What is Almost Famous?
The best-known clubs in Old Town’s entertainment district are large and loud, with open-air patios, lines down the block and bottle-service menus. Almost Famous is deliberately smaller and harder to find.
It occupies Suite A at 7419 E Indian Plaza, at the quieter east end of the plaza, sharing a building with its sister bar 50 Shades of Rosé. It has been open since 2023 and has one focus: house music. Rotating local and guest DJs play on Friday and Saturday nights from 10:15 p.m. to 2 a.m., and the club is closed the rest of the week.
Its own description is unusually candid for Scottsdale nightlife. Almost Famous says it is not “in the center of the craziness,” and it calls itself an alternative to “the chaotic (and pricey) dance club bars” a block over, a more private and intimate room than the open-air clubs nearby. Bottle service and reserved tables are available, but reservations are not required.
It suits people who want a dance floor more than a scene. The music is house rather than Top 40, the room is small, and you can walk in without spending much.
How to do Almost Famous
Come on the right night. Almost Famous is open only on Friday and Saturday. Doors open at 10:15 p.m., so the earlier part of the night happens somewhere else.
Pair it with next door. 50 Shades of Rosé shares the building and serves food and themed cocktails until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Eat and drink there first, then go next door when the DJ starts. Both bars run themed events and pop-ups, so check what each one has planned for the weekend.
Follow the DJs. The club announces each weekend’s lineup on Instagram, with a different guest booked most Fridays and Saturdays. A small room with a well-known DJ fills up quickly, and that is the one night it’s worth texting the VIP line for a table.
Get there without a car. Indian Plaza on a weekend night is rideshare territory, and the walk west past Maya and The REMI. takes only a couple of minutes. If you are making a night of it, Casa Amigos and Bottled Blonde are a few doors west, and our nightlife guide covers the rest.
A small room in a big-club district
Scottsdale nightlife has moved toward bigger venues for about twenty-five years. Axis-Radius brought the twin-club format to Indian Plaza around the turn of the century. The 2010s brought day-to-night megaclubs, rooftop pools and bottle-service tables, and the 2020s brought rebuilt clubs with dress codes and hotels connected to them. A district designed for crowds tends to sound the same everywhere, and in Old Town that has mostly meant open-format DJs playing hits.
Almost Famous is part of the smaller alternative. A club devoted to house music is common in bigger nightlife cities and less common in a district that caters to bachelorette weekends. The east end of Indian Plaza suits it: close enough for people to walk over from the big clubs, far enough away to feel separate, and next door to a sister bar that brings in an earlier crowd.
Its success depends on what any small club depends on, which is booking DJs worth leaving the bigger rooms for. In a district where the large venues compete on spectacle, Almost Famous competes on sound and size.
Honest assessment: Almost Famous is two nights a week, one room and one genre, and that narrow focus is the appeal. If house music is your thing, it is the most reliable place in the entertainment district to hear it. If it isn’t, the big clubs are a block away.