What was Saddle Ranch?
Saddle Ranch Chop House started on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in 1999: a “rock-western” steakhouse and bar with a mechanical bull, built for groups and for watching people fall off. In January 2008 it opened its first Arizona location in Old Town Scottsdale, at 4321 N. Scottsdale Rd, at the corner of Drinkwater Boulevard on the west edge of the bar district.
It was a good match for the Scottsdale of the late 2000s, when Old Town’s clubs and theme bars were at their peak. The building was older than it looked: built in 1963, the Famous Pacific Fish Company in the 1980s, renovated in 2007.
Saddle Ranch didn’t last long. Nobody we’ve found recorded when it closed, only that the building was empty by 2014. Two Brothers Brewing took it over in 2015, removed the bull and brewed beer there until about 2019. Since November 2022 it has been Barstool Scottsdale.
The building’s tenants
Saddle Ranch, 2008 to the early 2010s. The East Valley Tribune announced the opening on January 14, 2008. The chain added a second Arizona restaurant at Westgate in Glendale, also now closed. By the city’s later measurements the Scottsdale space was 8,702 square feet, 1,843 of it patio.
Two Brothers, 2015 to about 2019. On December 2, 2014, the City Council took up a liquor license for Two Brothers AZ, noting that the site had been licensed since 1990 and had last operated as Saddle Ranch, so no other bar came between them. The Illinois brewery took out the bull and the rustic decor, put a five-tank brewing system on a steel mezzanine and opened in January 2015, its first brewpub outside Illinois. It closed around 2019, and the building stood empty for three years.
Barstool, since 2022. Barstool Sports applied for a liquor license in September 2022 and opened Barstool Scottsdale, its third bar, on November 18, 2022.
The sources, and the gaps
Main sources: the East Valley Tribune’s January 2008 opening notice; Wikipedia and the chain’s site on Saddle Ranch; the City of Scottsdale’s December 2014 council report on Two Brothers’ license; Mouth by Southwest, Bisnow and AZ Big Media on Two Brothers; Mouth by Southwest, WhatNow, Phoenix New Times and the contractor on Barstool; and Construction Reporter on the building’s history.
What’s unsettled:
- The closing date and the reason. Saddle Ranch was open in 2010 and gone by late 2014.
- Two Brothers’ closing. About 2019, by Mouth by Southwest; we haven’t seen a closing report.
- The size. The city says 8,702 square feet including the patio; other sources give 8,165, 9,500 or nearly 10,000.
A correction elsewhere on this site. Our bars note dated Saddle Ranch to about 2009 and Two Brothers to about 2022; it opened in 2008, and Two Brothers closed about 2019. Our Barstool page said the building opened in 2015 as Two Brothers. Both have been corrected.
Why it matters
Saddle Ranch belongs to the theme-bar years of the late 2000s, when Los Angeles and Las Vegas concepts came to Old Town and the district grew loud enough to draw national chains. Its building has had at least four restaurant and bar tenants since the 1980s, which is typical for this part of Scottsdale Road.