What is the 3rd Avenue Grill?
Every Old Town hotel has a restaurant, and most travelers walk past theirs on the way to somewhere else. The 3rd Avenue Grill is the one inside the Scottsdale Marriott Old Town, the all-suite Marriott on Third Avenue, and it’s worth knowing for a few specific things.
Marriott describes the food as classic American dishes with a Southwestern twist. That means a full breakfast menu, fresh salads and sandwiches at lunch, and a dinner menu anchored by a New York steak. Entrées run roughly $16 to $25. There’s a full bar, a patio, and the kitchen also handles the hotel’s in-room and poolside dining. (The spelling is Grill, not “Grille,” according to both Marriott and Experience Scottsdale.)
The hours are what set it apart. The Grill is open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., which in Old Town makes it an early sit-down breakfast and a quiet place for a late meal. Happy hour runs daily from 3 to 5 p.m.
It isn’t a destination restaurant, and nobody should cross town for it. But for hotel guests, spring-training fans heading to the ballpark, and anyone who needs breakfast early or a calm drink late, it’s a useful address.
When the Grill makes sense
Early breakfast. Old Town’s brunch spots draw lines on weekends, and many cafes open later. The Grill is serving at 6:30 a.m. every day, which makes it the practical choice before a flight, a hike or a day game at Scottsdale Stadium, an easy walk south down Drinkwater. During spring training, the hotel fills with baseball fans, so expect a busier room in March.
A quiet happy hour. From 3 to 5 p.m. daily, the bar and patio are a calmer alternative to the Entertainment District’s happy-hour rush. For a broader rundown, see the Scottsdale happy hour guide.
Groups and meetings. The room seats up to 80, with private dining for about 40, which is why it shows up on a lot of business itineraries. Book through the hotel.
Coffee to go. If you only need a latte, the hotel’s Starbucks counter is open in the mornings. For better coffee nearby, see the best coffee shops in Scottsdale.
Parking. Hotel self-parking is paid. Non-guests can use the public garages around the Civic Center and walk over.
The hotel restaurant in a walkable downtown
The Scottsdale Marriott Old Town opened on Third Avenue in the late 1980s — travel-industry listings date it to 1988 — in a decade when downtown Scottsdale was beginning to court business travelers and longer stays, not just winter vacationers. The Civic Center had opened a few blocks east in 1968, and the land between Scottsdale Road and the new Drinkwater Boulevard suited a mid-rise hotel within walking distance of City Hall and the galleries. A full-service hotel needs a full-service restaurant, and one on Third Avenue has always had to serve guests who could walk to dozens of others.
So the Grill’s job is the meals people don’t plan: an early breakfast, a working lunch, a drink after a meeting, room service, a poolside order. Today the Old Town on foot guide can route a guest past a long list of independent restaurants within minutes of the lobby, and most of them are more interesting than any hotel restaurant. The Grill’s answer is to be dependable rather than ambitious: long hours, a menu that covers every meal, Southwestern touches for visitors, and a bar that’s open when guests want it.
The name follows the hotel’s own simplification. For decades the property was the Scottsdale Marriott Suites Old Town; now it’s simply the Scottsdale Marriott Old Town, and its restaurant is named for the street outside.
The honest assessment: you can eat better within a few blocks, and most nights you should. But Old Town is a neighborhood of late openings and weekend brunch lines, and a place that serves a full breakfast at 6:30 every morning and a quiet drink until 11 every night does something the neighborhood’s trendier rooms don’t.