“It all comes down to the staff,’’ Roehrich says. “If you give the staff a good place to work, let them do what they want to do and you're not breathing down their neck, they'll enjoy coming into work. If you make sure that they are having a good time when they are working, then it goes on over to the people that come in.’’

Roehrich, a California native, moved to Arizona to study architecture. He was waiting tables at the Crescent Hotel in downtown Phoenix when he became captivated by the business.

“It's kind of addicting,’’ he says. “There's a rush. You get paid every single night.’’

So after he graduated from the National Education Center for Architecture, Roehrich, who was 27 at the time, opened Mexican cantina- themed Dos Gringos in Scottsdale in May 1996.
“I kind of wanted a place where I could go after work and not have to go change,” he says of Dos Gringos. “I wanted a place where you could go and be in your work clothes, get something to eat and drink and not feel like you weren't dressed up enough.’’

“When we opened that place up, I didn't even have enough money for a cooler. We had an ice chest and a barbecue. I was there every day.’’

Roehrich opened Scottsdale's upscale Voodoo Lounge in 1998, but sold it six months later because, he says, it was turning into a hard-core drug scene.

In summer of 1999, he opened a second Dos Gringos location next to ASU. According to Roehrich, the popular student hangout is No. 1 in Corona beer sales in the United States.

Sugar Daddy's is Roehrich's most recent creation. The hip club, which features a large patio overlooking Scottsdale Road, quickly became a hot spot after it opened in March 2002. The bar hosts ’60 blues, funk and R&B bands, which help draw an eclectic crowd.

“You can have any type of people in here,’’ Roehrich says of Sugar Daddy's. “When we first opened, I was out front talking to somebody and a big limo pulled up. Right behind the limo was this whole bunch of Hells Angels. The door opens up on the limo and about eight to 10 club girls, all dressed up and ready to go for a night on the town, get out. Then a brand new Bentley pulls up and a guy gets out. . . .

“So I go walking in and it's open-mike night. There's a guy in a wheelchair with no legs singing, thumping his stump to the beat of the music. That's pretty much what this place is all about. There's 21 to 61. You've got guys drinking tequila next to somebody having a bottle of Dom.’’

Roehrich says Sugar Daddy's laid-back atmosphere also is key to its success.

“We don't have a dress code here,’’ he says. “We're not about that. We're not about attitude. We have a slogan that's on the front door that's our trademark — ‘Leave your attitude at the door.’ ’’

Sugar Daddy's also has a 2,000- square-foot kitchen and an award- winning chef.

“I wanted to get more dining in here and have something where you could go with 10 of your friends, get something to eat and then go out — not just bar food,’’ Roehrich says.

While most people would view Roehrich as an overnight success, he sees it from a different perspective.

“I'm here 80 hours a week,’’ he says. “It doesn't just take off. It took a year and two months to get where we are right now.’’

Meet Brian Roehrich
Owns: Dos Gringos (4209 N. Craftsman Court, Scottsdale, ); Dos Gringos Trailer Park (216 E. University Drive, Tempe, ); Sugar Daddy's (3102 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, )
Car: “I've got a few.’’ His favorite is a ’58 Corvette that he bought with 71,000 miles on it
Favorite drink: Corona
Favorite shot: Tequila (Patron)
Favorite hangouts: Dos Gringos and Kona Grill; Z Tejas and Frasher’s to eat.
Family: Married for 14 months; daughter born May 19

Tom Anderson

Tom Anderson credits former Scottsdale mayor Herb Drinkwater with convincing him to move from Michigan to Scottsdale 22 years ago. Anderson — the owner of Anderson’s Fifth Estate and Noyz — was planning to move to California, but made a stop in the Valley first.

“I absolutely fell in love with the Scottsdale area,’’ he says. “I loved the mountains, the views that you had and the area down here with the little shops. Everything was new then.’’

Before he made a decision, Anderson sought out the mayor to get his thoughts on opening a Scottsdale bar.

“I was at City Hall, checking on ordinances,’’ he says. “I thought if I’m going to move here, I better meet the mayor. So I went upstairs — unannounced — and said that I’m thinking of moving to Scottsdale and I’d like to have a minute with the mayor.

‘‘(Drinkwater) came out with that big smile and those cowboy boots and said, ‘C’mon and sit down.’ So I went into his office and spent an hour talking to him about my background and what I wanted to do. He said he’d support me and that he was behind me.’’

Anderson bought PJ’s Saloon, a country-western bar on Fifth Avenue in downtown Scottsdale, in early 1982. After a lot of remodeling, he unveiled Anderson’s Fifth Estate that May. (The Fifth Estate part of the club's name came from an underground newspaper in Ann Arbor, Mich.)

Before Anderson’s became known for its dance club atmosphere and ‘‘cheap ass drink nights,’’ the club was popular for its weekly comedy nights, which included a then-unknown David Spade.

“David came to me and said he wanted to be a comedian,’’ Anderson says of the former ASU and Scottsdale Community College student. “I said, ‘You just watch and see how it all goes and next week come in and I’ll give you five minutes.’

‘‘So he came back the next week, and I didn’t pay him for the longest time, but he would get his five minutes. He wasn’t that good, but as time went on he really started getting good and people loved him. He went from getting paid $20 up to hosting a night in ’87 for $80.’’

Anderson says he still keeps in touch with the star of TV's ‘‘Just Shoot Me’’ and former ‘‘Saturday Night Live’’ regular. In fact, Spade was almost a partner in Noyz, Anderson’s newest Scottsdale club. “But his attorneys talked him out of it,’’ Anderson says.

Anderson — who also ran a teen club called Zonies from 1987 to 1992 — opened Noyz last December.

“I got a little bored,’’ he says. “Anderson’s runs so smoothly that I just showed up, shook hands and everybody was on the same page. I figured that I really wanted to work another 10 or 15 years (he declines to reveal his age), and I really wanted to get busy with something else. I wanted the challenge of a different type of club.’’

Anderson describes Noyz — a two-story restaurant and bar — as an unpretentious club that’s not price- driven. “It’s more Top 40 (music) here and a little more polished,’’ he says. “It’s for the person that wants to go to a trendy nightclub in Scottsdale, has a normal job and doesn’t want to spend everything they earned during the week.’’

Anderson says he’s learned a lot since opening his latest club.

“I’ve learned that the competition is quite strong these days compared to the early ’80s when Anderson’s was getting established and there were only three nightclubs in Scottsdale,’’ he says. “I’ve got five (competitors) on this street.’’

Fortunately, Anderson has a few helping hands. His brother Ted, who helps him run both clubs, is a partner in Anderson's and Noyz, and his wife, Roberta, is the clubs’ marketing guru.

“People work hard all week long at their jobs,’’ Anderson says. ‘‘A lot of people don’t even like their jobs. When they go out at night, they want to have fun.

‘‘I feel fulfilled if they’re having a great time and can’t wait until next weekend.’’

Meet Tom Anderson
Owns: Anderson's Fifth Estate (6820 E. Fifth Ave., Scottsdale, ); Noyz (4224 N. Craftsman Court, Scottsdale, )
Car: Black Cadillac CTS. “That's my toy.’’
Favorite drink: Belvedere tonic
Favorite shot: Fresca (Absolut Citron vodka, sweet and sour, 7-Up)
Favorite hangouts: “I don't get outside my own bars much.’’
Work week: “I work six full days a week,’’ he says of his 70- to 80-hour work week. “And Sundays, I can't get (the clubs) off my mind half the time.’’
Noyz celebrity spotting: Actress Mena Suvari (“She's a cute little thing.’’) and A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys (“He doesn't drink, but he had three people in here and was buying bottles of Cristal like crazy.’’)
Family: Married with four children (ages 1, 3, 15 and 17)

Randy Smith

When Randy Smith moved from London to the Valley six years ago, Scottsdale's nightlife scene wasn't anything like it is today.

“I always thought Phoenix was such an unbelievable town, but it really didn't have much to offer from a nightlife standpoint,’’ says the 30-year-old Smith, originally from Columbus, Ohio. “I was shocked by it. For the first couple years that I lived here, I sort of sat back and assumed that other people were going to (open new clubs). It seemed like nothing was happening.’’

Smith, who was involved in a restaurant investment at the time, decided it was time to get into the bar business. He opened Mickey's Hangover in October 2000 with the goal of bringing a relaxed vibe to downtown Scottsdale. The bar features a patio with funky, colorful furniture and a menu of sandwiches and burgers.

“We could sort of see Scottsdale becoming a little bit more pretentious and (Mickey's) was sort of the outgrowth of that,’’ Smith says. “We wanted Mickey's to be the un-Scottsdale bar in the middle of Scottsdale. . . . We classify it as shabby chic.’’

Smith says tourists tend to enjoy visiting Mickey's, but Valley residents don't always see the club for what it is.

“People think if it's not brand new and shiny and doesn't have all the bells and whistles, then it must be some sort of a dive bar,’’ he says.

Neiman Marcus apparently likes the bar. According to Smith, the upscale department store is introducing a section in each of its stores resembling Mickey's.

“It's funny, because we feel like we've been ahead of the curve for a while,’’ Smith says. ‘‘And with this town, I don't know when that curve actually catches up to you.’’

In an effort to stay ahead, Smith opened Six — an upscale restaurant and lounge — in April 2002.

“Through traveling and staying in places around the world in bigger cities and seeing some of these world-class lounges and bars and hotels, I was thinking, 'God, we don't have anything like that,' ’’ he says. “That's where Six came from.’’

Smith says Six was somewhat of a social experiment at the time.

“It was like, ‘Is Phoenix ready for something like this?’ ’’ he says. “Will it endorse it or are you spinning your wheels and wasting your time and energy on things that people won't pick up on because our market isn't sophisticated enough to tell the difference? But I think it's worked out well.’’

Since its opening, Six has gotten favorable reviews from the New York Times and In Style magazine. The latter deemed it one of the top 50 nightspots in the country.

“I don't think there's a formula,’’ Smith says of his success. “If there was, we would all follow it. The most important thing is that you have to have a decent location and you have to put forth a great product consistently.

‘‘It takes great people and it takes motivating those great people and getting them to believe in what you're doing. That's the biggest thing.

‘‘You look at Brian (Roehrich) from Dos Gringos and he's just hit a home run — home run after home run. He has a great niche that he's going into — take care of the people, don't worry about all the little things and give them something to hold on to like a $2 Corona and have fun

“Anybody can build a pretty building, and you've seen them come and go ... Our business has become very stressful. The market is not what it was. Places are going out of business all the time. I don't even know how some of these people are even staying in business.’’

Meet Randy Smith
Owns: Mickey's Hangover (4312 N. Brown Ave., Scottsdale, ); Six (7316 E. Stetson Drive, Scottsdale, )
Car: 2002 Range Rover
Favorite drink: Sangria at Mickey's
Favorite shot: “I am not a shot guy. If I had to do one, it would be chilled Patron (tequila) with a lime.’’
Favorite hangouts: Merc Bar, AZ 88, Casey Moore's Oyster House, Postino Wine Bar
Work week: 60 to 70 hours. “I love what I do and I love the people around me. They make my life awesome, so it's not like work.’’
Family: Single. “I'm running around so much that it doesn't lend itself to meeting women, nor am I necessarily trying to meet women. When I look at my track record, the girls I've dated I haven't met in my places. It's usually been out somewhere else or at SMoCA nights or something like that.’’

Contact writer Kelly Wilson at or .