What is Problem Restaurant & Lounge?
Problem Restaurant & Lounge is one of the newest rooms in Old Town, and one of the hardest to sum up in a word. It held its grand opening on Friday, July 24, 2026, at 7341 E Sixth Ave, billed as the debut of Chef Cleaz and Deebo. The house description is specific: an elevated Italian steakhouse with Creole-Cajun influence, where premium steaks and Italian-inspired cooking meet Southern seasoning, with handcrafted cocktails and a lounge that takes over as the night goes on.
That combination is new for Old Town. The neighborhood has Italian steakhouses and it has Cajun kitchens, but a room that puts them on the same plate is rare. The format matters as much as the menu. Problem pitches itself for intimate dinners, celebrations, late nights and private events, with cocktail attire suggested at the door. It is a dress-up dinner that turns into a night out without changing addresses.
The building has its own Old Town history. It is the Sixth Avenue address that Barney’s Boathouse moved to from Tempe in 2011, announced as a three-story, 5,000-square-foot sports bar with a rooftop patio, saltwater aquariums and 34 flat-screens. The new tenant has traded the game-day screens for a steakhouse dining room and a lounge.
It is early. Problem has been open for a little over two months, and early OpenTable ratings run around 4.5. This page describes a restaurant still finding its feet, and we will update it as the menu settles.
How to approach a new room
Book, then dress. Problem takes reservations on OpenTable, and a reservation is the safe way to go on a weekend. The house suggests cocktail attire. That is not a nightclub dress code, but it is a signal: this is not a room for gym clothes or golf shorts.
Order to the concept. The menu is built around premium steaks in the Italian steakhouse tradition. The reason to choose Problem over a conventional steakhouse is the Creole-Cajun side of the kitchen, so steer the table toward the dishes where that shows and ask which plates the chef considers signatures. With a new menu, servers are the best guide to what the kitchen is proudest of.
Stay for the lounge. The second half of the name is the point for many guests. Problem frames itself as a place where “vibrant nightlife” follows dinner, and the cocktail list is handcrafted rather than poured from a well. An early dinner followed by drinks in the same room is the intended rhythm.
Know the block. Sixth Avenue east of Scottsdale Road sits on the southern edge of the Entertainment District, a short walk from the bars on Saddlebag Trail and Stetson Drive. Rideshare is the easiest way in and out on weekend nights. Our Old Town nightlife guide explains how the surrounding blocks move from dinner to late night, and the honky-tonk Not My First Rodeo is a few blocks west on the same avenue if the group splits.
From sports bar to steakhouse lounge
The building’s two tenants reflect two eras of Old Town. Barney’s Boathouse came over from Tempe in 2011, when owner Chris Barnett sold the original bar and bet on Scottsdale. The plan reflected what Old Town nightlife was selling in the early 2010s: a big sports bar with dozens of TVs, a rooftop patio for the winter sun, aquariums for atmosphere and Sunday football as the anchor. It was a casual counterpart to the clubs a few blocks north.
Fifteen years later, the address has been taken over by a concept built on a different idea of a night out. The 2020s in Old Town have been the decade of the supper club and the dinner-to-lounge room. Operators along Stetson Drive and Indian Plaza have moved toward polished, dressier evenings where dinner runs into cocktails and music, and Problem fits that pattern, with its suggested cocktail attire and lounge-forward format.
What sets it apart is the menu. Old Town has plenty of steakhouses, and its Southern cooking mostly arrives as hot chicken and comfort food in country bars. A chef-owned Italian steakhouse with Creole-Cajun cooking is a distinct and personal concept, the kind of restaurant that stands or falls on the kitchen rather than the brand.
The honest assessment: it is too early to judge. A new Old Town room in its first season is still adjusting its menu, its hours and its crowd, and the strong early reviews are a promising start, not a verdict. Check back in a year. For now, Problem is one of the most unusual dinner propositions on Sixth Avenue, in a building that has already seen Old Town change once.