What is Goodwood Tavern?
Every bar district needs a place for the people who don’t want to go clubbing. On Stetson Drive, that’s been Goodwood Tavern since the mid-2010s: a dim, wood-paneled pub at 7330 E Stetson Dr, a short walk from the bottle-service rooms of the Entertainment District.
Goodwood’s origin story is a conversion. Chef Aaron May, the restaurateur who also turned Mabel Murphy’s into Mabel’s on Main, took over the old Shotgun Betty’s and remade it. When Phoenix New Times reviewed the happy hour in February 2015, the critic called it “the coziest, most comfortable spot that area of Old Town Scottsdale has to offer,” and pointed to the wood-covered surfaces, dim lighting, cushy booths and woodland animals hidden in the décor. Sitting a stone’s throw from nightclubs like Cake, the reviewer wrote, it “even felt peaceful.”
A decade later the formula is the same. The tavern describes itself as a place that tries “to make everyone feel as if they’ve been coming for years,” and backs it with American pub fare with house sauces, cold craft beer, a deep bourbon selection, pool, darts and sports on the screens. Dogs are welcome on the patio.
It’s not a destination restaurant, and doesn’t claim to be. It’s the bar you want on Stetson when your group can’t agree, because there’s a booth, a game on, and something on the menu for everyone.
What to order and when to go
Hit the happy hour. Goodwood runs it 3 to 7 p.m. every day: fried pickles, nachos, buffalo chicken dumplings, bleu cheese and bacon guacamole, warm pretzels and brats at a discount, with $5 domestic drafts, well cocktails, house wine and the house Pineapple MindEraser. It’s one of the more generous standing happy hours in the district; our happy hour guide has the rest.
Order the dumplings. The buffalo chicken dumplings, with celery and bleu cheese sauce and a carrot slaw in sweet rice-wine vinaigrette, are the dish New Times singled out in 2015, and they’re still on the menu. The warm pretzels with honey-hot mustard and cheese sauce got the reviewer’s “don’t miss” and remain the right second order.
Then go Dakota. The kitchen leans on Dakota brats, served Traditional with sauerkraut, Chicago style with sport peppers and relish, or Carlos style with chipotle aioli and pico, plus a build-your-own. There’s bison in sliders, burgers and tacos, carne asada fries, rice bowls and Carlos’s Sopa, a seasonal chicken tortilla soup.
Plan for game days. The tavern takes online reservations and recommends them for big matchups, and books private parties for birthdays, rehearsal dinners and office groups. It also posts themed days such as National Taco Day. Park once and walk or take a rideshare; Stetson’s weekend curb belongs to pickup lanes. If you’re heading on, the nightlife guide covers what’s next door.
A tavern in the club district
Goodwood’s address puts it on the most storied nightlife block in Scottsdale. Martini Ranch opened down the block at 7295 in 1994 and booked bands for nearly twenty years. SIX Lounge brought the ultra-lounge to 7316 in 2001. By the mid-2010s the district around them had grown into a strip of large clubs and day-to-night venues like Bottled Blonde and Cake, catering to the weekend crowds that made Old Town a bachelorette capital.
Aaron May’s conversion of Shotgun Betty’s was a bet against that tide. Instead of another room built for 11 p.m., he made one for 5 p.m.: booths, wood, low light and a menu that worked as dinner. May had run that play before at Mabel Murphy’s on Main Street, where he kept a beloved bar’s name alive in a gastropub. On Stetson, the tavern format let a nightlife block support something closer to a neighborhood local.
The tavern has outlasted plenty of concepts on the surrounding blocks, which is no small thing on a street where, as our Wasted Grain page notes, concepts burn out on short cycles. A steady happy hour, pool tables and a menu that changes without reinventing itself have done more for Goodwood’s longevity than any theme could.
The honest assessment: Goodwood is not where you’ll have the best meal of your trip. It is where you’ll most likely find a booth, a fair price and a bartender who isn’t shouting, on a block where all three are rare after dark.