CHECK-IN
👋 Jeremy Hughes
🎂 45
💼 Brand Creative Director
♏️ Scorpio
Hey there!
You’re reading been — a people-centered, culturally focused newsletter about the places we've been. Every issue brings interviews with interesting people and their takes on a destination they know well. Let’s go.
THE INTERVIEW
Favorite Travel Experience:
Sitting at the counter at Sushi Yasuda in Tokyo
Jeremy with Chef Yasuda in Tokyo.
Where are you a local?
Dallas, TX
How do you approach travel planning?
Rigorous Google map pins so we can wander and there's always something on the map to check out.
(Editor’s note: As a gracious recipient of a Jeremy-made Google map, the pins are on point!)
It turns out I actually like visiting and the singular experience of being in Phoenix.
What do you prioritize?
A local approach to life with unique places that tell the story of wherever you are.
How do you know Phoenix so well?
I spent a large part of my life growing up in Phoenix, but left in 2001 and swore I'd never be back. That was a lie. I come back as a tourist when visiting friends and family, maybe once or twice a year, and it's such a different city. It turns out I actually like visiting and the singular experience of being in Phoenix.
Destination Download
Describe Phoenix to people who haven’t been.
Phoenix is a resort town in a completely uninhabitable desert surrounded by and intertwined with mountains.
Most overhyped tourist trap?
Easily "Old Town Scottsdale" which is a fake western town full of chintzy galleries with generic art and everything is overpriced.
What is worth the hype?
The Desert Botanical Garden is easily one of the best botanic gardens in the country! It is an incredibly special place full of some of the most strange plants and lush gardens.
Any cool history there?
Most of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure was filmed in Phoenix. Eat that California.
Something unexpected?
One of the former governors is buried in a pyramid in one of the large city parks.
City rivalries to note?
It's got to be LA. People in Phoenix hate LA people for generally being LA people, but also for destroying housing prices over the boom decades starting in the 90s. It's that or the snowbirds who invade each winter.
How do you get around?
You have to have a car. My preferred rental would be a Mazda Miata.
What packed outfit did you end up loving the most?
Anything breezy and quick drying. It's pretty miserably hot most of the year. Always carry a light jacket though for the blisteringly cold AC and once the sun goes down it's pretty nice outside.
Favorite meal?
My favorite deli, Cheese and Stuff, has been open since 1949. I always have to pop in for a Liverwurst sandwich. (Thanks to snowbirds, Phoenix has a very robust deli scene)
What would you do differently on your next trip?
I have done a poor job keeping up with the art/gallery scene in town which has grown in leaps and bounds since I last lived there. And I have STILL not managed to do a proper tour of Cosanti, Paolo Soleri's studio in Paradise Valley. They do live brass pourings and there's a crazy ceramics studio and art to see.
What would you do again?
An early morning North Mountain hike followed by a pastry and coffee at Lux Central.
ITINERARY
From left to right: Phoenix from a hike view, Pane Bianco and Pizzeria, Cosanti interior
Go For?
Nature is a big draw. It's such a bizarre and lovely landscape that just doesn't exist anywhere else.
Top 3 Neighborhoods?
Roosevelt, Arcadia and Uptown
Breakfast?
OK, a perfect food day would start with Matt's Big Breakfast, where they have perfected American diner style breakfast. They've expanded across town, but the original in downtown is all I know.
Lunch?
A panini from Pane Bianco and classic AZ Mexican food at Tee Pee which has been around since the 60's (old for Phoenix).
Dinner?
End the night with a nightcap at Lon's Last Drop at the Hermosa Inn. It's quintessential old-school Phoenix and the patio is pure cozy desert resort vibes.
Happy Hour or After Hours?
The coffee shop Lux has a great bar with killer cocktails and I love winding down after a day of remote working with a drink and one of their killer pastries or cookies.
A little shop to love?
For sure, Monsoon Market. Cool selection of snacks, wines, and tons of non-alc stuff that's curated by some of the most interesting folks in town.
POIs
From left to right: Bikini Lounge, Pinnacle Peak Hike, and Taliesin West interior
Restaurants and Bars:
Pane Bianco, Pizzeria Bianco is great, but the sandwiches and desserts at Pane are KILLER.
Durant's Steakhouse, it's not the best, but damn the vibe was always old school and great.
Bikini Lounge, it looks like a tiki bar, but it's not. Cash only and almost always guaranteed something weird going on. Hipsters have always gone there, but it's still maintained true dive bar status.
Valentine/Bar 1912, great restaurant and the sister bar attached is also killer.
Gallo Blanco, great modern mexican food and cocktails.
Sights Worth Seeing:
Scottsdale Contemporary, small modern art collection with a small but mighty James Turrell skyspace.
Stinkweeds, great little record shop I've been buying from since I was 14.
Cosanti, Paolo Soleri's studio in town... much easier to visit than Arcosanti up north.
Burton Barr Library, an insane central library with incredible architecture, worth popping in to check out if you're a nerd for contemporary buildings.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, the famed architect’s winter home and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Accommodations:
Rise Uptown, new hotel with cool bar.
Hotel Valley Ho, revamped midcentury gem.
Hermosa Inn, an old school resort that hasn't changed much.
CHECK-OUT
Recommended Souvenir?
Local delicacy or a record that has some tie to the place I visited. Also a cheeseball magnet. We are addicts for them.
Where are you planning to go next?
Budapest, Prague, Sarajevo this fall.
Carry-on or checked bag?
Checked! Hate hassling a bag onto the plane and off, especially on long haul flights. I'm never in a hurry when I arrive somewhere.