GILBERT, AZ — Wicked Rain, a Pacific Northwest craft beer bar, just opened in Gilbert!
The craft beer bar has been in “soft launch” since end of March, but now that its patio is complete with misters and shading they had a weekend [May 20-21] grand opening where local food trucks, Pacific Northwest (PNW) and local breweries were present.
WHAT TO EXPECT
There are 40 rotating taps [they rotate “everyday-all day”] and the craft beer bar only provides beer from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Arizona.
Beer isn’t the only thing that was brought down from the PNW. “We do a Seattle Style teriyaki- which is pretty unique to the area-, we do a Seattle Dog, we have Ivar's Clam Chowder, we have Beecher's Mac & Cheese… these are all little dishes that are readily available in Seattle that we wanted to share with everyone here in Arizona,” said Tony Newman, co-owner of Wicked Rain.
FROM SEATTLE TO ARIZONA
Tony and Catherine Newman moved from Seattle to Arizona back in 2018.
Although the couple fell in love with Arizona prior to moving here, Tony Newman says that he didn’t find much of “a gathering spot for people [from] the Pacific Northwest” in the state.
“We really fell in love with the beer up there [PNW] and I spent a lot of time visiting breweries, getting to know owners… and really diving into the culture - whether it be home-brewing or visiting the places. We wanted to share that with the people of Arizona, we wanted to bring that element here, to the desert,” said Tony Newman.
HISTORY OF THE “PINT GLASS LOUNGE”
There’s a big centerpiece in the craft beer bar that showcases Tony Newman’s beer history over the past couple of decades.
“Probably over the last 30 years of visiting breweries in [the] Pacific Northwest and Arizona… I [collected] the traditional pint glasses from every brewery that I visited,” said Newman. “We wanted to be able to showcase that somehow in our bar. So, we built a custom chandelier with LEDs that allowed us to put over 100-pint glasses that I had collected on my journey.”
IF YOU GO
- Address: 1817 E Baseline Road
- Hours: Sunday- Thursday [12 p.m.- 10 p.m.] and Friday- Saturday [12 p.m.- 12 a.m.]
