Photos by Diana Elizabeth, Eric Cassee, Richard Maack

Dear Heat,
Take a hike. We’re staying cool for the rest of the summer with the Valley’s iciest drinks, sweetest desserts, splashiest pools, most soothing spas, best indoor entertainment and a few super cool road trips.
See you next summer….
Love, Frosty in Phoenix


FROSTY COCKTAILS
Underground Drinks at the Rokerij
Dungeons get a bad rap. We associate them with shackles and iron maidens and medieval sadism, conveniently forgetting one important fact: Dungeons are fantastically well-insulated. Enter the basement bar at the Rokerij. Abutted by several thousand cubic-tons of earth and stone, the dark, den-like space looks and feels a hemisphere apart from late-summer Phoenix. Better still, owner Richardson Browne has sagely swapped out the shackles and iron maidens for tasteful Renaissance-style artwork and friendly bartenders who spin the best iTunes playlists in the Valley. With triple-digit temps soaring outside, nothing beats $5 happy hour glasses of Klinker Brick and a little Band of Horses. That’s why we’re shackled to the Rokerij.
Info: 6335 N. 16th St., Phoenix, 602-287-8900, burningembersphoenix.com

Beer Tasting at The Grill at TPC
With commanding 180-degree views of the verdant TPC Scottsdale Stadium golf course – home of the vaunted Waste Management Phoenix Open – this high-end steakhouse at the ritzy Fairmont Scottsdale Princess makes for awesomely scenic heat-avoidance, especially with drink in hand. Try the AZ Beer Tasting flight: Three palate-pleasing offerings (Devil’s Ale, HefeWeizen Wheat and Epicenter Amber Ale) from Valley microbrewery San Tan Brewing ($16). Why break a sweat golfing when you can get buzzed watching somebody else do it?
Info: 7575 E. Princess Drive, Scottsdale, 480-585-4848, fairmont.com/Scottsdale. Available 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Iruña’s Ginger Limonada
Have you ever visited Madrid in August? It ain’t exactly Seattle. So it follows that the Spanish would know a thing or two about staying cool during the scorching summer months – just as it follows that Aaron May’s Old Town tapas joint should feature this tantalizing heat-beater made by muddling candied ginger with Skyy Ginger Vodka, fresh lemons, lemonade and Sierra Mist. No, it’s not exactly a traditional Spanish favorite, but when it’s 115 degrees outside, the Ginger Limonada makes perfect cultural sense.
Info: 7217 E. First St., Scottsdale, 480-398-3020, irunaaz.com

MercBar’s Moscow Mule
For our money, the venerable Moscow Mule is the preeminent hot-weather tipple. Invented in the early 1940s by a trio of bored beverage executives, the cocktail combines vodka, ginger beer and a slice of lime (or, sometimes, cucumber) into one radically thirst-quenching elixir. Traditionally, the Mule is served in a copper mug, which enthusiastically conducts the icy coolness to your fingertips. Pure heaven. Try one at the MercBar – that somberly lit speakeasy near the Biltmore that’s always reminded us of a post-modern ski lodge.
Info: 2525 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, 602-508-9449, mercbar.com


SOBERING ICY DRINKS
Iced Coffee at Luci’s Healthy Marketplace
With its yawning garage-door entry, this north-central Phoenix coffee shop and health food market doesn’t look particularly cool. But it is, thanks to a stout air barrier system and perhaps the Valley’s best iced-coffee drink, the Luci Iced Toddy. Unlike most coffee folk, Luci’s baristas ferment their joe for 24 hours before icing it down and pouring it in your cup ($3.50-$3.75). This reduces acidity and makes for a superior sip. A tidy Toddy, indeed.
Info: 1590 E. Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, 602-773-1339, lucishealthymarketplace.com

Have a Ball at Boba Tea House
With 27 snow cone flavors (think green mango), 18 varieties of tea (think honey lemon), 15 yogurt selections (think strawberry lychee) and dozens of milk teas, slush beverages and iced coffees, this Taiwan-style refreshment mecca in Chandler could hydrate your sun-chapped soft tissues a hundred times over. The fun part: adding sweet, bb-sized tapioca balls – also known as boba – to your drink. It’s how they roll in Taiwan.
Info: 2055 N. Dobson Road, Chandler, 480-821-4008, bobateahouseinc.com

Tie One on at Buzzberry
Three words: Iced. Caramel. Latte. Intone them Ali Baba-style the next time you find yourself in north Scottsdale and need something magical and sweet to free you from the oppressive desert heat. Buzzberry also offers an intriguing menu of fruit smoothies with all the multivitamin, protein and “amino-repair” boosters you could ask for. No, we weren’t aware that our aminos were damaged, either, but with this ungodly heat, we don’t doubt that they could use some servicing.
Info: 5959 N. Granite Reef Road, Scottsdale, 480-717-9962, geturbuzz.com


EAT UP TO STAY COOL
Eat in the Raw at Blue Nile Café
Want a true beat-the-heat meal? Every Sunday and Monday, this Ethiopian eatery in Tempe offers full menus of raw, organic food, like the noodle-free pad Thai with coconut sauce and veggie “quiche” in a pecan crust. For dessert there’s a selection of chocolate bars laced with adjunct flavors such as mint, peanut butter and caramel. And there’s not a flame in sight.
Info: 933 E. University Drive, Ste. 112, Tempe, 480-377-1113, bluenilecafe.net

Eat Like a Vampire at Carlsbad Tavern
Dubbed “the Bat Cave” by management, the Carlsbad Tavern dining room becomes bargain-nosh nirvana after 10 p.m. with a late-night menu that includes many of the restaurant’s most popular New Mexico-style dishes – including carne adovada and blue corn enchiladas – at half the regular price. Couple that business with a reverse happy hour prickly pear margarita and you’re too cool for school.
Info: 3313 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale, 480-970-8164, carlsbadtavern.com

Slurp a Cucumber Sage Martini at Sapporo
It’s “arguably one of Scottsdale’s hottest restaurants,” proclaims the Sapporo website, and we appreciate the even-handed qualifier. But can this arguably hot sushi and nightlife mecca go the other way and keep it cool? We say definitely – so long as you’re drinking a crisp, fragrant cocktail made with Hendrick’s gin, cucumber and that most cooling of the minty shrubs, sage. No argument here – it’s a warm-weather winner.    
Info: 14344 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 480-607-1114, sapporoscottsdale.com

Be a Pho King Stud at Da Vang
We’ve heard that spicy food has a counter-intuitive cooling effect on the body, owing to a shifting calculus of ambient and relative internal temperatures. Maybe, maybe not. But we like the idea of beating the heat with a big, fragrant bowl of pho from Da Vang – the once-grody Vietnamese eatery that recently changed ownership and cleaned up its act. Served with jalapeño slices and a bushel of tangy sprigs, this traditional Vietnamese noodle soup will lead you down a path of glorious heat until you’re reborn on the other side – energized and curiously refreshed.
Info: 4538 N. 19th St., Phoenix, 602-242-3575, no website

Be a Cellar Dweller at Sassi
The Valley’s coolest – and by “coolest,” we mean the least hot – dining destination might be the wine cellar at Sassi, the villa-like southern Italian dining retreat in the north Scottsdale foothills. Available by reservation for parties of up to 14 people, and done in stately, high-backed chairs and subdued earth tones, the cellar provides a transporting dining experience that few restaurants can match. And if it’s cool enough for Sassi’s 200 Italian wines, it’s cool enough for you, meat-bag.
Info: 10455 E. Pinnacle Peak Pkwy., Scottsdale, 480-502-9095, sassi.biz

Veg Out at 24 Carrots
Some of us like artificial ingredients, excess sugar and meat. Others don’t. For the latter, we present 24 Carrots, the three-year-old smoothie shop and deli where tofu, locally sourced produce and flax seeds rule, keeping you healthy and cool. Breakfast includes such fresh, cooling offerings as honey-drizzled fruity almond toast and fruit-dolloped “Raw-ky Road” oats; while lunch folks choose from a robust stable of salads, wraps, pita pizzas and veggie burgers. Meat-eaters: Settle your beef somewhere else.
Info: 6140 W. Chandler Blvd., Chandler, 480-753-4411, 24carrotsjuice.com

Go Tapas in Paradise Valley
It might be purely imaginary – or perhaps a function of the heat-island effect – but Paradise Valley always feels a few degrees cooler than other parts of the Valley. It figures that the well-heeled folks would get the best temps; they also get some of the tastiest Spanish bar food, courtesy of Executive Chef Peter DeRuvo and his tequila-and-tapas Mbar concept at the InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa. Enjoy bites of bacon-sprinkled razor clams and medjool dates with serrano ham while you plot your move to the 85253.
Info: 4949 E. Lincoln Drive, Paradise Valley, 888-627-3010, pradolife.com/mbar

Cold Fish at Shinbay V.2
No less an authority than James Beard award-winning omakase mastermind Nobuo Fukuda – he of Sea Saw and Nobuo at Teeter House – calls Shinji Kurita the “finest sushi chef in Arizona.” Five years after the unceremonious demise of his Ahwatukee restaurant, ShinBay, Kurita is back in business. Also called ShinBay, the new place – which opened in May – resides on the same wily culinary frontier as Fukuda’s restaurants, blending Western haute cuisine with Japanese traditions. It’s kanpai-cool.
Info: 7001 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 480-664-0180, shinbay.com



For more of PHOENIX magazine’s '51 Ways to Beat the Heat', check back soon, find us at newsstands Valleywide or call 480-664-3960.  Subscribe today so you don’t miss another issue!