"I was always looking at that spot," Kell Duncan told Phoenix New Times. He was describing the years after he moved to the Warehouse District around 2012, when he often walked past a two-story brick building with Art Deco details at Third and Buchanan streets. "I always wanted to know what was going to happen with it."
Now we know what happened. In the last week of October, Otra Pizzeria opened on the ground floor of the Gerardo's Building at 421 S. Third St., and Better Days, a bar from Duncan and The Churchill team, opened upstairs. On paper they are two businesses with their own names and their own hours. In practice the building works as one evening split across two floors, which is how it was built to work in 1928.
A Building Designed for Two Uses
The City of Phoenix dates the Gerardo's Building to 1928. The city's Hispanic Heritage StoryMap describes it as a two-story brick restaurant building constructed for Gerardo V. Walker, a native of Sonora who came to Phoenix in the 1920s. The Sonorense Café took the first floor, and the second floor was a rooming house. On 12News, Phoenix Historic Preservation Officer Helana Ruter gave his full name as Gerardo Verdugo Walker. She said he bought the property around 1925 and ran the café on the ground floor from the 1930s into the 1960s. New Times adds that the space was also home to a pool hall and a soda fountain at points in its history.
The building has picked up three layers of protection over the decades, and this fall it gained new tenants:
- 1985: The City's National Register inventory records a National Register of Historic Places date of September 4, 1985.
- July 2000: Listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register.
- July 2009: Designated a local landmark.
- October 2026: A restaurant opens on the ground floor and a separate operation opens upstairs, the same arrangement the building started with.
The city's newsroom feature on the building places it in a larger Mexican American history in the Warehouse District. The feature covers the neighboring Arvizu's El Fresnal Grocery, which served Mexican American warehouse laborers and once housed a Mexican American Masonic lodge. Ruter told 12News why the building matters: "It's particularly important too because we don't have as much left of Latino heritage, like sort of the built environment. A lot of that is gone."
As 12News puts it, the building now stands surrounded by new apartments, tucked behind Mortgage Matchup Center. Neighbors who have walked past the brick facade on the way to the arena can now go inside.
Downstairs, a Pop-Up Gets Its Own Room
Cesar Velasco launched Otra Pizzeria in January 2023 as a wood-fired pop-up. He spent three years cooking outside wine bars, breweries and other local businesses before opening this first brick-and-mortar location. His background is in Valley fine dining, including Christopher's, Chula Seafood and Fat Ox, and he first started stretching dough at Pie-Curious, the pizzeria at The Pemberton. After a short residency at the Miracle Mile location of Spce Coffee, which has since closed, a staffer at Local First Arizona introduced him to Duncan.
Velasco told New Times the restaurant aims to keep what worked at the pop-ups, "just more of a deeper dimension." The open kitchen keeps the pizza-making on view, as it was at the pop-ups. Kevin Rosales, a Chicago native who cooked at Disco Dragon and worked at the original Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, joined him in the kitchen.
The pizza at the center of the menu is the Diablo. Velasco described it to 12News as pepperoni with the house sausage, Mexican spices including pasillas, and a house-made salsa. Here is a sample of prices from Otra's homepage at opening:
| Pizza | Price |
|---|---|
| Marinara | $16 |
| Margherita | $18 |
| El Bianco | $18 |
| Diablo | $22 |
| Prociutté | $23 |
| Carnivora | $24 |
The charred romaine Caesar and seasonal salads from the pop-up are still on the menu. According to New Times, the team plans to add appetizers, pasta and desserts. They also hope to grill carne asada on Sundays, host Mexican wine events, and eventually build seasonal dishes around Arizona ingredients.
Upstairs, a Bar Built to Stay Open Later
Better Days takes the floor where Walker's rooming house used to be. Duncan described it to New Times as "a friendly, approachable, neighborhood bar." The room has a vintage dive-bar feel, with warm, dim lighting, checkerboard floors and red booths around the edges. Fendi Vaughn, a longtime bartender at The Churchill, manages it, and Duncan said he wants her to have creative freedom over the drinks.
The bar opens in the evening and stays open late. Better Days hasn't published hours by day yet, so check its Instagram before you plan around a closing time.
The Hour When the Two Floors Overlap
The building comes together late in the evening. Velasco explained it to 12News this way: "So you'll be able to come in, like let's say we're already closed down here. You could go upstairs, have a cocktail, have some food, have some drinks."
New Times reports that from about 10 p.m. to midnight, the Otra kitchen will make Roman-style square slices for Better Days guests. Better Days' beer, wine and cocktails are also available to diners at Otra. The teams serve food and drinks on both floors. "Essentially it is one concept," Duncan said. "Even though it's one thing, they both have their own identity."
Otra's posted hours show when the slice window starts on each night of the week:
- Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: Otra serves 4 to 10 p.m. On these nights, the square slices for the upstairs bar start right as the dining room closes.
- Friday and Saturday: Otra serves 4 to 11 p.m. The square slices start about an hour before the dining room closes, so both floors are serving at once.
- Tuesday: Otra is closed.
The late stretch is planned into the building, with the ground-floor kitchen feeding the second-floor bar after the dining room winds down. On Fridays and Saturdays, the hour from 10 to 11 p.m. is when the Otra dining room and the bar slices are both running.
Planning Your First Visit
For a full sit-down meal, arrive downstairs by early evening. Otra offers full-service dinner six nights a week. If you're coming from an event at Mortgage Matchup Center, go upstairs instead, where the square slices run until about midnight. Skip Tuesday if pizza is the plan, since Otra is closed that day.
Whichever floor you start on, take a look at the west facade. The City's preservation account said the rehabilitation plan called for restoring the sign there, which shows the building's name and its 1928 date.
If you're weighing a downtown condo or a home within walking distance of places like this, The Matchett Group can tell you which blocks are getting busier at night. Schedule a Free Consultation and we'll start with the streets around Third and Buchanan.
