thank you if you made it to the end of this) Kobalt is a great place to go with friends (or make new ones, I find most people that go there are receptive and friendly, except for the snotty 20-something's that think they're hot, but they only show up on Friday nights).
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