Most summers in Old Town, restaurant news trickles in one address at a time. A rooftop here, a chophouse there, spaced far enough apart that you'd drive between them. That is not the shape of summer 2026. Six new concepts are landing inside a walkable rectangle bounded by Scottsdale Road, Camelback, Stetson Drive, and Third Avenue, and four of them are on second floors or higher.
If you live within a short walk of Scottsdale Road, that geography matters more than any single menu. The neighborhood is compressing into a rooftop-forward evening corridor, and the practical consequence is that for the first time in years, a summer night in Old Town can be planned entirely on foot.
The Stetson and Third Avenue Rooftop Cluster
Three of the summer's most talked-about rooms sit within a five-minute walk of one another.
Above All Else is taking the second floor of the space formerly occupied by STK at 7134 E. Stetson Drive. Austin Walter, CEO of Above All Hospitality, has been open about the design brief: a lot of diners are looking for that Instagrammable wow factor when they go out, and the concept is built around rooftop views and modern American plates with cocktails to match. Walter's earlier Old Town work includes Low Key Piano Bar, which gives some read on how the room will run at night.
Cielito, two blocks east at 7117 E. 3rd Ave., sits on the roof of the new AC Hotel Scottsdale Old Town. Cielito will span 3,100 square feet, with approximately 70 seats total, including a 14-seat bar and seating that extends onto the pool deck. The menu leans Tucson: focaccia sandwiches, fresh pasta, Milanese di Pollo, an espresso bar, and a wine bar under one roof. TWG developed the concept, led by anthropologist and concept strategist Alex Webb and award-winning chef and creative director Shon Foster, blending cultural research with culinary direction so that menu and mood emerge from an authentic understanding of the region.
Wolf by Vanderpump is already open a few blocks away on the seventh floor of Caesars Republic Scottsdale, 6,500 square feet of rooftop space with a dramatic central bar and a globally inspired menu that extends to an eighth-floor veranda. It functions as the north anchor of the cluster and gives residents a benchmark for what the two newer rooftops are aiming at.
| Rooftop | Address | Level | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Above All Else | 7134 E. Stetson Dr. | 2nd floor | Opening 2026 |
| Cielito | 7117 E. 3rd Ave. | Rooftop | Opened Feb. 2026 |
| Wolf by Vanderpump | Caesars Republic Scottsdale | 7th–8th floor | Open |
The point is not that Old Town suddenly has rooftops. It has always had rooftops. Old Town has always had a rooftop problem: the views are excellent, the execution is inconsistent. The point is that three operators with real track records are betting on the same three-block radius at the same time.
The Neighborhood-Scale Counterweight on Sixth Avenue
If the rooftop cluster is the loud story, Ari & Lloyd is the quiet one, and for residents it may be the more consequential opening.
Ari & Lloyd is preparing to debut near the corner of Stetson Drive and Sixth Avenue, bringing an upscale casual American bistro and cocktail-focused lounge together under one roof. The concept comes from local couple Katie Schnurr and Stephen Roach, who are transforming Roach's former cabinetry showroom at 7107 E. Sixth Ave. into what they describe as a more intimate, neighborhood-oriented gathering place. Katie Schnurr told Whatnow Phoenix the team is aiming to open by the end of July, pending final inspections and construction milestones.
Two design choices set the room apart from the Stetson rooftops. First, the space is split. The project will operate as two connected but distinct experiences. The Ari will serve as the restaurant portion, while The Lloyd is planned as a cocktail-forward lounge centered on craft drinks and lighter fare. Second, the culinary program is being shaped by chef Devan Cunningham, known as co-founder of CC's on Central and for his consulting work across Arizona kitchens. Brunch is planned after opening.
Named after the couple's dogs, converted from a cabinetry showroom, walking distance from three of the loudest rooftops in the neighborhood: this is what a resident restaurant looks like when it's built next door to a scene rather than trying to become one.
The Scottsdale Road Anchors
Head west two blocks and the corridor takes on a different character. This is the see-and-be-seen stretch.
Drake's Hollywood is moving into the former Buca di Beppo at 3828 N. Scottsdale Road. The 8,000-square-foot restaurant will be outfitted with decor that nods to old Hollywood glamour, including red leather booths and Art Deco chandeliers. The restaurant and bar is anticipated to open in 2026 on Scottsdale Road and First Street. This will be the fourth U.S. location of Drake's, joining outposts in Dallas, Houston and West Hollywood. The Scottsdale location will feature a valet-only entrance, which tells you exactly what kind of night the room is designed for.
40 LOVE is already open in Old Town, a restaurant lounge from co-founders Sean Mulholland and Avery Johnson Jr., developed in partnership with Niall Horan and DeAndre Hopkins. Later this year, DEPWAH, a French-Vietnamese concept with a rooftop lounge and espresso bar focused on Vietnamese coffee and matcha, joins the same stretch.
Two blocks east on Camelback Road, the Scottsdale Waterfront is absorbing its own anchor. BOA Steakhouse is set to open in the first half of 2026. For Innovative Dining Group, this is a homecoming, as they operated Sushi Roku at W Scottsdale for fifteen years before stepping back. BOA's Scottsdale kitchen will be led by Executive Chef Brendan Collins, whose resume includes Michelin-starred kitchens in London and a run of acclaimed Los Angeles restaurants. The Scottsdale location will also be the first in Arizona to feature a partnership with Four Sixes Ranch, the Texas operation widely recognized through its presence in Yellowstone, with a signature 18-ounce dry-aged ribeye from the ranch anchoring the menu.
The Address Density No One's Talking About
Read the addresses in a row: 7107 E. Sixth, 7117 E. 3rd, 7134 E. Stetson, 3828 N. Scottsdale, Scottsdale Waterfront. On a map, that is a fifteen-minute perimeter. This spring is different. Six weeks of openings have stacked themselves at three walkable nodes along the same Scottsdale Road corridor.
There is a wider industry read on why. Scottsdale's dining space is moving toward experiential concepts, emphasizing immersive environments and lifestyle integration over simple meal transactions. It's a switch that positions local venues competitively against both national chains and home-dining habits. The Camelback corridor openings also suggest Scottsdale is no longer the market where national concepts test a cautious second location. It's where they bring the flagship version.
For residents, that translates to something concrete: the operators arriving this summer are not staffing to a soft launch. They are staffing to a flagship, which means service ramp times should be shorter and reservation pressure will be higher in the first ninety days than it typically is for a new Old Town room.
Planning Your Summer Around It
A few practical notes if you already live in the neighborhood.
- Book Cielito for daylight, not dinner. The pool-deck seating is the differentiator, and summer late afternoons on the roof of the AC Hotel are the intended use case. Save the rooftop dinner slot for Above All Else once it opens, when the sun angle on Stetson works in your favor.
- Treat Ari & Lloyd as your Tuesday room. Chef-driven neighborhood spots with a split bar-and-dining layout tend to reward regulars faster than they reward weekend traffic. A late-July opening means August and September are the window to become one.
- Skip Drake's on the first two weekends. A valet-only entrance on Scottsdale Road at First Street during a national-brand debut is the definition of a room to visit on a Wednesday in month two.
- Watch what closes. The former STK space became Above All Else. The former Buca di Beppo is becoming Drake's. Roach's former cabinetry showroom is becoming Ari & Lloyd. Old Town's summer inventory turn is happening inside existing shells, which is worth remembering the next time a longtime tenant goes quiet on a lease.
The takeaway for anyone already living here is not that Old Town has new restaurants. It is that the new ones are close enough to each other that the neighborhood, for the first time in a while, rewards residents who plan an evening on foot over residents who plan one in a car.
If you own a home nearby and are thinking about how a denser, more walkable Old Town evening scene might shape the value of your block over the next few cycles, Clayton Wolfe is happy to share what he's seeing on the ground. Request a Private Consultation for a candid read on your property and the corridor around it.
