If you have lived within a few blocks of Scottsdale Road for any stretch of time, you know the standing complaint about Old Town evenings. The good rooms were spread out. A dinner at one address and a nightcap at another meant a car, a valet line, and a decision about who was driving. Summer 2026 quietly ended that arithmetic. Six new concepts are landing inside a walkable rectangle bounded by Scottsdale Road, Camelback, Stetson Drive, and Third Avenue, and four of them are on second floors or higher. The neighborhood is compressing into a rooftop-forward evening corridor, and the practical consequence is that for the first time in years, a summer night in Old Town can be planned entirely on foot.
That is the thesis of this month for anyone already living here. The rest of this post is what to do with it before the season turns.
The five-minute rectangle
Read the addresses in a row and the map becomes the argument.
| Room | Address | Floor |
|---|---|---|
| Above All Else | 7134 E. Stetson Drive | Second, rooftop |
| Drake's Hollywood | 3828 N. Scottsdale Road | Ground, valet-only entry |
| Ari & Lloyd | Former Roach's cabinetry showroom | Ground |
| DEPWAH | Old Town, same corridor | Rooftop lounge |
| BOA Steakhouse | Scottsdale Waterfront | Ground |
| Cielito | Rooftop, AC Hotel Scottsdale Old Town | Rooftop |
On a map, that is a fifteen-minute perimeter. The individual rooms would be interesting anywhere. Together, this close, they change what an evening looks like.
A few specifics worth knowing before you book.
Above All Else is taking the second floor of the space formerly occupied by STK at 7134 E. Stetson Drive. Austin Walter, CEO of Above All Hospitality, has been open about the design brief: a lot of diners are looking for that Instagrammable wow factor when they go out, and the concept is built around rooftop views and modern American plates with cocktails to match.
Drake's Hollywood is moving into the former Buca di Beppo at 3828 N. Scottsdale Road. The 8,000-square-foot restaurant will be outfitted with decor that nods to old Hollywood glamour, including red leather booths and Art Deco chandeliers. This will be the fourth U.S. location of Drake's, joining outposts in Dallas, Houston and West Hollywood. The Scottsdale location will feature a valet-only entrance, which tells you exactly what kind of night the room is designed for.
BOA Steakhouse is set to open in the first half of 2026 at Scottsdale Waterfront. For Innovative Dining Group, this is a homecoming, as they operated Sushi Roku at W Scottsdale for fifteen years before stepping back. BOA's Scottsdale kitchen will be led by Executive Chef Brendan Collins, whose resume includes Michelin-starred kitchens in London and a run of acclaimed Los Angeles restaurants. The Scottsdale location will also be the first in Arizona to feature a partnership with Four Sixes Ranch, the Texas operation widely recognized through its presence in Yellowstone, with a signature 18-ounce dry-aged ribeye from the ranch anchoring the menu.
40 LOVE is already open in Old Town, a restaurant lounge from co-founders Sean Mulholland and Avery Johnson Jr., developed in partnership with Niall Horan and DeAndre Hopkins. Later this year, DEPWAH, a French-Vietnamese concept with a rooftop lounge and espresso bar focused on Vietnamese coffee and matcha, joins the same stretch.
Din Tai Fung slots into this same map at 7014 E Camelback Rd Suite 608, Scottsdale, known globally for its soup dumplings, and Cielito is on the rooftop of the new AC Hotel Scottsdale Old Town, opening in Old Town Scottsdale as a rooftop restaurant and bar.
Why August, of all months
The instinct is to wait. It should not be.
The instinct for a Scottsdale resident is to treat June through September as the season to endure and October through May as the season to enjoy. The math on reservations argues the opposite. A table at BOA in November is going to require the kind of planning that a table at BOA in late July does not. The same is true for Din Tai Fung, Cielito, and Wolf by Vanderpump. If you have wanted to try any of them without building your week around a reservation, the next eight weeks are the window.
There is a kitchen-side argument for going now too. Restaurants that open in a summer market get their staffing, sourcing, and service tempo dialed in against a forgiving crowd. By the time the winter arrivals show up expecting flawless execution, the kitchen has had a full quarter to iron out the wrinkles. If you are going to catch a room while it is still finding its rhythm, you would rather do it on a Tuesday in August than a Saturday in February.
One tactical note on the national-brand rooms. A late-July opening means August and September are the window to become a regular. Skip Drake's on the first two weekends. A valet-only entrance on Scottsdale Road at First Street during a national-brand debut is the definition of a room to visit on a Wednesday in month two.
What else is running this month
The corridor is not the only thing on the calendar. A few dated things worth planning around before Labor Day:
- Arizona Chef's Week, from July 31 to Aug. 9, celebrates the talented chefs behind Old Town's independently owned restaurants with exclusive prix-fixe menus and seasonal, chef-driven creations. The tail end overlaps with the first weekend of this piece.
- Bar Brawl at Hotel Valley Ho, the 8th annual, running Sundays from July 26 through August 23, with live music, bites and drinks, and Old Town bartenders including Fernando Bambaren of Virtù Honest Craft, Alexis Patino of Toca Madera and Juan Garcia of The Ends.
- Vibrant Visions at Wilde Meyer Gallery, during the month of August, featuring works by artists such as Kristin Harvey, Lawrence Lee, Lydia Hesse and more, at 4142 N. Marshall Way.
- Night Trip Festival Arizona on August 29 from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM at WestWorld of Scottsdale, bringing deep house, tech house, and techno DJs to the desert night sky for a full-scale music festival experience.
- Sonora at Old Town, the anniversary sculpture. Sonora is a custom-built community art sculpture created to celebrate Scottsdale's 75th anniversary. Designed by the creative team at Scottsdale Artists' School, the 75-inch by 75-inch wire horse reflects the city's history and cultural roots. Old Town visitors are invited to participate in Pony Expressions with Sonora, a collaborative activity that encourages people to share personal memories of Scottsdale by adding pony-colored fabrics such as leather and cotton to the sculpture.
The anniversary framing matters more than a single sculpture. On July 20, 2026, Scottsdale approved a year-round Old Town marketing strategy to boost visitation and support local businesses. The city is putting institutional weight behind the same corridor the restaurants are betting on, which is why the reservation math will not stay this friendly.
The pattern behind the openings
A quieter observation, for anyone who watches the neighborhood the way owners do. Watch what closes. The former STK space became Above All Else. The former Buca di Beppo is becoming Drake's. Roach's former cabinetry showroom is becoming Ari & Lloyd. Old Town's summer inventory turn is happening inside existing shells, which is worth remembering the next time a longtime tenant goes quiet on a lease.
That is a useful lens to carry through the rest of the year. When a familiar sign comes down along Stetson or Marshall Way, the successor is almost certainly already scouted. Old Town in 2026 is not adding square footage. It is trading up the tenants inside the square footage it already has.
There is a reclassification argument alongside it. Scottsdale used to be where national concepts opened cautious second locations. Wolf by Vanderpump, BOA, and Din Tai Fung landing in a single stretch of Camelback Road signals that the market has been reclassified. These aren't tests. They're flagship-tier openings that would have gone to Miami or Dallas five years ago. The rooms landing here this summer were competing against Miami and Dallas for the pin on the map. That is the version of Old Town you are living in now.
A resident's August itinerary, roughly
Book a Tuesday or Wednesday at Above All Else for the rooftop while the sunset is still the reason to be up there. Save Drake's for the second half of the month once the opening-weekend crowds thin. Walk to BOA at the Waterfront on a night you would have driven six months ago. Slot Din Tai Fung in for a weekday lunch when the Fashion Square parking is easier. If you are going to be out on a Sunday, aim for Bar Brawl before August 23. If you are going to be out on the 29th, plan for Night Trip and a late morning after.
The bet under all of it is simple. The takeaway for anyone already living here is not that Old Town has new restaurants. It is that the new ones are close enough to each other that the neighborhood, for the first time in a while, rewards residents who plan an evening on foot over residents who plan one in a car.
That is worth a summer of Tuesday nights to figure out for yourself.
If you own in Old Town, the North Scottsdale corridor, or one of the gated enclaves nearby and you are curious what this reclassification is doing to values on your specific block, Theresa Krakauer is happy to walk it with you. Request a personalized market consultation and a tailored plan built around what your neighborhood actually looks like right now, not what it looked like the last time you checked.
