I did not grow up in the kind of town where one would hang out or even be seen spending much time in the lobby bars of hotels.
There is something decidedly unglamorous about drinking in the dim lobby of the Michigan City Holiday Inn, with the buzz of cars on Interstate 94 providing the evening's soundtrack.
Fortunately, Scottsdale has a surfeit of elegant, tasteful hotels in which to while away an afternoon, or an evening, most of which have very little in common with the aforementioned Holiday Inn. And one of the coolest is Café ZuZu at the Hotel Valley Ho.
As part of the retro, upscale restaurant, the bar serves small plates of dressed-up comfort food and old-fashioned cocktails to compliment them. But the bar's also notably innovative, turning out some buzz-worthy signature drinks.
One of the newest, and most politically correct is the non-alcoholic Key Lime Pie Martini. This glass of frothy delight is made from vanilla ice cream, vanilla simple syrup, 7Up and lime juice, and served in a graham-cracker-rimmed glass.
"We do a lot of stuff with ice cream, sodas and floats, so it fits in with our image," said restaurant and beverage director Joe Martin.
The bar also has developed the non-alcoholic raspberry mojito, made with raspberry simple syrup, soda, mint and raspberries. It's has a light sweetness and a summery tang that is perfect for poolside afternoons.
But for those who want to sample one of the bar's 18 vodkas, 15 gins or eight tequilas, ZuZu has several distinctive cocktails that make getting a room there seem like a must if one is to enjoy them fully.
The OG Margarita is made with Partida Silver tequila, lime juice and agave nectar for sweetness. That's it. No sweet and sour mix. It's a gorgeous drink, with enough subtle sweetness to cut the lime's bite, but without the candy, syrupy heaviness of so many other margaritas.
There's also the new Basil Showbiz, a fizzy, girlie drink made with champagne, muddled strawberries, basil simple syrup and Ketel One Citroen vodka. The slightly sweet, complex drink has an elegant herbal flavor, but isn't medicinal. Instead, it's refreshing, modern and incredibly chic.
Or for the drinker who's definitely not driving, they've developed the Cucumber Coma, a mix of vodka, cucumbers, orange juice, cilantro and simple syrup, garnished with a ribbon of cucumber wrapped around an orange segment. It's clean and fresh-tasting, with a green flavor from the cucumbers and cilantro. It tastes like the kind of drink you'd get after a spa treatment, but one that would undo all the good done by that treatment.
Details: Café ZuZu at the Hotel Valley Ho, 6850 E. Main St., Scottsdale, 480-248-2039, hotelvalleyho.com
