The Pemberton 2.0: New Immersive Art Installations, Food, Cocktails and More
A beloved Roosevelt Row gathering spot gets an art-filled redo.
By Nora Burba Trulsson | Photography by Wayne Rainey
For three years, The Pemberton was a treasured community gathering spot for the Roosevelt Row neighborhood. Anchored by a historic house, the property was populated with food trucks, indie bars, pop-up retailers and live music in every corner of the 1.5-acre site.
When it closed last year, social media exploded with grief. “The internet went crazy,” says owner Jonathon Vento. “People told us that they fell in love there, they had birthdays there. One guy said he had 37 first dates at The Pemberton. People were passionate about the place.” Vento listened. This spring, he reopened the venue, filling it with “10 bars, 1,000 plants and works by 100 artists ,” creating what he feels is an even better, version 2.0 iteration of The Pemberton.
The history of the site dates back to 1920, when Sarah Pemberton, widow of T.W. Pemberton, president of Phoenix Light & Fuel and vice president of Phoenix National Bank, built a home on the property. The two-story brick house, with a broad front porch, was designed in a simple, Prairie-influenced style, with a freestanding two-story garage/apartment added later. It stayed in the Pemberton family until 1942 and remained a residence until the late 1970s, when the architectural firm Orcutt-Winslow Partnership bought it and converted the home to offices.
“When I bought it in 2018, there were four palms on the property and that’s it—not even a blade of grass,” remembers Vento, founder of the development firm True North Studio, whose Roosevelt Row projects include the Cambria Hotel, monOrchid and Ten-O-One, the building that houses Rough Rider restaurant. With development in mind, Vento acquired a few more empty parcels around the old house and had a hotel planned for the site. Then COVID hit. Vento started planting rose bushes on the site to combat pandemic panic and pondered what then seemed like a bleak future when he came up with The Pemberton concept. “I realized we could all be outside, social distancing on the property,” he remembers. “I could bring together food trucks, artists and musicians so people could still gather. The Pemberton became my COVID therapy.”
But for Vento, its success also led to stress. “The Pemberton was a do-it-yourself project,” he says, “and it was not meant to be forever. With all the different vendors I had, it was like having 30 or 40 tenants. There were too many voices, and I was tired.” With the community’s response at the closing, Vento reconsidered and decided to start over, blading the property—except for the house and garage. He opted to be the sole operator, running everything from the martinis served to the musicians hired.
He craned in large trees, such as ash and ficus, plus citrus, creating shade and fragrance, then drew up a maze-like plan, inviting visitors to meander through themed outdoor areas or to sit, enjoying cocktails and food. One area he designed is reminiscent of the 1980s Bronx, with a wall of vintage boom boxes, a hot dog cart and a collection of subway flyers.
Another space is a trip to an Italian beach, surrounded by fig and cypress trees, with a vintage Vespa in the corner, black-and-white Sophia Loren movies on the screen and Negronis on the cocktail menu. Another section has an Ibiza theme, with a swimming pool, palms and chaises. Inside, the old house has been transformed into a series of intimate spaces for food, drink and music, as well as a shop that sells Pemberton merch.
Above all, Vento made sure that art was front and center in The Pemberton’s redo, inviting those 100 local artists—mostly muralists—to adorn scores of freestanding concrete walls that dot the grounds, plus the meandering sidewalks and planter beds, resulting in more than 200 original artworks. Along with artists including Tato Caraveo, Adrian Ramirez, La Morena and Baconcat, the mononymous Tempe artist Clyde also created murals for the site, playing off the space-age theme of one area and the homage to an Icelandic village in another section. “I’ve done murals for Jonathon at the Cambria Hotel,” Clyde explains of his involvement in the project. “Each artist who worked on The Pemberton passed on the names of other creatives to get involved. At one point, when we were all working during the winter, it was like walking into an office, but instead of cubicles, it was filled with artists.”
With live music, DJs, special events like fashion shows and more, the re-invented Pemberton has brought back the community for Friday night happy hours, girls’ nights out, first dates, birthday parties, corporate gatherings, bridal showers and weddings, all in a garden setting stuffed with art—an outdoor museum, as Vento calls it.
“You don’t need four walls and a roof to create a community gathering spot,” Vento says. “This is an inclusive space and a magical place.”
“You don’t have to have four walls and a roof to create a community gathering spot. This is an inclusive space and a magical place.”
—Jonathon Vento, owner
