New Tempe taproom expected to open in August, Gilbert location in the works.
The 2026 Chinese zodiac says it’s the year of the Fire Horse, but in the East Valley, it’s very much the year of the Phantom Fox.
Trent Smith and Eric Cady, co-owners of Phantom Fox Beer Company in Downtown Mesa, just received the keys to their new Tempe location on Mill Avenue and Sixth Street and gave PHOENIX magazine an early look inside before demolition and remodeling begins.
“We want to put our vibe on everything,” Smith says. “If you’ve been to our locations, you know we like brick and metal and some wood, and we already have a lot of that here. It’s more of how we want it to look visually, and it will feel a lot like the Mesa location.”
Smith notes the infrastructure is in place where they don’t need to dig trenches or pull additional permits that would likely lead to delays. He wants the Tempe taproom to be open by late August, which is also when the Phantom Fox team expects to get the keys to its new Gilbert location at Germann Road and Val Vista Drive.
“This will be a busy year for us, but it’s a lot of opportunity,” Smith says. “We can make enough beer to support three locations, so if we decide to do anything else beyond that, we’ll have to look into maybe expanding the actual brewery operation.”
NEW LOCATIONS = MORE FOOD + BEER OPTIONS
The Phantom Fox team jokes that they’re married to Goat and Ram, the pizzeria inside the Downtown Mesa location. “Wherever we go, they go,” laughs social media manager Paige Linthicum—one of the team members on site for the build–out plans.
Goat and Ram will have a bigger kitchen to work with in Tempe, taking over a space previously occupied by Illegal Pete’s, which closed in 2024. Cady and Smith remember when the building housed My Big Fat Greek Restaurant back in the day when they were at students at ASU and regularly on Mill Avenue.
“We’ve been coming down here a lot during the day, nights and weekends after not being down here on Mill for at least a decade,” Cady says. “There’s a nice diversity of demographics down here, and we have regulars who tell us they can’t wait for Tempe to open because they live nearby.”
The regulars and new clientele will notice an expanded food menu from Goat and Ram, which will include slices, wings and fries. Beer offerings are likely to be bigger and bolder as well.
“The second taproom allows us to brew more beer based on our ability to go through more beer,” says Bobby Vigil, the operations and distribution manager for Phantom Fox. “We’ll be able to do larger batch sizes of core products and more smaller–batch brews. We’re thinking of doing a pickle beer!”
Phantom Fox will still do all the brewing at its Main Street location in Mesa, which recently expanded and added about 2,000 square feet to its dining room. The new Tempe location will be roughly the same size as Mesa.
TREPIDATION ABOUT TEMPE?
Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe has changed wildly in different directions over the past couple of decades. Longtime, locally owned community staples such as Rula Bula, Monti’s La Casa Vieja and Hippie Gypsy helped turn Mill Avenue into perhaps the most-recognized and active downtown area in the Valley. Those businesses shuttered in the 2010s and many others sold or went out of business and allowed out-of-state franchises to move in. The trend that has followed in recent years is empty storefronts and a severe lack of character, which the city will no longer stand for, according to recent announcements.
Last December, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods announced a refresh for Mill Avenue: a bold plan to revitalize infrastructure and persuade restaurants to fill in those empty buildings and return a local flavor to downtown. Phantom Fox Beer Co. was one of the businesses that signed on, thanks to some friendly recommendations.
“It came about because Armando Hernandez [owner of Taco Chiwas and neighbor to Phantom Fox] turned down the mayor’s offer, but mentioned us as someone to reach out to,” Cady says. “At the same time, Julian Wright [owner of Pedal Haus Brewery in Tempe] told the mayor he should reach out to us. Two different people that Woods respects and wanted to be involved in the Mill Avenue reboot referenced us as a good fit for down here.”
When pressed on the issue of businesses routinely turning over on Mill Avenue, the team at Phantom Fox is confident its culture of customer service will help rebuild Downtown Tempe in the same way it helped build up Downtown Mesa.
“I think we’ve established an incredible relationship with the neighborhood,” Vigil says. “Between Chupacabra Taproom [also owned by Smith and Cady] in the last seven years and having Downtown Mesa turn from almost nothing to what it is now—and being the baseline of that is huge. Over that time, we’ve had a great team, did everything the best we could and really earned that clientele.”
Look for Phantom Fox Beer Co. and Goat and Ram to start hiring for its new location soon. They say to expect posts on their Instagram feed announcing the new job openings in Tempe.
If You Go
Expected Opening: Late August 2026
525 S. Mill Ave., Tempe
phantomfox.beer
@phantomfoxbeerco on Instagram
