Phoenix's Fun Hidden Gems: Vintage, Fashion, Music, Art
When visiting cities one of the things I love to do is I find hidden gems - interesting off-the-beaten-path places – places not found on the front page of a Google Search. As many Canadians start to head south for winter getaways to places like Phoenix, I thought it would be fun to share some of the hidden gems I have found in that metropolis over the years.
Melrose Vintage District
After wandering downtown Phoenix and not finding much animation, we found the hip Klimpton Hotel and asked if there were any bohemian pedestrian streets to explore. We were directed to the Roosevelt Art District, where we did find the Heard Museum with its lovely café, museum and gift shop so we stopped for lunch, but like many arts districts with big buildings there wasn’t much vitality.
Heading home on Phoenix’s LRT we were quickly identified as tourists and one young man started asking us questions and giving us ideas. We called him the “Train Concierge” to the amusement of his friends.
At his suggestion we jumped off at the 7th Avenue and Camelback Road station based on information that there were some antique and vintage stores nearby. Once off the train, a woman who had obviously been listening to our train talk started walking with us and sharing what might be open and worth visiting. It definitely looked promising.
While the sidewalks were deserted, the street had a hipster look to it with no new buildings, no offices, mostly a hodgepodge of older, small retail spaces. Unfortunately, several were closed on Monday. However, soon we came upon Modern on Melrose and finally we were in flaneur heaven - a 16,000 sq ft store with tons of mid-century modern furniture, home accessories and a salvage yard in the back.
Click here to learn more: Melrose Vintage District
If I could have figured out how to get this into the car, I would have loved to have added this vintage four child playground piece to our collection of playground equipment.
Nordstrom’s Last Chance Boutique
I love using Google Maps’ search function to find out what there is to see and do in a neighbourhood. It often identifies hidden gems that people have added that you wouldn’t expect.
A good example was Nordstrom’s Last Chance on Camelback Road. Finding it was a bit of struggle (see story below) but once there it was an EXPERIENCE. It was chaos, the opposite to a typical Nordstrom department store where you can hear a pin drop.
There were no neat and tidy displays; shoes and clothing were tossed all over the place like a teenager's bedroom. People were trying clothes on in the aisles and sitting on the floor to try on shoes. It was a feeding frenzy.
For the full story click on the link below. Last Chance Shopping Experience
Musical Instrument Museum
I had no idea the world’s largest museum of musical instruments (15,000 instruments from over 200 countries) was in Phoenix. It was only by chance that I found a mention of it while surfing the net. It looked interesting so I took a chance and after a "too short" visit I can safely say it is very impressive.
The $250 million dollar museum has five huge galleries devoted to Africa and Middle East, Asia and Oceania, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, and the United States and Canada. There are almost 300 vignettes, each with historical instruments from the country, related artifacts and a short video about the people and the instruments.
The Musical Instruments Museum is a privately funded museum with an interesting link to the Target store.
Learn more at the link below: The Music Instrument Museum Experience
Eddie Basha Collection
Located off-the-beaten-path at 22402 S. Basha Rd. in Chandler, AZ is The Basha Gallery, home to the Eddie Basha Collection of contemporary American Western and Indian Art. FYI: Admission is free.
The gallery is in fact located in the Basha Grocery Store’s Corporate Office building next to baseball fields and a dog park. It is the site of the first Basha store. The gallery includes work by 100+ artists, with the highlight being the 400 handmade baskets from Southwestern indigenous peoples dating from late 1800s to early 20th century.
The story of the collection is fascinating as Eddie’s Aunt Zelma encouraged him to use his spare time to combine his love of art with his passion for history and collect Western and Native American art.
Eddie and his aunt would go to galleries, art shows and sales to not only purchase artwork but to meet the artists. For them meeting the artist was as important as buying their work. The Basha collection (3,500+ artworks) only contains the work of artists they could meet and talk with.
Over the years Eddie and his aunt amassed the impressive collection that is now on display at Bashas' corporate headquarters.
It is definitely worth a visit for anyone interested in art.
Last Word
If you have any hidden gems you’d like to recommend in the greater Phoenix area, let me know and I will add them to this list. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to share this blog with others.