Opened: May 2024
Restaurateurs TJ Culp and Esther Noh (of Restaurant Progress and Sottise) scooped up the tiny, ’40s-era diner languishing on Roosevelt and 10th Street (where Welcome Diner got its start) and created a funky late-night hangout for their F&B compadres. After 10 p.m. most nights, the nine-stool counter and outdoor tables are packed with industry peeps who knock back Fernet shots, $10 cocktails, lowbrow beer (PBR and a $3 Bud Heavy) and cheap, hearty eats that evoke the home cooking of yesteryear. Lean into the nostalgia with a “cheap sloppy Jo” ($5) – sweet, succulent ground beef capped with melted cheese and mounded onto a buttery brioche bun – or a hybrid Not So Sonoran Dog ($9), loaded with escabeche, mustard, crema, tomatoes, green onions and more. Sadly, the Nashville hot chicken sandwich ($10) is all crunchy breading and scant chicken, but elote ribs (corn cut from the cob in one curving swath, $10), slathered in mayo and crema, dusted with cotija and jazzed up with hot, tangy escabeche, are irresistible. Favorite: the Reuben-esque smoked bologna sammy ($10) with Swiss, sauerkraut and Russian dressing. Accept the premise – cheap, filling and decent food – and you’ll love Sidewinder.
Wild Card: Go healthy (air quotes here) with Ma’s Taco Salad ($12): seasoned beef, Doritos, iceberg, cheese, tomato, jalapeños and Catalina dressing.
924 E. Roosevelt St., 602-626-8535, sidewinderphx.com
