A two-story midcentury building at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Camelback Road has traded Southeast Asian fusion plates for hand-laminated pain au chocolat and Cave Creek-roasted espresso. Brasserie Melrose, which opened in December 2025, is now drawing crowds to that same Melrose District corner with a French-inspired concept that runs from sunrise pastries to late-night cocktails.
Owners James Lenhart and Tory Johnson, who also serves as the restaurant's executive chef, took over the property at 4971 N. Seventh Ave. in September 2025, according to Phoenix New Times. The pair designed the space to mirror the all-day rhythm of a European brasserie: a morning bakery and café that gives way to a full-service restaurant and evening cocktail lounge, all within the same walls. Brasserie Melrose is located in Phoenix, and the ownership duo built the operation to capture customers across breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner rather than betting on a single meal period.
That multi-shift approach stands in contrast to the building's last tenant. Belly Kitchen & Bar, a Southeast Asian fusion concept that opened in late 2020, closed its original Phoenix location on October 30, 2024, per the same Phoenix New Times reporting. Brasserie Melrose occupies the space formerly housing Belly, and its second East Valley location at Gilbert's Epicenter development shut down for good on December 31, 2024, before Scottsdale's Latin concept The Mission moved into that spot the following year, as Hoodline previously reported.
A Compact Building Built for Two Different Crowds
The build-out makes efficient use of a tight footprint. The ground floor houses an open kitchen and espresso counter for the bakery crowd, while the upper level holds a 13-seat central bar and a second-story outdoor patio wrapped in black-and-white striped drapes, according to the same Phoenix New Times account. That layout lets the same building serve a quiet coffee run in the morning and a lively cocktail crowd after dark without the two experiences colliding.
Coffee is a centerpiece of the morning program. The bakery partners with Roastery of Cave Creek for its beans and offers an interactive, timed French press service alongside an Algerian-inspired Mazagran, an iced drink built from espresso and sparkling lemonade, the outlet notes. It is the kind of specialty beverage detail that has become common in Phoenix's growing coffee-and-bakery scene, but paired here with a full brasserie menu once the sun goes down.
The Pastry That Keeps Selling Out
The bakery's breakout item is a hand-laminated pain au chocolat filled with Valrhona dark chocolate. Demand for the pastry arrived quickly enough that the kitchen had to scale up morning production, according to Phoenix New Times' coverage from June. The bakery has reportedly sold out of its morning viennoiserie before the lunch shift on multiple occasions since opening.
That early momentum has translated into recognition beyond the neighborhood. In August, Phoenix New Times named Brasserie Melrose to its list of the top 50 restaurants in Phoenix for 2025–2026 and nominated the venue for Best New Restaurant and Best Bakery in its annual Best of Phoenix readers' poll, according to the outlet's own rankings coverage. For a restaurant not yet a year old, that kind of critical attention signals it has already carved out a distinct identity in a crowded dining scene.
Hours, Happy Hour, and Where to Find It
Brasserie Melrose sits on the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and Camelback Road, in the heart of Phoenix's Melrose District, a corridor long known for vintage shops, dining, and LGBTQ+-friendly nightlife, per North Central News. Official business schedules show the restaurant operates Wednesday through Sunday, with counter-service bakery items available from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. From Thursday through Sunday, a happy hour running 4 to 6 p.m. offers $10 cocktails along with 30% discounts on wine bottles and appetizers.
The opening adds to a wave of investment reshaping the Melrose District in recent years. Hoodline previously reported on The Royale's opening, a project that converted 1940s auto body shops at 635 W. Glenrosa Ave. into fully leased retail, coffee, and dining storefronts in January 2024, complete with new sidewalks and crosswalks meant to improve walkability. Brasserie Melrose's arrival extends that pattern of adaptive reuse, turning a building's earlier commercial struggles into what has quickly become one of the district's most talked-about additions, as first reported by azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic.
