The marquee that once announced indie film screenings at 815 N. Second St. is lighting up again, this time for a bar built around sound. Roosevelt, a new listening-focused bar, club and restaurant, opens with three RSVP-only preview nights running Thursday through Saturday before a full public debut Sunday at 4 p.m. with open house pricing and happy hour deals.
The venue occupies 4,000 square feet inside the former home of FilmBar, the beloved art-house cinema that closed in 2022 after operating there for more than a decade, according to Phoenix New Times. FilmBar had run at that address for nearly 11 years starting in February 2011 before pandemic-driven financial strain forced its closure, according to KTAR. Roosevelt has kept FilmBar's marquee and its distinctive flagstone exterior intact, a nod to the space's cinematic past even as its interior has been transformed over two years into a nightlife venue built around a listening room.
A Dream Team Behind the Bar
Roosevelt was co-founded by Thomas Turner along with Steve Kushnir, Walter Sterling, Stephen Lieberman and Michael Hooker, per the same account from Phoenix New Times. Turner is the founder of Relentless Beats, the promoter behind more than 400 events annually across the Southwest, including Decadence AZ, Goldrush and Phoenix Lights, according to a Virtual Sessions feature on the company. Sterling brings the food side of the operation as the owner of Ocotillo, the Midtown Phoenix restaurant that marked its 10th anniversary in 2025, as noted by PHOENIX magazine. Sterling holds the lease on the former FilmBar property.
Michael Horowitz is credited with bringing Turner to the space in 2024, setting the transformation in motion. Lighting designer Stephen Lieberman oversaw Roosevelt's production; Lieberman founded SJ Lighting and has spent decades designing stages for Electric Daisy Carnival and Ultra Music Festival as well as mega-clubs like LIV in Miami, according to Live Design Online.
Turner Distances Roosevelt From His Last Downtown Attempt
Turner previously opened Track Club in downtown Phoenix in 2019, a nightspot that operated for less than a month before permanently closing amid internal co-owner disputes, according to Phoenix New Times' earlier reporting. Turner has made clear he sees Roosevelt as something separate from that history. He said Roosevelt is a different business entirely and something completely new, not, in his words, Track Club 2.0.
Turner also said Roosevelt was designed to deliver high-quality sound at any volume, a philosophy reflected in the room's studio-quality acoustic treatments and its Funktion-One sound system, currently the only one inside an Arizona nightclub. Downtown Phoenix's Monarch Theatre had previously run a Funktion-One rig for its own event series starting in 2012, according to Resident Advisor, giving the city some history with the prized, low-distortion audio brand even as Roosevelt now stands alone with one installed.
Vinyl Nights, Film Screenings and a Neighborhood Identity
Michael Hooker is working with Konstadinos “DJ Cocoe” Tsimahidis, owner of Grand Avenue Records and founder of Phoenix's long-running Loose Joints vinyl party series, on Roosevelt's vinyl listening sessions, according to Doom Agency. Hooker said Roosevelt will let people hear unfamiliar music in a room built around music and sound. Weekdays will bring funk, soul, jazz and disco sets alongside those vinyl sessions, while weekends shift toward club nights with local and touring DJs.
The main room will also screen movies, with monthly cult-classic screenings planned alongside Cinehaze beginning in September, around the same time Roosevelt has planned its official grand opening. The venue's patio includes glowing lightboxes for rotating displays from local artists, and Roosevelt says it plans to develop the adjacent parking lot into an outdoor area, potentially by 2028. The team has said the menu and programming will keep evolving over the coming months as the venue lets the neighborhood help shape its identity, aiming to function as a hangout, listening bar and dance club all at once.
Part of a Bigger Shift on Second Street
Roosevelt's arrival taps into a broader national resurgence in audiophile listening bars. Vinyl records led U.S. physical music sales in 2025 with 46.8 million units sold compared to 29.5 million CDs, a trend fueling listening rooms modeled after Japanese jazz kissas, according to research from Michael Whalen. Locally, Roosevelt lands amid rapid turnover along North Second Street in the Roosevelt Row Arts District, where Hoodline previously reported that Pinky's Sports Grill is taking over the space directly across the street at 810 N. Second St., formerly home to Angel's Trumpet Ale House, which closed in October 2025 after 13 years.
The Phoenix City Council approved a Series 12 liquor license for Roosevelt at 815 N. Second St. during its formal meeting on August 28, 2023, with staff approval and zero police call violations noted, according to city records from the City of Phoenix. That application outlined plans for food and specialty cocktails serving up to 282 indoor guests, setting the stage for the venue that opens its doors to the public this weekend.
