Casey Moore’s is a one-of-a-kind neighborhood restaurant/bar located in Tempe in a house that was built in 1910. Casey’s can be found on Ash and roughly 9th Street, in the old-town neighborhood west of ASU. It is comfortable and small inside, while on busy nights the front yard and patio can swell with swarms of students and locals who prefer something authentic to the generic theme bars that populate the outdoor Disneyland that is today’s Mill Ave.
When I lived in Tempe, literally down the street from Casey’s, it was a favorite haunt, which maybe isn’t saying too much when it comes to me. I am reminded of the Leadbelly line “Better known by any bartender” when I think about my years of carousing.
It was a place that I always enjoyed. It was a mellow place that had good beer on tap before that was the standard, poured good drink and had a fun, relaxed atmosphere. It was always popular with the locals and students but in the last number of years the place has seen a steady increase in business so much so that the large side patio, and front porch and yard are often jammed with humans, which I like a little less than the relaxed day of the past.
Beyond the obviousness of good beer and strong drinks, the house is a true piece of history in a town that so often trades the past for a quick buck. The place is funky and not cookie-cutter cool, a real place with its own identity and vibe. This also has a lot to do with the people that work there. There are way more folks serving the thirsty public in all areas of the bar. But in days past when I would walk down for a pint the people were genuine and friendly.
And not to get all Art Bell on your asses, but the place has a definite vibe and there are rumors about ghosts. There is a small private dining room above the bar that once functioned as a bedroom for the people that built the house, William and Mary Moore. Sadly in 1966, when it was still a residence, a young woman was killed in the room. I’ve been in the room. I don’t remember how but there was something about it, a different kind of air, a real feeling, that made my ample body hair salute. The only thing I know definitely is that ghosts, and stories about them, are good for business so I am sure the staff and owners encourage and cultivate these tall tales, but I definitely felt something odd up there.
Another odd and unique feature of Casey Moore’s is working part owner Gavin Rutledge. If you had to put a face with Casey Moore’s after dark it’s his, and he’s the reason cool people work there and a big part of why cool, reasonable people choose to hang there. He owns 20 percent of the bar along with two other partners. He also manages the place, though I most enjoy him in his capacity as a bartender. A natural gregarious high-energy bullshitter, he’s the perfect stand-in for your belly-up buddy when going solo and you need to get pumped up.
He has stories and jokes up the ying, and brings an energy and physicality to his work. When I was attending bar regularly there in the early 90s Gavin would often be enticed by customers to do handstand pushups off the bar for tips, drinks or other favors. It was an amazing sight and while that kind of thing might annoy me in another context, his good humor about the absurdity of the act made it OK. He retired from bar-top handstand pushups when he turned 40 a few years ago, and his record of 22 still stands.
When I visited Casey’s a couple of times recently I was reminded of how much I like the bar and how unusual it is for something old and unique to survive in this town. To somehow escape the corporatization of the area and the recycled hipness provided yearly by a new crop of thirsty university students speaks volumes about the much-needed authentic flavor this historic building and neighborhood establishment provide.
I spoke with Gavin on the phone from his office at Casey’s, and he regaled me with some stories that I’m sure he’s told many times, though they didn’t seem the worse for wear.
AZNightBuzz: How long has Casey Moore’s been open?
Gavin Rutledge: It’s been a restaurant at this location since 1971. The house was built in 1910. I’ve been here since 1986. It has always been a bar and restaurant. We sell tons of food, but we’re a really hoppin’ nightspot as well.
AZNB: There are many stories about ghosts. Do you believe it’s haunted?
GR: Yeah. There’ve been all sorts of crazy things that have happened here.
AZNB: Can you give me a good example?
GR: To give a little history of the house – the house was built in 1910 by William and Mary Moore, who was the brother of governor of the state at the time, the second governor of the state. His other brother built a house right across the street. It was a family neighborhood, and back then people died in their house. You didn’t go to the hospital when you got sick, and a lot of kids died and things like that.
There’ve been sightings of children playing upstairs that aren’t really there. You can kind of see through them and then they are gone. (There is a small private dining room upstairs that is off limits most of the time.) William and Mary Moore have been seen dancing upstairs. They would do this ballroom dancing. They’ve been seen by five different owners of the house across the street, by people that lived in the bedroom upstairs, which is directly across from our window. You can see in the window.
The big thing that’s happened here was in 1966 a girl was murdered upstairs in the blue room. She’s the one that has the most activity, I think. She’s always throwing a spoon or a fork at the same spot on the wall, and I don’t know exactly why that happens. Also, when you’re working at that waitress station someone always taps you on the shoulder and you turn around and no one’s there.
Sighted by many, many people all describing the same thing. We had Arizona ghost hunters in here taking pictures and she has shown up in a couple of pictures – the same girl, real white complexion with very dark hair.
A lot of the old-timers that lived up there before it was a restaurant and after the girl was murdered who still come in here – they all tell the same stories, that things wouldn’t go well when they would bring a date home. After they scored or whatever – the girl doesn’t like the hanky panky – they’d go to the bathroom and look up in the mirror and there she was looking at them in the mirror with a scowl on her face. They would turn around and she wouldn’t be there.
AZNB: Like you said you’ve been working there since 1986. First time I ever ran across you, you were behind the bar. How were you brought in as a partner?
GR: Actually, I’ve always been. It was part of the deal when I moved down here from Vegas. Just because I work here doesn’t mean I don’t own the joint. I clean up the vomit in the bathroom, that’s what I do. I’m the working partner. I’m the guy that makes sure the waitresses show up on time for work.
AZNB: You say one of your partners, Patty, bought the house across the street. Ddoes that mean she’s going to make it part of Casey Moore’s?
GR: No, it’s not zoned for it. She’s just going to live there. We’ve had a lot of problems with the neighbors over the years and so they basically bought the houses around Casey’s.
AZNB: That’s smart.
GR: Rent them out to people that are Casey Moore’s-friendly.
AZNB: Why do you think it’s remained so popular over the years?
GR: Well, we’re reasonably priced. We’re a neighbor bar and a lot of people ride their bikes here, a lot of people that live in the neighborhood party. There’s not even a supermarket around here anymore so everyone eats out. We’re a family place, a mom-and-pop kind of a place rather than a corporate place. We’ll buy you a drink every now and then. We pour a stiff drink, that’s probably the biggest reason right there. We just take care of people. And our staff, we have a lot of great help. A lot of people have been here a lot of years.
AZNB: Do you think it’s gotten more popular in the last six or seven years?
GR: Yeah, steadily.
AZNB: Why do you think that is?
GR: We’re like that little place that everyone thinks only they know about, but it’s the best-kept secret in town that everyone knows about. It’s a cool old house. The house is unique. It’s not some strip mall.
AZNB: How many people do you think are in the yard and on the patio on an average weekend night?
GR: I’d say a couple hundred, 250.
AZNB: When I was living down the street in the early 90s there were rumors that developers were trying to buy Casey Moore’s. How did you fight them off?
GR: There are a couple of things that have happened like that. They can’t really knock this building down; it’s on the national historic registry and the local historic registry. So we’re pretty protected in that way, but on the flip side of that coin we’re not allowed to change the house around that much. We’re not even allowed to install handicapped bathrooms. We built one over by the apartments for our handicapped guests.
A few years ago the city and a few neighbors were pissed off at us and tried to get the outside shut down, which would have pretty much put us out of business. They actually won. We fought it and it wound up going to the appellate court where we won.
There are always developers but we’re pretty protected from them. I’m a member of the neighborhood association. I’m on the board, actually, and our mission statement is to preserve the neighborhood in the historic way that it is now, not just have all these developers come in and build brownstones or a whole bunch of high-density population.
AZNB: I’d like you to explain for the readers who may not be familiar with yourself or the bar about your famous handstand push-ups.
GR: Yeah, I used to do that. I got in trouble because I was sucking Jäger out of girls’ bellybuttons and my wife at the time didn’t like it. I used to do handstands on the bar and pick up napkins or shots or money, whatever, with my mouth – kind of strange. Pick it up, spit out and go down for another one.
This one time in particular they were doing a photo cover for Tempe magazine. It was a Saturday night and the photographer was a little drunk so it took him a real long time to set the shot up and the model he brought with him was absolutely gorgeous. The shot was her laying on the bar and me sucking shots out of her bellybutton. Well it’s 8:30, 9 at night and all the blue-haired old ladies are eating dinner in the other room walking through saying “What are you running, a titty bar?” because the girl was wearing basically two Band-Aids and a cork. So I’m doing handstand push-ups and doing bellybutton shots so the guy can get the picture. Well, we got so many complaints. Someone actually called Tempe magazine and said they were going to sue them if they published it they were so offended by it.
David Spade’s mother actually owned the magazine at the time so I spent a lot of time talking to her and we ended up scrapping the whole thing because there was so much controversy over it.
Also my wife got really pissed off and made me promise not to do handstands on the bar and suck shots out of girls’ bellybuttons. Well that was the last wife. Long story short, I got re-married and my new wife doesn’t like me doing it on the bar anymore either. I’m 43 now. I said I’d do it until I was 40 and then I hung it up.
But I was doing it today outside the pool, so I can still do it.
AZNB: What was the record for the number of times you could do it?
GR: Twenty-two is the record, which I did two or three times.
AZNB: That was really entertaining.
GR: You’ve seen that, huh?
