In March 2019, the tiki-themed Drunk Munk opened in its place, serving seafood, sushi, and a whole page of tropical cocktails.Ĭharles Barth El Charro Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge / Unoccupied The dish continues to thrive on the adopting menus at Citizen Public House and The Gladly as the Original Chop (and you can find it at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport mini-location of Cowboy Ciao). A major testament to Cowboy Ciao’s influence is the Chef Bernie Kantak-created Stetson Chopped Salad - which eventually inspired merchandise and a Facebook fan page. Owner Peter Kasperski closed both his Old Town Scottsdale sites, Cowboy and Kazimierz World Wine Bar, in October 2018 (though Kazimierz Wine & Whiskey Bar opened in 2019). It opened in 1997, and inside, the place was Scottsdale to a T - white tablecloths but rustic décor, twinkle lights and saloon-style darkness, well-mannered diners mixed with rowdy spring training fans. Now it’s part of a large collection of memorabilia at Raceway Bar and Grill in Maricopa.Ĭowboy Ciao was a baby of Old Town Scottsdale, sitting on the northeast corner of Stetson Drive and Sixth Avenue. The Arizona Vintage Sign Coalition tried to preserve the sign when the restaurant was demolished, but sadly, that didn’t happen. The site was sold to Gateway Community College, and is now a parking lot and busy thoroughfare for strolling college students and pedestrians. Finally, the original location closed in 2015. “I think he spent as much money on that sign as he did on the building.”īill Johnson’s Big Apple grew into a small Phoenix chain, but the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014, losing its locations in Mesa and north Phoenix. It went up at a time when signage was huge, when you had to have a bigger, bolder, brighter sign than your next-door neighbor to attract more attention,” Shore says. “They were known for this humongous sign right on Van Buren. Johnson was a cowboy actor, stuntman, and radio personality who had broadcast his show from the restaurant, with guests including Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.īut that’s not what everyone remembers - it’s more the large sign reading “Let’s Eat” in glowing neon. The family-run eatery was the type of place with sawdust on the floor and a menu of chuckwagon-style selections. Opened in 1956, Bill Johnson’s Big Apple was a themed restaurant on Van Buren Street. Here’s a look at 21 favorite Valley restaurants (slide left or right to see the entire image) that have closed, and what those same spots look like now.Ĭharles Barth Bill Johnson’s Big Apple / Parking lot
“If you have a celebration, you go to a restaurant, and you start developing histories with those restaurants.”įor many, those moments live on in memory. “Food is such a connector for so many things,” says the “hip historian,” Marshall Shore, who helped us with this project. The first McDonald’s franchise put up the chain’s first golden arches in central Phoenix. Designer Glen Guyett made Valley eateries legendary for iconic signs like the one outside Bill Johnson’s Big Apple. The Phoenix area has had some fascinating restaurants.ĭon & Charlie’s and Pink Pony fed famous athletes for decades. The My Florist sign on McDowell Road, stories of purse stools at Mary Elaine’s, and what the Obamas ordered at the old stair-step Macayo’s.
Though essentially gone, reminders linger everywhere.