Tempe’s House of Tricks is now open again after an extensive two-week renovation this summer that was completed just in time for the Arizona State University students heading back to school in downtown Tempe.
Mixed in with groups of students are south Tempe residents searching for a unique, gourmet take on traditional American dishes.
“We close every year, usually in July, anywhere from two to four weeks, depending on how much work we have to do,” Owner Robin Trick said. “We use the time for renovation, painting and thorough cleaning.”
House of Tricks, tucked away on Seventh Street off popular Mill Avenue, opened in 1987 when Trick and her husband purchased one of the old-style cottages to the north of ASU, remodeling it to create a restaurant with a “more comfortable” atmosphere.
The outside patio houses the newly constructed bar, where patrons sit under the shade of the property’s broad trees.
Trick said she and her husband later decided to purchase the adjacent adobe house to provide customers with more indoor seating, especially for special occasions, like weddings.
“We have much more indoor seating than our many of our customers think,” Trick said. “People tend to think of us as an outside bar and restaurant, but we have nice seating in a beautiful environment.”
Turning a house into a restaurant was a five-month endeavor for the Tricks, and keeping the property in good condition requires renovation each summer.
“These are really old houses, and they weren’t meant to take this much traffic,” she said. “By the time the summer rolls around, we need some time to recondition.”
Employees have the option of taking a vacation for a couple weeks during the summer break; those who need to make money can join the renovation team to work on bar and restaurant construction, Trick said.
“We got a lot of help this year from employees who wanted to stick around and get their hands dirty with construction,” she said.
As soon as House of Tricks closed for remodeling in July, Trick and her husband, Robert, went to work on constructing a new patio bar.
“We took the bar to ground – knocked it out completely and redid it,” Trick said. “We basically kept the same format since the beginning, but we did make it a little larger.”
Now, an orange Mexican-tiled bar stands out against the green background of lush vegetation surrounding the old Tempe property.
“We wanted to make the bar ‘pop’ a little more,” she said. “We also have totally new equipment, new racking – it makes it much more efficient during the busy hours.”
The overall outdoor atmosphere invites onlookers into the restaurant.
“The main thing is we want people to feel relaxed and comfortable,” Trick said. “We want it to feel elegant, but not stuffy for whoever comes here, from college students to professionals.”
Despite large crowds of ASU students who frequent the bar during semesters, she said House of Tricks gets customers from the Kyrene Corridor, as well.
“We get a lot of people from the south Tempe and west Chandler neighborhoods,” Robin Trick said.
For more information on House of Tricks, visit www.houseoftricks.com .
