Michael Monti's family ran a steakhouse at the corner of Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway for decades. His father opened Monti's La Casa Vieja there in 1956, and Michael eventually took over, running it for 21 years before closing it in 2014 and selling the building. He still lives close by. He rarely goes to Mill Avenue anymore. Asked about what replaced his family's restaurant, he told Phoenix New Times, "There was a certain vitality."
That line lands differently this month than it would have a year ago, because the corner where his family's restaurant once stood now sits inside the busiest stretch of restaurant openings downtown Tempe has seen in years. Monti had a theory about this exact moment, long before it arrived.
The theory Monti never got to test
For decades, Mill Avenue's energy shifted back and forth. The north end near Rio Salado Parkway would draw a crowd for a stretch, then the south end near University Drive would take its turn. Rarely both at once. According to the same Phoenix New Times reporting, Monti long believed that if both ends of Mill got busy simultaneously, the street would become a genuinely different kind of place instead of a rotating hot spot.
This August, that theory is finally being tested, and Monti isn't the one running the test.
The north end just opened its anchor
At Hayden Ferry Lakeside on Rio Salado Parkway, Roman God of Fire opened this month, according to the Downtown Tempe Authority's own running list of 2026 openings. The Italian concept comes from James Beard Award winner and Food Network personality Scott Conant, working alongside Pretty Decent Concepts, the hospitality group behind Wren & Wolf and Trophy Room in Phoenix and Filthy Animal about a mile south on Mill. Roman God of Fire includes a hidden bar called Forgive Me, Father, built around what Phoenix New Times described as themes of virtue and vice.
Pretty Decent Concepts had said it planned to grow from seven restaurants and bars across Phoenix and Tempe to twelve by mid-2026, so this opening is one piece of a larger build-out rather than a standalone bet.
The south end is filling in the same month
A few blocks south, near Mill and Fifth Street, Tempe's other cluster is catching up fast. RePUBlic Tempe, a sports bar and live music concept from C.A.S.A. bar creator Scott Price, is taking over the former Mill Cue Club and Zuma Grill spaces just south of Sixth Street. Price is also adding dine-in and walk-up service to C.A.S.A. itself around the corner. Both projects are targeting an August 2026 opening, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said during his State of the City address, as reported by Phoenix New Times.
Right below Varsity Tavern at Mill and Fifth, Culinary Gangster, a Chicago-born burger operation known for its Spicy Gangster Burger, had originally aimed for a March opening. Owner Ricky Raschillo said if renovations ran long, he would wait out the summer and open in August instead, which puts a second south-end opening on the same calendar page as Roman God of Fire's north-end debut.
Julian Wright, who already runs Pedal Haus Brewery and the paired bars Devil's Hideaway and Idle Hands nearby, is also working on Carmen, a coastal Mexican concept planned for the former Anoche Cantina space at 640 South Mill Avenue. An exact opening date hasn't landed yet.
A third cluster nobody predicted
Monti's theory assumed two ends. What's forming now looks closer to three. Along Tempe Town Lake, the Watermark development on Scottsdale Road has quietly built its own dining node around Three Thirty Three, the Asian-inspired steakhouse that opened there in late 2024. Kaos Hospitality followed with 212° Shabu Shabu, a tableside hot pot concept, and has Wood & Water on the way this fall, a 9,000-square-foot seafood restaurant with a lakefront patio and a 5,000-gallon shark tank.
None of these three clusters, Rio Salado, the Mill and Fifth block, and the Watermark, sit more than about a fifteen-minute walk apart. For anyone deciding where to eat this week, that means the old habit of picking one side of Mill and staying there doesn't really hold up anymore.
Where the roster stands this August
| Location | Anchor | Status |
|---|---|---|
| North end, Rio Salado | Roman God of Fire | Open this month |
| North end, one mile south | Filthy Animal, Drop Dead Gorgeous | Open since spring 2025 |
| South end, University Drive | Wild Barbecue | Open since last fall |
| South end, near Tempe City Hall | Novel Ice Cream | Open since spring 2026 |
| South end, Mill & Sixth | RePUBlic Tempe, C.A.S.A. expansion | Targeting August |
| South end, Mill & Fifth | Culinary Gangster | Targeting August |
| Waterfront, the Watermark | 212° Shabu Shabu | Open |
| Waterfront, the Watermark | Wood & Water | Coming this fall |
| 7th & Myrtle, Moeur House | Glai Baan's new concept | Expected later this year |
At least half a dozen other businesses have opened along the corridor since January, per the Downtown Tempe Authority's own tracking, which is part of why the street feels different even to people who walk it every week.
The complication nobody's mentioning
Here's the part that actually affects a weeknight dinner plan. ASU's Tempe campus, its largest residential campus by hall count and population, has move-in scheduled for August 15 and 16, with classes starting August 20. Mill Avenue already absorbs the usual parking and loading dock strain that comes with move-in every year. This year that weekend lands directly inside the same two-week window when RePUBlic, the C.A.S.A. expansion, and possibly Culinary Gangster are all trying to open their doors.
For someone who already knows Mill Avenue's rhythms, that means two very different versions of downtown sit back to back on the calendar. The week ahead brings crowded blocks, tighter parking, and a wave of first-time visitors still learning where things are. After August 20, once classes start and move-in traffic clears, the street tends to settle into whatever its new shape actually turns out to be.
Woods sounds confident about which way that settles. "2026 is going to be very exciting for Mill Avenue and downtown Tempe," he told Phoenix New Times.
What this changes if you already live here
If picking one end of Mill has been mostly a matter of habit, that habit is worth revisiting. The north end now has an anchor restaurant with real culinary weight sitting next to an already-running sister concept. The south end is filling in two more spots within the same block radius as Wild Barbecue and Novel Ice Cream. The Watermark has quietly become its own third option for anyone who wants a lake view without walking into the Mill Avenue crowd at all.
None of this replaces the version of downtown Monti remembers, and it isn't supposed to. But it does answer the question he raised years ago about what happens when both ends of the street work at the same time. This August, the answer is showing up one opening at a time.
Lisa Gatchalian keeps a close eye on shifts like this one because they tell you what's changing in a neighborhood long before any listing does. If you're curious what else is moving in Tempe or the East Valley, or just want a local's read on a specific block, Let's Connect.
