text: I feel bad giving this venerable downtown institution only 3 stars.   It's got a damn good bar and vibe, and the service would be an easy 10 if it weren't for a distant memory of outside food or drink flack ... but two things:  #1, it's a restaurant first.  #2.  I will always be back.  \n\nI first went here years ago and was profoundly disappointed with the selection of the side so much that I almost didn't come back:  Chips or orzo.  The chips are good, don't get me wrong, but a small handful of chips do not make an adequate side for a $10 sandwich.   The orzo is a pile of boring rice-shaped nonsense in an equally idiotically small portion.   And it seems like everything here is about a buck or two more than it should be.  \n\nRegardless, my standby here is the Carly-Q, a roast beef sandwich that destroys all its previous concepts found elsewhere with sheer deliciousness.  Slather on the horseradish and I'm in heaven.  Tonight, I deviated from the norm with a Santa Fe.  Whoops.  It was soaked in a bland \"chipotle\" mayo that killed the subtle flavors left over.    \n\nThe Carly's Side Salad almost made up for it.  The greens were above average, the dressing was just enough to write home about, and the bread was hands down the best side-salad bread I've yet to have.  \n\nAt this point, with mediocre-plus eats, why would I come here? \n\nBecause nowhere else do I get my slice of Chicago in downtown Phoenix.  Beer and music can make up for any lack of food offerings.  Carly's is my late-night beacon, my super-friendly casual spot, my one of two or three places downtown I can actually stop by myself and not feel completely out of place drinking a beer or three and enjoying the music and everything the place has to offer.  \n\nTonight, the DJ was good, not great, but he found a comfortable-enough mix between downtempo and hip-hop that one should expect from a joint that borders on the sophisticated.  Carly's delivers with a live band every *other* night.  D'oh.  \n\nThe crowd is as diverse as they come--with every minority and majority represented.  This is, as the mural with the bare-tittied vixen proclaims, a place for people.  \n\nBrief reality check/disclaimer before I go on--does your local suburban bullshit restaurant have a DJ or live music every night, if it's even open that late?  Carly's does.  High standards are set in Downtown for a reason.   Carly's would be five stars anywhere else in the Valley but Downtown Phoenix.  \n\nI certainly enjoyed the service at the bar and my choices from the perfectly-priced vast beer selection.  The front-end staff's steadfast patience among a growing crowd and my random requests after another made me feel right at home.  I was thinking maybe this could still be a four or five star place--if it had a drinking patio, five would be a serious contender.\n\nI've got to piss like a racehorse at this point, and then I remember my genuine test of  a good restaurant or bar--the bathroom is a microcosm of the whole place.  Shitty joint, shitty bathroom.   Kickass joint, kickass bathroom.    \n\nMy eyes wander as I walk in.  Is the swarm of graffiti intentionally left there?  Taken aback from the rest of the place, it really offers its own brand of kitsch.  And then you see the slurs and gang tags and an overflowing garbage and fixtures that need a good once-over with the 409...   \n\nEw.  Three stars it is.  \n\nI only half-blame them for the bathroom.  Keeping the graffiti clean would be a non-stop job, maybe they could help you complement it by dangling permanent markers from the ceiling.   And every time I've been here at night there's only been two people up front to keep the place going, and they do a phenomenal job, so again, I feel bad for three stars--the staff shouldn't suffer for the establishment.  But with only two people, you can only do so much.  \n\nThe text on our star rating's rubric is \"A-OK.\"  And that's just what Carly's is.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't go to 5-star places all the time...maybe they'd lose their luster too quick.   The places I'm a regular at have their own annoying little quirks, but dammit, they are what they are for a reason that I as a lowly patron just cannot comprehend--the bar and restaurant gods have made it this way.  It works, as it always has, and I go there happily.   \n\nAnd like true gods of their industry, Carly's will be a place that will stand on its own 20 and 50 years from now.  It is Phoenix's core captured, largely for the best.