What is Barstool Scottsdale?
Scottsdale Road is the front door of Old Town’s bar district, and Barstool Scottsdale is the room that answers it. It occupies 4321 N Scottsdale Road, a two-story building that opened in 2015 as Two Brothers Brewing & Taphouse, and it carries the name of Barstool Sports, the media company Dave Portnoy founded in 2003 and built into a national brand on sports, gambling and pop culture.
The building was reworked in 2022. Plans filed with the city that September described an 8,702-square-foot restaurant with a full bar and a 1,748-square-foot patio, and the contractor finished the build-out that December: a fully equipped kitchen, two interconnecting staircases, bars on both floors, and a second level that can be split off for private events. The back of the building faces Saddlebag Trail, which puts Barstool a short walk from Whiskey Row, Mother Tucker’s Tavern and the rest of the entertainment district.
What you get inside is a sports bar with a nightlife schedule. The bar advertises more than 50 TVs and live music seven days a week, opens at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday for game days, and sells VIP tables for the late crowd.
It is not subtle, and it is not trying to be. If your team is on, this is one of the easiest places in Old Town to see it.
Game days, band nights and how to use the place
Mornings are for sports. Barstool opens at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday, early enough for college football and East Coast NFL kickoffs. On weekdays the doors open at 4 p.m. The downstairs bar is where the big-screen crowd gathers; upstairs is calmer until the night picks up.
Check the calendar for music. Live music runs every day, and the events page lists the lineup. Some nights the band is background to a game; on weekends it’s the main event, and the bar shifts toward its nightlife side with VIP table reservations and a crowd that drifts over from the clubs on Saddlebag.
Eat like you’re at a sports bar. The kitchen serves classic bar food with separate happy-hour and late-night menus, plus a rotation of weekly specials such as Monday deals and Glizzy Tuesdays. For a more serious meal before a game, Diego Pops and The Montauk are a short walk up Scottsdale Road.
Bring a group. The partitionable second floor, with its own bar, is built for private events, and Barstool takes daytime table bookings online. For a bachelor party or a fantasy draft, that is the easy answer. During WM Phoenix Open week and spring training, book ahead or arrive at opening.
From brewpub to media brand
The building at 4321 N Scottsdale Road reflects two eras of Old Town drinking. Two Brothers Brewing, the Illinois craft brewer, opened its Tap House here in January 2015, at the height of the craft-beer boom, when a brewery’s name on a two-story Scottsdale Road building was its own marketing. By 2022 the Tap House was gone and the building had a new tenant lined up.
The tenant it found was a media brand. Barstool Sports already had its name on bars in cities such as Chicago and Philadelphia, and Scottsdale, with its spring-training crowds, golf week and bachelor-party weekends, was a natural fit. The renovation kept the building’s two-level bones and rebuilt the inside around bars on both floors and screens on every wall.
The 2020s entertainment district has mostly gone upscale, with supper clubs, rooftop restaurants and remodeled clubs. Barstool runs in the other direction, with game-day mornings, live bands and a crowd in jerseys, and its spot on Scottsdale Road makes it the district’s most visible sports bar. Within a block you can find Whiskey Row for live country and Mother Tucker’s for a wood-paneled party pub, so Barstool’s niche is scale: more screens, two floors and music every day.
Honest assessment: Barstool Scottsdale is a big, loud, branded sports bar, and how much you enjoy it depends on how you feel about the brand. As a place to watch a game in Old Town with a crowd, though, it is hard to beat for screens and hours. Read our nightlife guide for where to go after.