What it is
The Vig Arcadia is the first Vig, the tavern that opened in 2006 on the corner of 40th Street and Indian School Road and worked out an idea the Valley has been copying since: a neighborhood bar whose real room is outside. The building is modest and the patio is not. There is a lawn with Adirondack chairs and umbrellas, a bocce court that is in constant use from October to April, a DJ on weekends who plays at a volume the neighbors have made peace with, and a crowd that is mostly from the blocks around it, with dogs under the tables and strollers parked along the rail.
The food is tavern food done with some care: burgers, salads, tacos, shareable plates, a long beer list and a decent cocktail list, with a happy hour that Arcadia keeps and a weekend brunch from 10 to 2 that is one of the neighborhood’s standing plans. Genuine Concepts, the company that grew from this room, now runs seven Vigs across the Valley, including The Vig McCormick Ranch that Scottsdale knows, and has a Paradise Valley one announced. The company calls this one the OG.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
If you know the McCormick Ranch Vig, you know the idea; this is where it came from, with the fullest version of the patio and a neighborhood crowd rather than a visitor one. It is also the anchor of Arcadia’s southern corner: the LGO and Postino corner is a half mile north on 40th, Nook Kitchen is four blocks east on Indian School, and O.H.S.O. is a mile east on the canal. On a Sunday the lawn here, a brunch, a game of bocce and a beer, is the most Arcadia afternoon available, and it is twelve minutes from Old Town.
The practical version
Twelve minutes straight west on Indian School Road to 40th Street. Open daily from 11 on weekdays and 10 on weekends, to 10 or 11 at night. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 10 to 2. The lot fills on weekends; the residential streets north take the overflow. Dogs on the patio. It is a tavern, so the kitchen is good rather than the point.
When to go
Sunday late morning is the room’s hour: brunch on the lawn, the bocce court in use, the DJ starting up in the early afternoon, and nobody leaving. Weekday happy hour from about 4 is the quiet version, with the court empty and the beer list at its best price. Friday evening is the neighborhood’s week-end, loud and friendly. Weekend afternoons in winter are the DJ hours and the busiest the patio gets.
October through April is the season; the lawn is in use from open to close. In summer the patio empties by early afternoon and the inside bar, which is small, does the work until the sun drops. Our happy hour guide has the McCormick Ranch Vig as the Scottsdale version of this window.
What to order
The burger, which is the tavern standard and reliably good. The tacos and the big salads for lunch. At brunch, the egg dishes and a bloody mary. Beer from the long list, which leans local, and a cocktail if the day is slow. The food is competent and the lawn is the reason; order accordingly.
With kids
The lawn is the children’s room, and on a Sunday morning half the patio is families; the bocce court doubles as a playground until the adults want it back. Weekend evenings are a bar.
The neighborhood
40th and Indian School is Arcadia’s southwest corner. Nook Kitchen is four blocks east on Indian School, O.H.S.O. Brewery a mile east at 48th on the canal, and the La Grande Orange and Postino corner at Campbell a half mile north on 40th. The Camelback corridor resorts are ten minutes northeast; this is the far end of Arcadia from them, and the most local.
The story
In 2006 the corner of 40th Street and Indian School Road was the unfashionable end of a neighborhood that was becoming fashionable. The restaurants were gathering at 40th and Campbell, around La Grande Orange and Postino, and the southern edge along Indian School was gas stations and strip retail. The Vig opened there with a plain brief, the ultimate neighborhood hangout, and a decision that turned out to matter: to spend the money on the outside. A lawn, a bocce court, Adirondack chairs and umbrellas, a bar that faced the patio rather than the street. Arcadia, which had been walking to LGO for breakfast and Postino for wine, now walked to The Vig for the afternoon.
The patio became a template. Genuine Concepts, the company that grew around the room, opened Vigs in north central Phoenix, at Fillmore downtown, in McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, where the lawn came along, in north Phoenix on Bell Road, in Peoria and in Mesa; there are seven, with a Paradise Valley one announced. Every Vig has the indoor-outdoor idea, but the Arcadia one has the full neighborhood around it and the twenty years of regulars, and the company’s own site has settled the question of precedence by calling it the OG.
The Scottsdale connection
The Vig McCormick Ranch, on Via Paseo del Sur, is Scottsdale’s copy of this lawn and one of the city’s best dog patios; our Scottsdale with dogs note and brunch note both send people there. The Arcadia original is the version with the neighborhood in it, and the one to see once to understand why the format spread.
Getting there
Indian School Road west from Scottsdale Road, three and a half miles, to 40th Street; The Vig is on the northeast corner with its lot off 40th. From the Camelback corridor, 44th Street south to Indian School and west four blocks. The Arizona Canal path from the Waterfront reaches Arcadia in about two miles; from the canal near 40th Street it is a half-mile ride south. A rideshare from Old Town is a short fare and the right plan after an afternoon on the lawn.