What it’s actually like
Most of the shops on Fifth Avenue are built for the person doing the shopping. Rooster Bus, at 7083 East Fifth near the Marshall Way corner, is built for the person who would rather not be. It is a men’s store with a stated philosophy of good clothes, good people and no overthinking, and it proves the point by putting a bar in the back. The Roost, which the shop bills as Scottsdale’s smallest bar, pours cold beer for whoever wants one while they browse, try things on or wait.
The clothes are the everyday kind, chosen to be worn again tomorrow rather than photographed once. Shirts and jackets from Roark, Faherty, Marine Layer, Taylor Stitch and Howler Bros; denim from AG, Citizens of Humanity, DL1961 and others; boots from Red Wing, sandals from Olukai and Hari Mari; hats, sunglasses and small leather goods. It is a well-edited version of the outdoor-casual menswear that fits the way men in Arizona actually dress, and the staff will help or leave you alone, whichever you prefer.
The name comes from the origin. In 2018 founder Mark Moffett bought a retired firefighter bus, gutted it and took it on the road around Arizona as a traveling men’s shop, with denim, boots and hats on board and a beer for the customer. A few years later the bus became stores: this one in Old Town, one in downtown Flagstaff and one in Uptown Sedona. The beer came along.
What to buy
A pair of jeans. The denim wall is the store’s backbone, and the staff are good at fit.
A shirt from one of the core labels. Roark, Faherty, Marine Layer or Taylor Stitch; the easy gift for a man who is impossible to buy for.
Red Wing boots or Olukai sandals. The two ends of an Arizona year, both on the shelf.
Parking, timing and the practical stuff
The store sits on the western stretch of the Fifth Avenue curve, a few steps from the Bronze Horse Fountain at Marshall Way and next door to Stones Crystal Shop. The shop points to free street parking and public lots nearby; in practice the public garage on the Fifth Avenue side near the canal and the free Civic Center garage off Drinkwater Boulevard are the sure bets. The Old Town on foot note maps the walk.
It keeps long, steady hours. Ten to six Monday through Saturday and ten to five on Sunday, every day of the week, which makes it an easy stop before dinner on Fifth.
Use it as the base camp. On a group weekend, a bachelor party especially, the store and its bar are a civilized place to regroup between lunch and the evening. Returns are accepted for 60 days at any of the three stores, so a purchase made in Scottsdale can be swapped in Flagstaff or Sedona.
Eat while you’re there
Citizen Public House along Fifth is the gastropub, and the natural next stop after a beer at The Roost. Herb Box and Berdena’s at 7051 East Fifth are lunch and coffee a few doors west. Cartel Roasting Co. holds the far end of the street, and FnB in Craftsman Court is the dinner reservation worth making.
How it got here
Fifth Avenue was cut in 1950 by craftsmen burned out of the Arizona Craftsmen building on Main Street, and through the 1950s it sold winter visitors the things Arizona made: silver, leather, Western clothing, Native art. For decades, men’s clothing in Old Town leaned Western, the boots and hats that went with the town’s West’s Most Western Town pitch.
The way men in Arizona dress changed more than the slogan did. By the 2010s the uniform across the state was outdoor-casual: good denim, a canvas or chambray shirt, work boots in winter and sandals the rest of the year. A new generation of brands, many of them born in surf and outdoor culture, grew up to sell it, and small independent shops became the place to find them.
Rooster Bus began in 2018 with the most literal idea of a mobile pop-up. Mark Moffett bought a retired firefighter bus, gutted it, stocked it with denim, boots and hats and drove it around Arizona, selling clothes the way you would sell them to a friend: less showroom, more conversation, and a beer. A few years later the business traded wheels for walls, opening permanent stores in Old Town Scottsdale, downtown Flagstaff and Uptown Sedona, and the Scottsdale store kept the beer by building The Roost into the back.
It is a small business on a small street, and it suits Fifth Avenue’s founding idea better than a men’s store with a bar might suggest. The avenue was built as a place where you could talk to the person selling you something. Rooster Bus just made sure there was somewhere to sit while you did.