Harold’s in the Press

Betting options, outdoor patio bring an expanded, shaded outdoor patio offering more seating for patrons and a popular Unibet sportsbook offering live wagering on all major sports means the start of football season will look a lot different at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral this year.

The country western bar and restaurant has been serving patrons for nearly 90 years, according to a press release. During the past two decades, Harold’s Corral has grown to become a large Steelers bar, affectionately known as “Heinz Field West.”

With an original owner named Johnny Walker, how could this bar not have staying power? Walker’s effort to serve workers building the Bartlett Dam evolved into a beloved watering hole named after Harold Gavagan, who bought it from Walker. The tales about lions and tigers caged in the back room and whispers about Gavagan signaling closing time by firing his gun into the air only added to the legendary attraction that has drawn movie stars and country singers to the humble bar over the years. And good luck finding an open seat during football season as it’s known as “Heinz Field West,” one the biggest Pittsburgh Steelers bars outside of Pennsylvania.

The Valley’s oldest restaurants have all carved their own special niche in not only the metro area’s history, but in Arizonans’ hearts as well. And this combination, along with sheer grit, may very well explain how they’ve survived for so long. All the restaurants on this list have all held their own for more than half a century, surviving natural disasters, the ups and downs of the economy, a global pandemic, rising food costs and labor shortages. Harold’s Corral’s roots date back to 1935, when owner Johnny Walker opened a bar to serve the workers building Bartlett Dam.

This barn-like hall was originally built in the name of an old Arizona tradition: getting a piece of the massive federal largess that’s flowed in here through the years. The workers who built the Bartlett Dam in the late 1930s needed a nearby place to spend their paychecks and forget their cares. An entrepreneur named Johnny Walker was there to help them with a place he called the Corral Bar. A promoter named Harold Gavagan bought it a few years later, filled it with honky-tonk gimcracks, brought in some country-and-western bands and called it a “wild west” bar, even though very few actual ranchers were among the customers. Sports plays on the TVs and there’s off-track betting. It’s worth seeing how Arizona looks at itself in a mirror and reflects itself back to the rest of the world.

The Western-themed Cave Creek restaurant is intertwined with the fabric of the town, 30 miles north of Phoenix. Cave Creek’s longtime Mayor Vincent Francia  has said, “Sedona has its vortexs, Cave Creek has Harold’s.”