What it is
Pedal Haus is the brewery on the west side of Mill Avenue at 7th Street, in the middle of downtown Tempe, with the biggest patio on the street out front and the fermenting tanks in the middle of the dining room behind it. Julian Wright, who ran several of Mill’s restaurants, opened it in 2015 in a 14,000-square-foot former restaurant with a brewer from BJ’s, Derek Osborne, and an idea that was slightly contrarian for the time: European beer styles made to spec, lagers and Belgian ales, in a Valley that was chasing hop bombs. A year later he closed it for three months and rebuilt it as a brewery that happened to serve food rather than the reverse, with three bars, 24 taps and a patio of fire-pit bungalows and long tables.
The beer won Arizona Brewery of the Year in 2023. The company has grown to pubs in Chandler, Phoenix and Mesa, and the Tempe original has become the default table on Mill for anyone with a game at the stadium or a show at Gammage in two hours: no reservations, a waitlist when it is full, a Belgian-American gastropub menu with pizzas from the wood oven, a Sunday brunch, every NFL game on Sundays and a dog in every third bungalow.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
Not for the beer alone; Scottsdale has Goldwater and the rest of the taprooms in our breweries note. The reason to be here is that it is the right place to be before everything else in Tempe. It is a two-minute walk from the butte, five from the lake, ten from the stadium and the arena, and ten the other way from Gammage, with a patio that works from October to May and a happy hour that starts at three. If Tempe is on your calendar, this is where the evening begins.
The practical version
Eighteen minutes from Old Town by Scottsdale Road and the 202, Mill Avenue south to 7th Street. Park in the W6 garage off 6th Street and have them validate the first hour. Open daily from eleven to eleven, midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, brunch on Sundays. Drink the lagers. Come at three for the happy hour or expect the waitlist after six on a weekend.
When to go
Weekday afternoons from three, when the happy hour runs until six and the bungalows are free. Fall Saturdays before a Sun Devils game, when the patio is the pregame and the televisions are all on; arrive by noon for a two-hour-later kickoff. Before Gammage, two hours ahead of the curtain, with a ten-minute walk south afterward. Sundays for brunch and the NFL, if that is your Sunday. Summer evenings after dark, when the patio is bearable again; the room inside is cold and loud.
What to order
- The lagers. The Mexican-style lager and the pilsner are the brewery’s argument in a glass, and the Belgian white is the third of the house’s core.
- The seasonals and barrel-aged beers, which rotate through the dozen-plus house taps; the quad and the shandy IPA have come and gone, and the chalkboard has the current set.
- A flight, if you want the argument settled in one tray.
- Food. The pizzas from the wood oven and the Belgian-leaning pub plates are built to go with lagers; the brunch has its own menu.
The patio
Five semi-private bungalows along one side, each with a fireplace and a television, that seat six or eight and are the best tables in downtown Tempe in January; long community tables in the middle; yard games at the back; music on some nights. Dogs on leashes and bikes at the rack are both welcome, which is the name.
The neighborhood
The whole of Mill Avenue is at the door: the butte and the lake five minutes north, the campus and Gammage ten minutes south, Casey Moore’s three blocks west on Ash for the second stop.
The story
Julian Wright had run restaurants on Mill Avenue for years when, in 2015, he took over a 14,000-square-foot former restaurant at 7th Street and announced a brewery of German and Belgian styles. The brewer was Derek Osborne, who had been brewing director for BJ’s Restaurants, and the brief was lagers and Belgian ales made to style, with barrel-aged beers to follow, at a moment when the Valley’s new breweries were mostly chasing IPAs. The first version of the room, Wright decided within a year, looked like a restaurant that served beer. In the summer of 2016 he closed it for three months and rebuilt it as the opposite: the tanks moved into the dining room behind glass, a community room in the middle looking onto them, three bars, 24 taps with about half for house beers, a smaller dining room and a patio rebuilt around five bungalows with fireplaces, long tables and room for music. It reopened in stages from late September and held its grand opening on October 15, 2016.
The bet was right. The beer picked up medals, the company opened pubs in Chandler, Phoenix and Mesa, and in 2023 Pedal Haus was named Arizona Brewery of the Year. In 2026, as Mill Avenue reopened from its repaving and the city tried to pull the street back toward a main street for everyone, Tempe’s mayor named Wright among the restaurateurs behind its next wave; the brewery had by then been the anchor of the block for a decade.
The Scottsdale connection
Scottsdale’s taprooms and this one grew up in the same decade and share the same argument about lagers; Goldwater on Scottsdale Road is the closest cousin, and our breweries note and happy hour guide put them side by side. The bungalow patio has no equivalent on this side of the line, which is why Scottsdale people end up here in January.
Getting there
Scottsdale Road south to the westbound 202, one exit to Mill Avenue, then south across the bridge through downtown to 7th Street; the brewery is on the west side of Mill. From North Scottsdale take the 101 to the 202. The W6 garage, entered from 6th Street a half block east, validates the first hour through the ParkMobile app. The light rail at Mill and 3rd Street is four blocks north and connects to the airport.