Props to Eric Dahl, owner of The Lost Leaf, for persevering after taking it in the backside not once, but twice, from the white-collar pen-pushers downtown. In 2004, the space, which then hosted underground art and music, became a casualty -- along with the Emerald Lounge -- of the Starbucks/Pei Wei gentrification project at Seventh Avenue and McDowell Road. So Dahl scampered over to the Evans-Churchill 'hood, sinking his hard-earned cashola into a mortgage and a concept of turning an early-1920s-era home into a kick-back bar with jazz music and monthly art openings. All good, right?
Uh, false. It took them good ol' boys at the City of Phoenix a year and a half to get off their poltroonish duffs and approve a liquor license for the space. Somehow, Dahl survived the bureaucratic migraine and now manages downtown's newest and coolest downtown watering hole.
Check out some art while sipping on your choice of more than 50 brewskis and eight types of vino.
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