a genteel place to stop for a cup, right next to the Hotel Vendome just south of Courthouse Plaza.
Expensive
Murphy’s AMERICAN Prescott’s high-end steakhouse, Murphy’s is housed in an 1890 mercantile building that’s on the National Register of Historic Places; it’s long been one of Prescott’s favorite special-occasion restaurants. Sparkling leaded-glass doors usher diners into a high-ceilinged room with fans revolving slowly overhead. Many of the shop’s original shelves can still be seen in the lounge area, and the restaurant does a good job of creating a historical ambience. The best bets on the menu are the mesquite-grilled meats, but the fish specials can also be good.
201 N. Cortez St. www.murphysprescott.com. 928/445-4044. Main courses $19–$49. Daily 11am–10pm. Brunch Sun 11am–3pm.
Moderate
El Gato Azul MEDITERRANEAN This casual but careful creekside restaurant in downtown Prescott is a great choice. By careful I mean that they are serious about food. You can have as few or as many tapas (small plates) as you and your group want—try the green chili carnitas, the fried artichokes, or the sticky chicken.
316 W. Goodwin St. www.elgatoazulprescott.com. 928/445-1070. Main courses $8–$12 lunch, $12–$21 dinner; tapas $6–$13. Daily 11am–9pm.
Inexpensive
Dinner Bell Café AMERICAN A big hit with local students and other people in the know, this casual little breakfast-and-lunch place has a split personality. Up front there’s a classic old diner, in business since 1939, while in back is a colorful modern space with walls that roll up in good weather. Regulars order either the waffles (served with a variety of toppings) or the thick, juicy burgers. (The waffles are available at lunch, but I don’t think you can get the burger at breakfast.) The setting, a block off Whiskey Row, makes this a great hideaway for a quick meal; kids will enjoy wandering along the adjacent creekside path.
321 W. Gurley St. 928/445-9888. Main courses $9–$11. No credit cards. Mon–Fri 6:30am–2pm; Sat–Sun 7am–2pm.
Prescott Entertainment & Nightlife
Performing Arts
The Yavapai College Performing Arts Center (www.ycpac.com; 928/776-2000) hosts a wide range of shows, from Cowboy Poet gatherings to national acts of some repute. Check the center’s schedule to see who’s in town. The Prescott Fine Arts Association, 208 N. Marina St. (www.pfaa.net; 928/445-3286) puts on plays and musicals in the 1891 Sacred Heart Church, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. A block away, you’ll find the Prescott Elks Theater, 117 E. Gurley St. (www.prescottelkstheater.com; 928/777-1370), a renovated theater, built in 1905, that hosts everything from jazz nights (on the second Monday of the month) to touring artists to movie nights.
Bars & Saloons
Back in the days when Prescott was the territorial capital and a booming mining town, it supported dozens of rowdy saloons, most of them along Montezuma Street on the west side of Courthouse Plaza, which became known as Whiskey Row. Legend has it there was a tunnel from the courthouse to one of the saloons so lawmakers wouldn’t be seen ducking into the saloons during business hours. On July 14, 1900, a fire consumed most of Whiskey Row, although cowboys and miners managed to drag the tremendously heavy bar of the Palace saloon to safety across the street before it was damaged.
Whiskey Row is no longer a place where respectable women shouldn’t be seen, but it still has a few noisy saloons with genuine Wild West flavor. Some feature live country music on weekends and are dark and dank enough to provide solace to a cowboy (or a construction worker) after a long day’s work. And within a few blocks of Whiskey Row, you can hear country, folk, jazz, and rock at a surprisingly diverse assortment of bars, restaurants, and clubs. In fact, Prescott has one of the densest concentrations of live-music clubs in the state.
To see what this street’s saloons looked like back in the old days, drop by the Palace, 120 S. Montezuma St. (www.historicpalace.com; 928/541-1996), which still has that classic bar up front. These days, the Palace is more of a restaurant than a saloon, but there’s live music on weekends and, a couple times a month, dinner-theater performances—generally tribute bands to this or that country-rock artist, but occasionally an evening of historical tales and music. Call to find out if anything is happening while you’re in town.
If you want to drink where the ranchers drink and not where the hired hands carouse, head upstairs to the Jersey Lilly Saloon, 116 S. Montezuma St. (www.jerseylillysaloon.com; 928/541-7854), which attracts a more well-heeled clientele than the street-level saloons. A block away, the Raven Café, 142 N. Cortez St. (www.ravencafe.com; 928/717-0009) is the most artsy nightlife venue in town: It has the best beer list (with an emphasis on Belgian beers and American microbrews) and an entertainment lineup that ranges from Monday-night movies to live jazz and bluegrass on weekends. As the town becomes more upscale, you’ll also find joints like the Point Bar & Lounge (www.prescottbrewingcompany.com; 928/237-9027), which boasts of organic ingredients in its craft cocktails and some 150 different whiskeys, and the Prescott Brewing Company, 130 W. Gurley St. (www.prescottbrewingcompany.com; 928/771-2795), which brews and serves its own tasty microbrews.
Jerome & the Verde Valley
35 miles NE of Prescott; 28 miles W of Sedona; 130 miles N of Phoenix
I’ll put it simply: You have to go to Jerome. Few towns anywhere in Arizona make more of an impression on visitors than this historic mining town, clinging to the slopes of Cleopatra Hill 2,000 feet above the Verde Valley.
On a clear day, the view from Jerome is stupendous—it’s possible to see for more than 50 miles, with the red rocks of Sedona (p. 190), the Mogollon Rim (p. 197), and the San Francisco Peaks (p. 257) all visible in the distance. What’s more, in the past decade this iconoclastic arts enclave
a genteel place to stop for a cup, right next to the Hotel Vendome just south of Courthouse Plaza.
