Photo Credit: azcentral.com
Ah, Blackout Wednesday…or as the more refined among us prefer, “Drinksgiving.” The unofficial drinking holiday drew massive crowds to Scottsdale and Phoenix bars on Thanksgiving Eve, with venues like Coach House reporting their busiest night of the year.
If you ventured anywhere near Old Town Scottsdale last Wednesday evening, you witnessed a heartwarming American tradition: college students reuniting with high school friends, young professionals catching up over craft cocktails, and the entire Valley collectively deciding that nobody should cook the night before they have to cook all day Thursday.
One reveler summed up the evening’s ambitions perfectly: “I’m gonna get really drunk.” Truly, the poet laureate of our generation.
Old Town Scottsdale was absolutely buzzing with the kind of energy that makes this city special. The Pemberton hosted a full-on Friendsgiving party, while Coach House faced lines that staff described as “expected” for the busiest night of the year. Translation: if you showed up without a reservation, you’d better have been prepared to network your way in or stake out a corner of sidewalk real estate.
What makes Blackout Wednesday such a quintessentially Scottsdale event is how it perfectly captures the city’s ethos: work hard, play harder, and always look good doing it. Sure, other cities celebrate this pre-Thanksgiving tradition, but do they do it with our combination of patio weather, designer outfits, and an Old Town strip that offers more bars per square foot than almost anywhere else in the Valley?
The best part? Scottsdale actually handled it responsibly. Staff actively encouraged patrons to call ride-share services to get home safely, and judging by the surge pricing complaints flooding social media, plenty of people took that advice.
Yes, Blackout Wednesday has gained a somewhat notorious reputation nationally as one of the heaviest drinking nights of the year. But in Scottsdale, we prefer to think of it as “enthusiastic networking with enhanced social lubrication.” The long line at Coach House? That’s just eager residents supporting local business. The packed patios? Community building. But if we’re being completely honest, a city that can handle massive Barrett-Jackson crowds, endless bachelor parties, and spring training season can certainly manage one night of nostalgic college reunions and premature holiday cheer.
So here’s to Scottsdale’s Blackout Wednesday: where the drinks flow, the Ubers are plentiful, and our city’s hospitality industry proves once again why Old Town remains one of Arizona’s premier destinations for responsible(ish) revelry. Same time next year?