Jade Bar

3rd update here. This place is still fantastic and still one of the poshest happy hours in the Phoenix area. They have reduced their HH menu a little bit and some of the better cocktails aren't included but you can't beat $5-$6 for inventive drinks and the food items are always very generous for the money.

One thing that I wanted to tell my fellow Yelpers: they are going to be closing for the summer for renovations. They will be expanding the Jade space, including the outdoor patio. It will be hard to live without Jade Bar for the summer but I have a feeling the redo will be well worth the wait - and will perhaps warrant a fourth update.

Great drinks, beautiful location, but a giant fail on service. My husband and I were asked to give our credit card before placing an order. We were told it was a new policy, yet over the two hours we spent watching, we saw no one else being asked to do this. Just us. Could it have had anything to do with us being the only people of color in the entire place? We're not going back to find out.

We called the manager later that evening to voice our displeasure. He told us that Sanctuary had no such policy, and promised to investigate and call us back "shortly." Two days later and we have yet to receive that call.

Bottom line: stay away unless you fancy being treated like a second-class citizen.

We attended the mixology class here yesterday and this review is for the class.  

Apparently it was supposed to be in the Jade bar and we were supposed to have the hands-on experience of making our own drinks.  Their website even states that class size is limited to 10.  Unfortunately, this is not what happened.  There were at least 20 people there and they moved us into a room adjacent to the restaurant.  We watched our host make drinks and waitresses brought us those same drinks that were pre-made in the kitchen.  

For me, part of the enjoyment of these kinds of events is learning something new.  I am much more likely to make things myself at home if I've done it in a class.  All we got to do was watch the guy make drinks and it honestly wasn't much different than the nights I've spent at The Merc Bar watching the bartenders make magic (and I have to say, their bartenders are TALENTED... this guy.. not so much).

Our bartender seemed like a very nice guy but honestly, he wasn't a very good speaker and he didn't even really seem that knowledgeable about booze.  

The value of the class is pretty good - for $30, you get 4 drinks.  It would have been a superb deal had we been able to actually make the drinks.  And the drinks were delightful.  

Our tables had brochures with drink recipes that were in the same style of things being made in class but were not what we were served.  I found this confusing.  In other classes we've done, we received handouts with the recipes that were covered.  

The resort itself is beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent there.  I just don't feel like we got what we paid for.  :(