What is Social Tap Eatery?
North of Indian School Road, Brown Avenue stops being the 1920s Western street of the history books and becomes part of the bar district. Social Tap Eatery sits on that stretch at 4312 N Brown Ave, near where Brown meets Fifth Avenue and Drinkwater Boulevard, and it has been one of the neighborhood’s reliable sports bars since 2016.
There are really two places in the building. Downstairs is the sports bar: more than thirty TVs, big outdoor patios, backyard games and a draft list built around local craft beer. The kitchen cooks from scratch, so the street tacos, burgers, wings and rice bowls are better than the room requires. Upstairs is The Balcony, an 1,800-square-foot rooftop lounge that opened in April 2019 with its own bar, lounge chairs, a DJ booth and a fireplace. It’s meant to be the calmer half: more wine and cocktails, less shouting at the screen, and it’s often booked for parties.
That split is why Social Tap works for so many different groups. A Sunday football crowd, a birthday party upstairs and a couple of friends catching up over tacos can all be in the building without getting in each other’s way. It’s casual, priced like a neighborhood bar, and open from late morning until late at night.
It’s not a destination restaurant, and it doesn’t claim to be. It’s a well-run sports bar with a good kitchen and a rooftop, in the part of Old Town where most of the bars are louder and the kitchens less careful.
How to use both floors
Eat the tacos. The street tacos come with chips and salsa made in-house and a long list of fillings: pork belly, seared ahi, carnitas, braised chicken, short rib, shrimp and fajita vegetables. The Social Tap Burger comes bacon and blue cheese, beef and cheddar, Southwestern, or as a chipotle veggie burger. The teriyaki chicken bowl is the lighter option, and Kari’s deep-dish cookie is the dessert to split.
Time it with Social Hour. Discounted food and drinks run on weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, though not on holidays, big game nights or event days. The afternoon slot is the best value on the block.
Go upstairs for the view. The Balcony has string lights, lounge seating and a fireplace for the cool months, and it looks out over Old Town. It’s one of the few open-air bars in this part of town; for others, see the rooftop bars and sunset patios guide. Since the space is rented out for private events, call ahead on weekends.
Plan for game days. Big NFL Sundays, March Madness and spring training fill the downstairs fast. Groups should reserve. Parking near Brown and Fifth is tight in the evening, so use a public garage or a rideshare. From here, the Entertainment District is a short walk north and the Old Town nightlife guide covers the rest.
North Brown Avenue and the 2010s bar boom
Brown Avenue is named for E.O. Brown, who ran the general store at Brown and Main from 1904, and its southern blocks still hold the oldest commercial buildings in Scottsdale. North of Indian School the street tells a later story. These blocks sit at the southern edge of the bar district that grew up from the 1990s around Stetson Drive, Saddlebag Trail and Indian Plaza.
Social Tap arrived in 2016, in the middle of a 2010s wave that changed what an Old Town bar looked like. The district’s nightclubs were giving way to venues that made money all day: patios, food you’d actually choose, brunch, and screens for every game. Social Tap was built for that model from the start, with a scratch kitchen and local drafts downstairs and, after 2019, a rooftop that could be sold as an event space.
The Balcony was part of a bigger trend. Old Town has added a string of rooftop bars since then, many of them on new hotels. Social Tap added one to an existing building, which gave a modest sports bar a second identity and a reason for groups to book it.
The honest assessment: Social Tap is a sports bar, and on a big game day it is as loud and crowded as any in town. But the food is made with more care than it needs to be, the prices are reasonable for Old Town, and the rooftop is one of the more relaxed places to have a drink above the district. That’s a useful combination for a neighborhood that mostly offers one or the other.