It was half a century ago that disco music started to dominate the airwaves and singles charts. Five years later, as the '70s drew to a close, disco was already being pronounced "dead," but it never really left the landscape of popular culture. The genre endures, not only in popular music, but also in fashion and design. On Roosevelt Row at the north end of downtown Phoenix, Disco Dragon celebrates the style and sound of the disco era while the "dragon" aspect of the restaurant's name is reflected in its contemporary menu of pan-Asian bar food and cocktails.
pancit bihon with short rib
Disco Dragon is about five blocks west of the Roosevelt/Central light rail station in a storefront location on a block full of independent restaurants, including long standing favorites like Taco Chelo and newcomers like Full Speed. Bike racks are around the corner on Fifth Street. The restaurant's facade is inconspicuous, with little more than green lettering on the window to identify the business inside. The host station is definitely more noticeable with a barrier in place while staff check customer IDs. Minors may be admitted, but only when accompanied by adults.
chicken skewers
A stanchion to control entry to Disco Dragon and its colorfully named sibling FYPM might be seen not only as a tool of liquor license compliance, but also an homage to the classic velvet ropes that limited access to places like Studio 54. Fortunately, the staff at Disco Dragon are more friendly and welcoming than the bouncers who enforced the unwritten rules of disco admission back in the '70s. Beyond the barrier lies a long bar and banquettes in a colorful room full of hanging plants, bright murals, and even mannequin legs dangling from the ceiling.
vegetable gyoza
The original green lighting, which gave the food the unusual hue seen in some of the photographs here, has been replaced with something more neutral. That's fortunate because the menu at Disco Dragon covers much of the spectrum with vibrant combinations of meats, vegetables, noodles, rice, and tropical fruits reflecting influences from Asian countries such as Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Starters include fried treats like pork wontons, gyoza with either vegetable or chicken fillings, and lumpia, miniature Filipino egg rolls.
lamb neck ramen
Chicken skewers are tender and juicy with a pleasing soy sauce glaze. Raw items include a tuna poke bowl, an uni shooter, hiramasa sashimi, and hand rolls made with either tuna or beef tartare. A crowd pleaser is the disco fries, slivers of crisp potato topped with bonito flakes, furikake seasoning, gochugaru chili powder, and "disco sauce," a slightly spicy aioli. A few of these substantial appetizers can easily be combined into a meal, or any of them can serve as a prelude to the second section of the menu, which is devoted to rice and noodle bowls.
Malaysian curry
Those bowls offer bases of starch topped with proteins, vegetables, and sauces reflecting the restaurant's Asian approach. Classic fried rice seasoned with scallions, sesame, and maybe just a little too much soy sauce can be topped with any number of meats, but this dish is a particularly good match for the chili shrimp. Malaysian curry has a satisfying slow burn from a rich sauce over fluffy rice. It works well with tofu added to the bowl. Pancit bihon, thin rice noodles in a traditional Filipino style, is a natural candidate for either pork belly or short rib.
classic fried rice with chili shrimp
While many of the bowls allow a choice, some are crafted with specific combinations of ingredients in mind. Lamb neck ramen features tender meat and a touch of Sichuan pepper -- not quite numbing, but tingling with a bit of spice in the broth. A karaage rice bowl incorporates fried chicken thigh. Although the texture seems more like katsu than karaage, it's still an effective combination of crisp poultry with shredded cabbage and sliced scallions. Additional large plates beyond the bowls include a broiled halibut collar and nearly a pound of short rib.
chicken karaage bowl
For dessert, Disco Dragon sticks to its Asian and tropical themes. Mango sticky rice ice cream has a consistency that somehow captures the feel of rice within the frozen dessert itself. Another cold choice, coconut jackfruit ice cream, is unexpectedly filling and flavorful with the addition of chocolate sauce and cassava chips to the bowl. Ube, the purple yam popular in the Philippines, has become quite a trend in the United States recently, and it appears in two forms here: The first a donut that has a texture and color that makes it almost a purple velvet cake.
mango sticky rice ice cream
The second is not among the desserts, but instead the bar's most distinctive cocktail, ube milk punch. The dark purple drink is garnished with an orchid and is a little sweet, but not overpowering. It's strong, requiring more of a slow slip than say a piña colada. While the punch appears under the heading of "boozy cocktails," others are classified as "nitro," or slightly effervescent, or "fizzy," quite bubbly. All the cocktails are prepared in quantity and served on draft, a practice common at establishments owned by Pour Bastards on Roosevelt Row.
ube milk punch
While cocktails are on tap, the beers are bottled or canned and include some esoteric selections like a sweet mango beer from Taiwan, as well as Asian standbys like Sapporo. The food served here probably didn't have much presence in America in the heyday of disco when chicken chow mein was still viewed as exotic. American appetites for Asian cuisine have come a long way in 50 years. Nevertheless, the combination of contemporary Asian-influence cuisine, creative cocktails, and disco drama blends the old and new across half a century on Roosevelt Row.
509 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix AZ 85004
https://www.discodragonphx.com
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