Phoenix from the Convention Center

Updated last: February 23, 2021 (to reflect permanent closures and changes, not temporary measures due to COVID-19).

Originally published May 30, 2016.

Let’s say you’re in town for a thing at the Phoenix Convention Center. You have a spare hour here and there. Maybe a spare afternoon. And then you have a flight to catch. How can you get a little taste of Phoenix while you’re here?

Or maybe you’re a local, looking for somewhere new to eat or hang out while you’re downtown for an event like Phoenix Fan Fusion (formerly Phoenix Comicon) or before you head to a symphony performance.

Here are some tips for a Phoenix experience with the Convention Center at the epicenter. All these locations are easy to get to from there without a car.

At the Convention Center

View: There are places to sit and experience the Arizona climate outside of all 3 of the Convention Center buildings (North, South, West). In the North Building, check out the view from the second- and third-floor (200 and 300 level) terraces on the south side of the building. Look for the mountains beyond the downtown. (Building maps)

Food: While all the Phoenix Convention Center Food is managed by Aventura, a Phoenix-based division of Aramark, they do contract with local companies such as City Central Coffee in the Metro Marché food court in the North Building. Some events (like Phoenix Fan Fusion) may also have locally-owned food trucks outside.

Music: The West Building of the Convention Center is actually connected to Phoenix Symphony Hall, where there is a variety of performances throughout the season. Check the Phoenix Symphony’s online schedule for concert and ticket information.

Bike Share: There are bright green Grid Bikes you can rent by the minute from kiosks outside the Convention Center, in Heritage Square, and several other locations downtown. Sign up first online or via the Social Bicycles app – membership is required even for a single “Pay as You Go” ride.

In the Neighborhood

There’s tons of stuff to see/do/eat within walking distance. Here are some recommendations, in order of their (rough) distance from Phoenix Convention Center.

.2 mi Cartel Coffee (1 N 1st St)

Relax and sip some really good coffee. It’s very close to the Convention Center, but just far enough away to be much less hectic.

~~They share space with Kaleidoscope Juice, in case you also need a smoothie, salad, or breakfast sandwich.~~ Update: This Kaleidoscope location has closed. However, you can still find them in Scottsdale, Gilbert, and North Phoenix.

.3 Cityscape (1 E Washington St)

Two blocks of mixed-use space, including residences, offices, fitness centers, a hotel, salon, barbershop, drugstore, comedy club, shopping, and restaurants.

Patriots Park – Before the high rise buildings of CityScape, there was Patriots Park. The newer development includes a park-like central plaza with a grassy area, splash pad, and a solar-powered charging station.
Check the event schedule for music, comedy, and free outdoor movies.

The Arrogant Butcher offers a straight-up delicious variety of new American dishes, plus charcuterie and a raw bar.

.3 Arizona Center (455 North 3rd Street)

The best thing about Arizona Center is probably its Garden Grotto. Pathways wind through desert plants and past a pond. There’s a fair amount of shade and lots of benches. I feel like a little garden walk is a great remedy for convention hall chaos.

There is also shopping and restaurants.

.4 Heritage Square (113 N 6th St)

Part of the original Phoenix townsite, the Square is now home to several museums, a couple restaurants, and cultural festivals throughout the year.

Rosson House – Victorian House and History Museum. You can only go inside with a ticket for a 60-minute tour.
Pizzeria Bianco – Possibly the best pizza in the U.S., and people fly to Phoenix to eat here.

.5 Sports Venues

Chase Field – Watch some Diamondbacks baseball under the famous retractable roof or take a tour.
Phoenix Suns Arena – For basketball, big concerts, and other arena-y events.

Just stops away…

The Valley Metro light rail is a convenient way to get around Central Phoenix (some tips). There’s just one line and automatic ticket kiosks at each station.

You can catch westbound trains off Washington in front of the West Building / Symphony Hall. The eastbound stop is on Jefferson, just across from the South Building.

Hop on the westbound train (it’ll curve north) to check out these places, listed by number of stops from the Convention Center.

2 stops: Civic Space Park area – Van Buren/Central Ave

Her Secret is Patience sculpture
Crescent Ballroom – Bar, Mexican restaurant, and concert venue near park. Free live music in the lounge daily, including flamenco shows on Saturday nights.
~~Phoenix Public Market – Cafe open daily,~~ farmers’ market on Saturday, ~~food trucks midday Friday.~~ Update: The cafe has closed but Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market still happens on Saturdays.

3 stops: Roosevelt Row – Roosevelt/Central Ave

First Fridays – Roosevelt Row, the arts district of Roosevelt Street, comes alive for the monthly First Friday night artwalk, when the street is taken over by pedestrians and art galleries are open late. Boutiques and cafes have extended hours. There is live music, an outdoor arts market, free trolleys to transport you from place to place, and a party atmosphere.
Third Fridays are a newer addition with fewer crowds and more gallery openings.
MADE Art Boutique offers locally handcrafted items.

~~DeSoto Central Market – Food court of great local restaurants, bar, and coffee shop with lots of room to meet up with friends.~~
Pita Jungle is a vegetarian-friendly, Mediterranean-inspired restaurant with a nice, big patio and local art on the walls. They offer specials for happy hour ~~and reverse happy hour (9pm to close).~~

Lola Coffee Bar is right next door to Pita Jungle. It’s a warm, welcoming place to hang out.
FilmBar – Cinema showcasing indie, local, cult, and classic films with a beer and wine bar.

4 stops: Phoenix Art Museum – McDowell/Central Ave

Collections include American, Asian, European, Latin American, and Western American Art, fashion, photography, and contemporary installations, such as the interactive You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies.

The museum also hosts traveling exhibitions, like Hollywood Costume, Michelangelo, and Super Indian – Fritz Scholder’s bold, bright pop art.

Extended hours/voluntary donations times on Wednesdays (3-9pm) and First Fridays (6-10pm), plus all afternoon on Second Sundays (12-5pm). During these times, no admission ticket is required for general entry. You have the option of making a donation via a cash box in the lobby.

5 stops: Heard Museum – Encanto/Central Ave

Fantastic museum of the historic and contemporary culture of indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially the Southwest. Collections include work on canvas, jewelry, pottery, texiles, and video interviews.

~~Extended hours and free admission on First Fridays, 6-10pm.~~

May 2, 2016April 27, 2019

Free Outdoor Movies

I love the feel of free community events where anyone can be in the audience, like outdoor concerts or Ballet Under the Stars.

Outdoor movies are particularly interesting because they turn the whole movie viewing experience on its head. In the theater, it’s all about blocking out the surrounding environment – controlling light and sound so that nothing distracts from what’s on screen. Outdoors, the environment becomes part of the experience.

As a teenager, I saw the movie Twister at a drive-in while a monsoon storm was moving in, the wind gusting hard and the sky turning a surreal shade of orange. I’m pretty sure I thought it was a better movie than it actually was because of the natural drama around me. On the other hand, sometimes the sound isn’t good or something blocks your view or the people from the Portlandia sketch show up.

Do you ever go to free or outdoor movie events?

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Some places for free movies (inside or outside) here in Arizona…

May 2016:

Tempe Kiwanis Park
Sun City West Beardsley Park
Chandler CinePark

Summer:

Tucson Movies in the Park

Ongoing:

2nd Friday Nights Out – monthly in Downtown Mesa
Phoenix libraries – Weekly Wednesday Afternoon Movies at Burton Barr and Classic Movie Thursdays at Agave.
City Lights Movie Night – monthly at Cityscape (Double feature of Back to the Future I & II May 13)

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March 24, 2016March 23, 2016

Michelangelo in Draft

By the time he was 37, Michelangelo was finishing up painting the Sistine Chapel.

Um, reading that kinda made me wonder what I’ve done in my life.

I was at the Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum with my mom and art-history-major aunt looking at a collection of his drawings. They were drafts, really, studies for later works, mostly in thin lines of red or black chalk – but still breathtaking.

These permanent works-in-progress normally reside in Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy, but 26 of them are on tour and have made a stop in Phoenix.

Usually, when you see artwork, you see the final product. It is a complete thing: a painting, a sculpture. It’s easy to forget it didn’t just leap fully formed from the artist’s head.

In these drawings, you see so much more of the process – an arm sketched in multiple positions, geometric lines that determined the position of a face, an architectural drawing on the back of a letter.

Maybe like the Renaissance equivalent of cocktail napkin sketches, or, as Cammy Brothers of the Wall Street Journal put it: “Masterpieces on a Shopping List.”

After circling through the exhibition, I felt a bit better. Even this great idealist had projects that had to be simplified due to budget constraints. And works that were never completed. And more ideas than he had time for.

Even Michelangelo started with rough drafts.

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The Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition will be at the Phoenix Art Museum through this Sunday, March 27.

February 4, 2016February 5, 2020

Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival Wrap Up

The Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival is a 3-day expo focused on quilting and textile arts. It takes place in several western U.S. cities throughout the year with local vendors in each location adding variation to the pattern.

Backing Up

With 350 booths, the Phoenix event is actually the largest of the Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festivals.

It’s held annually at the Arizona State Fairgrounds with 2 exhibition buildings bursting at the seams with booths and a third dedicated to seminars.

I went last week with veteran of the festival and quilter/sewer/fabric crafter Cyndee (a.k.a. my mom) as my guide.

We arrived well before the 10am opening time, and there were already lines at the entrances. That’s because this is a tenacious crowd, unafraid to fight for a giveaway or stake out seats at a seminar or interrupt a demo until their questions get answered.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that quilters are scrappy.

The show program is available online (as well as onsite), so you could piece together your schedule ahead of time or just improvise when you get there.

We blocked out time to attend a seminar and spent most of the rest of the day threading our way through the crowds in the exhibition halls.

The Top of the Class

Seminars

Each day there are seminars on topics like quilt wall hanging, embellishment, and shortcuts, as well as some focused on specific products. They repeat at the same time each day of the festival, so you can catch everything you want to.

We went to a seminar called “Recycle It!” with Linda Winner of Winner Designs and sewing tool manufacturer Martelli Enterprises. She was a fun, engaging speaker, getting the class involved and moving quickly through a lot of projects.

She defined “recycling” really broadly to include using leftover fabric, and that’s what most of the seminar turned out to be about, but she did include some upcycling and repurposing tips too. The emphasis on using leftover fabric meant ample opportunity to plug her products. She’s designed some really useful-looking templates, but I just felt there was a bit more pitching than the topic warranted.

Again, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Someone whose job is selling tools for fabric is bound to have some bias.

Make and takes

Some exhibitors offer open make-and-take projects – needlepoint, Japanese braiding, a beaded fob to keep you from losing your scissors, etc. – with a small materials fee (usually $3-5). The one whose project we had planned to do had forgotten her materials, but we did see several other make-and-takes in progress. Since the exhibitor will probably be splitting time between instruction and running the booth, allow a little extra time for your project.

The Sandwich

Food at all the festivals comes from the fairgrounds or venue where they’re located.

In Phoenix’s case, that’s C and C Concessions, which has permanent operations at the Fairgrounds. Offerings included pizza, baked potatoes, roasted almonds, and flame-grilled burgers. Also, the ice cream stand sells sandwiches (like chicken salad. Not like ice cream sandwiches. Or quilt sandwiches.), salads, and some really good pita chips with red pepper hummus.

There are lots of picnic tables, and you also have the option to bring your own lunch.

Exhibitor Sampler

There were brands demonstrating sewing machines, longarm quilting machines, and furniture, as well as individual quilters and pattern makers selling their own work.

Of course, I’m always interested in the makers.

Many of the exhibitors we met not only had interesting work and a passion for what they do but were also friendly and happy to talk about it.

I shouldn’t be surprised when people surrounded by quilts are warm.

Some highlights:

Lauretta Crites is a pattern-maker and one half of A Couple of Old Broads, the company she runs with her friend Cindy Meyers. She showed us her handy cross-body bags made with a pattern you can customize to fit your stuff.

the-sampler.com had a super colorful booth with fabrics, patterns, and quilt kits.

Joyce Teng of TSC Designs had stamps, ink, and lots of shades of glitter. I associate stamps with paper crafting, but we also saw quilts with stamped designs at the show.

Gale and Carl Carlson, the couple behind Stitch in Time has spent years building relationships as far away as Thailand and Bali, bringing back textiles like intricately folded Thai appliqué and beautiful sari silk, which Gale incorporates into jackets. You can also buy the textiles separately for your own projects.

Quilter Wayne Snyder of Bear Quilts does longarm quilting for Quilts of Valor, a volunteer organization that provides quilts for veterans. He also sells kits for quilters who want to piece together a quilt top that he can finish with the longarm.

Bob Miller makes custom beaded earrings with craft-themed charms (think tiny sewing machines or scissors) and steampunk jewelry.

Mary Fatula of Lumenaris designs tons of inventive felt kits for purses, pillows, coasters, cozies, decor, and perfectly adorable petit fours.

Pam and Tom Keenan of Pocket Change Fabric sell colorful handmade Mola shoes, Ghana baskets, quilts with bold designs, and fun fabrics.

The Splinters & Threads booth featured stacks of beautiful wooden printing blocks hand carved in India, as well as paints and quilting supplies.

This show is the only thing that Chuck and Karen Nolke will drive their RV out to Arizona for. He fires lightweight, one-of-a-kind porcelain pieces, and she makes them into jewelry.

Robin of Bird Brain Designs had a booth with full size and mini quilts with her funny “robinisms” expressions, lots of vintage sewing items, and even a purse made from a gourd. She just published Snow Happy: Whimsical Embroidery Designs to Mix and Match.

The Lacey Ladies of Arizona (chapter of the International Organization of Lace, Inc.) was there working on beautiful bobbin lacework. They hold regular meetings for lacemakers and will be celebrating Lace Day this November.

Tying Up

There are lots of great resources and inspiration at the festival for anyone who quilts or does any kind of fabric craft.

If you’re in Arizona and didn’t make the Phoenix show, the smaller, less-crowded Tucson show happens in November. Check quiltcraftsew.com for the full festival schedule.

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We were guests of the Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival.

November 30, 2015May 23, 2023

Thanksgiving at Usery Park

Every few years, my mom decides it’s time for a Thanksgiving picnic.

We’re kind of spoiled here in the Phoenix area by almost always having gorgeous weather on Thanksgiving Day. I guess we kind of pay for it with the crazy hot summers.

Anyway, ever since I was a kid, some years we have traditional Thanksgiving with a whole turkey and a dining room table, and other years we have turkey sandwiches at a desert picnic table.

This year, it was just my parents, Phillip, and I. We kept things super simple and picnicked at Usery Mountain Regional Park.

We still had the boisterous, house-full-of-people experience with Phillip’s side of the family the following Saturday.

But Thanksgiving Day was all blue skies and saguaros.

After picnicking, we took a short hike, chatting some and listening to the gravelly trail crunch under our feet, a cactus wren calling to us, and far off coyotes howling. The sun dipped low to backlight the landscape, putting glowing edges around fuzzy chollas and creosote bushes with their tiny, fragrant leaves, and making the evening seem magical.

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