Just blocks from the Downtown campus is Angels Trumpet Ale House, a new restaurant opened by two ASU alumni hoping to use their tourism knowledge to sustain this business venture. (Photo by Jessie Wardarski)Angels Trumpet Ale House is the newest addition to a growing group of downtown Phoenix businesses.
Mat and Sharry Englehorn, owners of Angels Trumpet Ale House and ASU alumni, wanted to open the alehouse because they love craft beer.
“We are beer geeks and there wasn’t a place in downtown Phoenix that specifically offered that,” Mat said.
The restaurant, located two blocks from the Downtown campus, celebrated its grand opening Sept. 15.
Both Mat and Sharry graduated with degrees in tourism and recreation and worked in real estate before they decided to make the jump to alehouse owners.
They converted Mat’s old real estate office into the restaurant this summer.
Because the Englehorns already owned the building, they didn’t consider starting their business anywhere else.
The name Angels Trumpet Ale House comes from the Englehorn’s last name, which is German for “Angel’s Trumpet.”
Mat said the alehouse is different from other local craft beer bars because it’s not corporately owned.
“We are strictly mom-and-pop,” Mat said.
Sharry said the couple’s avid patronage of Arizona breweries and distributors over the years helped them stock their bar with local beers.
“We have become sort of a community already,” Sharry said.
The alehouse offers 31 craft beers and six wines on tap. The taps are constantly rotated, allowing a continual selection of new beers.
Although Angels Trumpet prides itself on its craft beer selection, the alehouse also serves food such as flatbread pizzas, salads, sandwiches and house-made seasonal pop tarts with vanilla glaze.
“We have a lunch special with 12-minute ticket times,” Mat said. “Our food prices range from $8.50 to $11.50 starting at 11 a.m.”
A Sunday brunch is also offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Englehorns encourage ASU students to come over for lunch, since the restaurant is within walking distance of the Downtown campus.
“We don’t get a lot of ASU students, since some are not old enough to drink, but we do offer lunch, which not a lot of people know about yet,” Mat said.
The couple is still trying to figure out its marketing strategy, something social work graduate student Quandraco Thompson said is a problem with many downtown businesses that don’t attract students because of a lack of advertising.
“Everyone knows about the places on Mill rather than downtown because Tempe has coupon books on campus,” Thomas said. “If they had that downtown, they’d bring in more students.”
Chelsea Thomas, a bartender at downtown venue Phoenix Copper Blues, said she had lived downtown as an ASU student when there were not many businesses in the area.
“Downtown is definitely growing up,” she said. “It’s a good thing that they are adding more businesses down here.”
Angels Trumpet Ale House is open six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday.
Reach the reporter at amy.edelen@asu.edu
