At Horse & Hyde, you get the Nashville vibe as soon as you walk in the door. There’s a stage upfront, with “For the Love of Country” spelled out in big letters on the wall. A local artist is playing country songs – their own or popular favorites.
Guests are chowing down on smokehouse sandwiches, barbecue platters, beer and signature cocktails, and the aroma of smoked meats lingers as servers bring plates of food to tables.
Black matte walls back up a compact dining area with tables and banquette seating, watched over by a large, mirror-encrusted steer skull. There’s a long bar with more seating, as well as a few tables in front and a patio just outside the big open front window.
The setting encourages cross-table conversation. And that’s exactly the way Scott Hibler and his partner Korey Boals, who opened Horse & Hyde a year and a half ago in Uptown Plaza, want it.
“We love country music and we love homestyle barbecue,” Hibler said. “It’s a special, unique place. If you’ve ever gone to Nashville and seen the changes that have happened up there, that vibe and that energy has really blown up around the country.”
While some of those Nashville venues can be sprawling, “we wanted something that’s smaller, more intimate, with great food, amazing drinks and high energy,” Hibler said. “We try to make it comfortable with a modern flair. You can’t help but talk to the people next to you. We’ve designed this place to be more of a family-friendly place. We get a ton of families with kids here.”
The idea behind Horse & Hyde was to focus on young artists who are up-and-coming, Hibler said. “My fear when we opened was that we weren’t going to have enough talent but there are so many musicians in town who love country music.”
Open-mic nights encourage unknowns, he said. “We want to bring that new artist in, give them a venue and a chance to master their craft while at the same time they bring their family and friends in for food and drinks. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
Hibler and Boals have a decade of experience in the Valley bar scene, including the original Arcadia Tavern and working with The Porch restaurant group. When the original Horse & Hyde opened in Arcadia, Hibler and Boals invested. While they remain as part owners of the original, they decided to open and operate their own, in North Central Phoenix. They also own and operate the Phoenix location of Dirtbag’s.
Neither of the partners had culinary experience before they took the plunge into taverns. “I was in the signage and real estate development business, and Korey was a CPA, and we evolved into taking this on,” Hibler said. “You learn a lot.”
Hibler credits some of their success to others who shared their expertise and experiences. “As soon as we bought Arcadia Tavern, we got calls from all the other big bar owners in town. You become friends with them and learn from them. It’s a cool network to be a part of.”
And he credits Chef Damien Johnson, who goes by “Shark,” who developed the menu. The focus is on barbecue, including meat smoked offsite. That will allow the partners to select locations as they expand over the next few years, without a need for traditional restaurant-size kitchens, Hibler said.
The focus at Horse & Hyde is on barbecue, including meat smoked offsite, along with dishes like Cowboy caviar, Cowboy Cobb salad, Spinach and artichoke dip, Wild West nachos and Smokehouse quesadilla (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News). 
The Triple Threat BBQ Platter includes a choice of pulled pork, chopped brisket, hot link or shredded chicken, served here with Texas toast, coleslaw and BBQ beans (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News). 
Deserts at Horse & Hyde include apple crumble and brownies with ice cream (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News).
“What Korey and I are good at is we know our roles,” he said. “We let our chef make the food and we let our beverage manager, Charles Malone, come up with our cocktails. We wanted them light, not heavy or syrupy. We wanted some color and of course, a great old fashioned.”
What Malone came up with was cocktails with good scents, Hibler said. A case in point is the Lavender French 75, with Empress gin, lavender and prosecco, garnished with a sprig of lavender. “Right before you drink it, the lavender notes hit you. It’s refreshing.”
For the old fashioned, Hibler said a twist of orange is swirled around the rim. “The scent of that sweet citrus right before you taste a really good whiskey elevates it, makes you want to sip it.”
Key to the menu is a variety of choices.
“What we wanted is every time you come here to be a different experience,” Hibler said, “so we have barbecue sauces from four different regions of the country: our house sauce, Texas, Memphis and Carolina. You can come in and have the brisket, pork or chicken and try it with a different sauce. Every time you come it’s something unique and new.”
Cowboy caviar – peppers, corn, onions, tomatoes and beans, chopped to consistent size – shows up on several dishes including a cobb salad and the smokehouse quesadilla.
It’s cowboy/country comfort food, and it blends well with the atmosphere at Horse & Hyde.
“We’ve tried to create that comfort, home feeling,” Hibler said. “It’s so intimate that it invites you to make new friends. You feel like you’re in your house, and then the live country music comes on.”
Bringing that to life wasn’t without roadblocks, Hibler said. Initially, there was resistance to live music, that it would be too loud for the neighborhood. “The biggest fear we had was whether they were going to accept us.” Hibler, who lives in the neighborhood, lobbied for acceptance, and they got permission to open.
“The people here at Uptown, and North Central in particular, have embraced us and love what we brought to this neighborhood,” he said. “If they haven’t been here, I want them to come and experience it.”
Horse & Hyde, 100 E. Camelback Road, is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 to 10 p.m.; Thursday, 3 to 11 p.m.; Friday 3 p.m. to midnight; Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For information, call 480-914-4868 or visit www.hhuptown.com.
