On April 17th, I attended a rooftop happy hour, al fresco, on a beautiful early evening with about 20 members of a nonprofit group. This is very much a hideaway, nearly a secret venue, it seems, implying exclusivity. Overall, Starfire is an elegant setting, although the outside is a bit Spartan.
I was excited to visit here after receiving an invitation & viewing the Starfire website. I rode the elevator up with increasingly higher hopes.
Let's start with the staff. Absolutely excellent, fine dining service throughout our time there with very personable servers. They all knew how to make it a better experience with their apt advice & close attention.
We enjoyed many pre-determined, Southwest-inspired appetizers, and some ordered dinner from the enticing, innovative menu. Everything I sampled (yes, we shared!) was faultless, even to this demanding aficionado of precise Mexican cuisine, who has mucho food service experience. I was glad to see that many items included beer from the in-house brewery. Clearly, a great deal of thought went into curating this entire operation.***
Which, of course, brings us to the beer course...
"Brewery" is in the title of this business, and it's no mere afterthought.
There are plenty of guest beers to please any discerning or picky customer, and, thankfully, overwhelming IPA's don't dominate the selection. I thoroughly enjoyed the flight of new house brews. Each was distinct and several were remarkable enough alone to merit a return visit... "destination drinking," I suppose. Affable Brewmaster Tyler came out to visit us just in time for others & me to laud his subtle, thoughtful craftsmanship, which I clearly recognize! (After all, I am an organizer of the Valley Beer Drinkers Meetup, ha-ha!)
***There is one glaring drawback for anyone expecting a memorable, sunset or twilight outdoor dining experience. Starfire urgently needs a new architect or aesthetics manager. There is NO west-thru-northeast vista of PHX, Tempe, or Mesa cities below. Papago, Camelback, McDowells, & Superstitions are invisible to seated diners outside. What a travesty & huge disappointment! The safety barriers at the edge of the building are not see-thru, so the only way to enjoy the tremendous potential here is to walk up to the edge of the rooftop patio.
I thought to myself, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!"
Look, the weather here is usually so calm, and, if inclement, there are temporary solutions to deal with wind besides entirely blocking the view. For now, we may as well just dine on the ground floor. What a shame, but I'm confident that you can fix this!
So, in summary, our event was a flawless & memorable one! Thanks!
Best of success to this imaginative gem of a restaurant/brewery & it's staff! You're really earning it!
If yelp*ers want great food, beers, & service, this is the place.
Sorry, but if you want an amazing view, go to Rustler's Roost. read more