Most bars have one design element that serves as a conversation starter. Night Owl Pizza & Drinks in South Scottsdale has dozens.
Wood panels and ephemera cover the walls, evoking Grandpa’s basement without appearing cluttered or contrived. “There’s so much thought that went into making it look like we didn’t put a lot of thought into it,” says Tucker Woodbury, who co-founded Valley restaurant group Genuine Concepts in 2006. In April, he opened Night Owl as a sister concept to previous projects The Little Woody and Ziggy’s Pizza.
“We want to build places we want to be in and make it feel like it’s been here a long time,” he adds. Woodbury and his wife, interior designer Trina Boyd, combined pieces from flea markets, antique stores and their personal collections to create “an approachable, unassuming place with a lot of character and a vintage, throwback vibe.”
Night Owl Pizza & Drinks
1645 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale
480-687-1827, nightowlaz.com
1. Vintage Skateboard Partition
These decks date from 1974 to 1982 and include an original Z-Flex cruiser board signed by pioneering skateboarder Jay Adams.
2. Arcade Games
Night Owl’s fleet of brand-new pinball machines have an old-school quality. “It would be great to have vintage pinball machines, but they break all the time and are really hard to repair,” Woodbury says.
3. Antique Bric-a-Brac
Everything from an original Mr. Potato Head to portraits of Woodbury’s parents adorn Night Owl’s walls, including a curio cabinet dedicated to owl figurines.
4. Ceiling Vans
Different colors and styles of Vans shoes glued to the rafters escort patrons to the bathroom.
5. Upcycled Tree Wall
Before Night Owl opened, a monsoon felled a tree on the patio. Instead of hauling it off, Woodbury’s team broke out a saw and hung pieces on the wall. “When we started making cuts, we started seeing owls [in the wood],” Woodbury says. “It was just meant to be.”
