M ichael Monti pretty much grew up on Mill Avenue, where his father opened the iconic steakhouse Monti’s La Casa Vieja on the corner of Mill and Rio Salado Parkway in 1956. Monti graduated from Tempe High School and Arizona State University. He went on to run the family restaurant for 21 years and has lived through several itera- tions of downtown Tempe. He doesn’t live far from the city’s most famous street. But these days, he rarely goes to Mill Avenue. “It’s kind of hard for me to see the old place as it is now. There was a certain vitality. Its current use wasn’t what I envi- sioned,” says Monti, who hoped the strip would’ve remained a spot to grab a bite and drink. “I thought I’d be the charming old drunk at the bar who’d tell entertaining stories…” Monti’s father, Leonard Monti Sr., opened his restaurant in the historic 1873 home where Arizona politician Carl Hayden was born. The steakhouse became a go-to for celebrations, casual family dinners and business lunch meetings for generations of customers. Regulars flocked here for the prime rib, signature Monti Burger and the rosemary focaccia known as Roman Bread. In 1993, Monti took over the restaurant across the street from Tempe Town Lake. In 2014, he closed it and sold the building that bore his family name for nearly 60 years to developers. Around the same time, the surrounding land was sold and today supports a high-rise office building. A few years later, the city of Tempe purchased the restaurant’s historic home, known as Hayden House, and preserved it, offering tours of downtown’s oldest building. Today, Hayden House is home to the Downtown Tempe Authority, a non- profit that works with the city to promote the Mill Avenue District. When Monti’s La Casa Vieja opened, downtown was sleepy and dormant. The restaurant was the only reason to head down there, Monti recalls. But he knows a traditional, generational, unchanging steakhouse would not thrive in most 21st-century cities. “There aren’t many places like that anymore,” Monti says. “It’s part of the churn.” Beyond ASU, Monti points out other factors that have shaped downtown’s iden- tity over the years. The Loop 202 added access to Rural Road in 1995, which sits less than 3 miles from the north end of Mill Avenue. Tempe Town Lake opened to the public in 1999. Light rail started chugging along in 2008. High-rise apartment build- ings emerged on the scene with West 6th in 2011. And three major luxury hotels opened their revolving doors between 2020 and 2023. Mill Avenue has long been the cultural heartbeat of student life at ASU. Just steps from the Tempe campus, the tree-lined north-south stretch from Rio Salado Parkway to University Drive has for decades teemed with students lugging backpacks to and from their studies and parties. Businesses along the stretch catered to students’ paltry budgets with no-frills pizza and cheap beer. But in the avenue’s latest iteration, the audience is shifting. High-end restaurants, luxury hotels and even a senior living facility have moved in. It’s enough to wonder: Is Mill Avenue the core of campus life anymore? And if it isn’t, what is Tempe losing in this bargain? EVOLVING FOR SURVIVAL Restaurateur and ASU alum Julian Wright says Mill Avenue seems to reinvent itself every 10 or 15 years. And it’s always the reaction to what’s happening around it. Trends and increasing rents play a part, too. Wright has operated bars and restau- rants on Mill Avenue since 2000. He’s part of the current reinvention that features a new wave of food and drink establishments alongside — and in some cases replacing — divey bars with sticky floors, shots specials and cheap wings that gave downtown an endearing sophomoric kitsch. Mill Avenue is trying to outgrow its chug-and-puke college town rep. The Mill Avenue of tomorrow wants to sell you a sophisticated image backed by rooftop bars, swanky cocktails and high-end restaurants. It’s happening during an uncertain economy that keeps breaking small busi- nesses. The closure of longtime favorites, such as Rula Bula, the Irish pub that shut- tered in 2021 after 20 years, proves that margins are thin. Meanwhile, years-long construction projects have not made it easy to navigate or park in downtown, further pinching shops. Long-time residents long for the older, easygoing Mill Avenue. That character, they say, is being sacrificed for a trendy persona. Wright is along for the ride. “Downtown Tempe is going through its possibly biggest renaissance in the last 25 years I’ve been here, which is why I invest in the area,” Wright says. “This is the great shedding of the skin.” If you’ve had a drink or bite in down- town Tempe since the turn of the century, chances are you’ve been to one of Wright’s establishments. His Fork & Dagger Hospitality group also includes concepts in downtown Phoenix and Mesa. MILL AVE. MOVES ON BY GEORGANN YARA Once a party-school mecca, Mill Ave. now wants to be your parents’ dining destination. >> p 12 Monti’s La Casa Vieja steakhouse, seen here in a 1985 photo, is now the home of Downtown Tempe Authority. (Tempe History Museum)
