Dominic Armato

The Republic | azcentral.com

Rich Furnari and Jason Asher of Counter Intuitive have teamed with Travis Radevski on the new tiki bar

Under Tow sits beneath Sip Coffee & Beer Garage, and is designed to look like a clipper ship's hold

Opening Sunday, Aug. 14, the bar features cocktails from Asher and food from Cullen Campbell

Under Tow, Phoenix’s new nautically themed tiki bar, is about to set sail beneath Sip Coffee & Beer Garage.

The subterranean watering hole opens Sunday, Aug. 14, at Indian School Road and 36th Street. Arcadia's immersive below-deck escape features a drink list devised by a team of local mixologists, under the direction of Jason Asher.

A sneak peek at the drink menu reveals:

Classics like Mai Tai and Scorpion Bowl.

Tiki-inspired originals like Dutchmen’s Demise and Pirate’s Remorse.

Tiki drinks born in Arizona during the early heyday of tiki culture, like Pi Yi and the Vicious Virgin #2.

Asian-inspired snacks by Cullen Campbell of Crudo and Okra will follow in September.

Phoenix has suffered from tiki deficiency for far too long, but Rich Furnari, Travis Radevski and Asher plan to change all that with Under Tow.

Radevski, who owns Sip, and Furnari, who teamed with Asher and Peter Kasperski to open Scottsdale’s Counter Intuitive, tapped Asher to create a subterranean bar that will snare a piece of the tiki resurgence that has dominated the national cocktail scene.

“We’re trying to blow some life back into the tiki category in Arizona,” Asher said.

Those expecting a stereotypical tiki bar, however, are in for a surprise.

“Tiki was about taking somebody to another place. You walked through that front door and it shut behind you, and you were somewhere different,” Asher said. “But we don’t want (Under Tow) to be thatched walls and grass skirts.”

First look at the menu

The design

To that end, while the coffee shop crowd sips and taps on their laptops overhead, a design team that includes Wesley James of StarkJames and Danny Gallardo (better known as Tiki Diablo) converted the oil change bay beneath the former garage into a replica of a clipper ship.

“The greyhounds of the ocean,” Asher said.

Furnari and Asher designed the space as a nod to tiki’s roots, bringing guests below deck as they voyage to the South Pacific in a hold laden with cargo, exotic drinks and Asian-inspired food.

The drinks

In designing the drink menu, Asher hasn’t shied away from tiki tropes, but he refuses to be completely bound by them.

“It’s not classic tiki in the sense of what tiki grew into,” he explained. “Maybe this was the first clipper ship that started sourcing ingredients and bringing them back. So the classics will be here, but also interpretations, elaborating on maybe where it started.”

A list of roughly 30 drinks will be evenly split between tiki standards that have been “taken apart and put back together” and “nouveau cocktails” inspired by the classics.

“We’ve brought some diversity through the base spirits,” Asher added. “Not every tiki cocktail was rum. Our goal is to bring influences from everywhere the ship has visited.”

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The food

To pair with the drink menu, Under Tow will slowly phase in 15 or so small dishes designed by Campbell, who operates Crudo just across the street. They’ll include riffs on classic pupu platter staples like shumai, bao and ribs that are easy to eat with one hand.

“You don’t want to have to put a drink down to get that bite,” Furnari said.

The tiny space is centered around a bar that was hand-carved by Gallardo. The team added touches like portholes, wooden decking and multimedia elements to make the experience as immersive as possible.

“I want people to walk down the stairs and turn left and feel like they’re in a different place and time,” Asher said. “Hopefully, from the decor to the music to the food and the drinks, we can accomplish that.”

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Details: Under Tow, 3620 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix. facebook.com/DrinkUnderTow. 4 p.m.-midnight, Wednesdays through Fridays, 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Note: This story was updated to correct Asher's quote describing the "greyhounds of the ocean."

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