Sip, learn at Biltmore happy-hour tour
As the sun sets over the iconic architecture of the Arizona Biltmore, a crowd gathers inside the grand lobby of the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired hotel. Waiters hand flutes of Prosecco to couples and groups of friends waiting to learn more about the famous Phoenix resort.
The Arizona Biltmore started its Friday night Happy Hour History Tour in 2017 and its success has grown week by week. On this November night, more than 50 people have arrived to take part. So many that they’ll be divided into two tour groups.
There are four historians who lead the 45-minute tour, including Rob Razavi who guides the second group to leave the Biltmore lobby on this night. He kicks off the tour with a self-deprecating joke about his French accent.
“You’re welcome to ask questions during the tour. But you’ll have to ask them in French,” he jokes to the crowd, which chuckles along with him.
Razavi then launches into a recounting of the Biltmore’s opening in 1929 and growth into a Phoenix institution. As the resort’s first historian, Razavi has led tours of the resort for more than a decade and he ticks off facts about the Biltmore as easily as one might say the ABC’s. He recently retired but comes back to give the Friday night tour because he enjoys doing it so much.
Participants include well-heeled senior citizens, a young couple and a group of friends out for the night. The mix of hotel guests and local residents shuffle behind Razavi, some still carrying their Prosecco glasses.
The tour weaves through three floors of the Biltmore as Razavi points out parts of the hotel few see, such as the “Mystery Room” that once served as a speakeasy and the spotlights that once lit the sky to help guests find the resort on the dark streets of early Phoenix.
The tour ends at the lobby bar, where guests are served the cocktail invented at the Biltmore: the Tequila Sunrise. There, guests can try on masks of famous Biltmore guests such as Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, or move on to dinner in Wright’s at the Biltmore.