text: When I saw the name of this establishment, Blue Hound, I couldn't help but thing of the paintings of George Rodrigue, who is from Louisiana and in fact, this downtown based eatery has a distinctive New Orleans feel with its focus on cocktails (according to drinking lore the Big Easy is where the first cocktail, the Sazerac, was reportedly developed), and its Southern friendly food such as bone-in Kobe beef short ribs and grits and Kentucky fried quail with cornbread, red beans and gravy. At the same time the decor and the initial impression was like walking into a bar as good as any as one might find in New York City, this place has cool atmosphere in spades and just for that it is worth a visit.\n\nI was going to to the opera (for the first time, yep, an opera virgin, who would have thought!) with some friends so we picked this place to eat at first. I had ridden the light rail from Tempe and you get off the stop at Washington and Central and literally, you are right there, so this place is extremely light rail friendly. You go to the building on the corner of Jefferson and Central and up to the 2nd floor, turn to your right and you are there! The opening leads into a long bar and the best part of this place, which is the cocktails. They must have a cocktail ice machine because the ice cubes are huge and perfect for drinks like the old fashioned as they keep the liquor cold but don't water down the drink and the old fashioned, I got it for the happy hour price of $6 and that is great deal. They have a whole book of cocktails and I haven't seen anything like this since I was in San Francisco earlier this year, which is sort of a cocktail renaissance mecca.  From what I saw Blue Hound can hold its own. If you just want to come for cocktails - 5 starts\n\nDinner, well, they seem to be trying but needs some work. It was noted that we needed to get the opera by 7:30 but the waiter seemed a bit aimless at times relative to keeping us on schedule and one of my dining companions was quite concerned that we would not have time to finis the meal. Luckily, there was a wonderful young lady who checked on us, and got our orders taken so that helped keep things running smoothly. For an appetizer, we had the duck confit flat-bread which came out wonderful hot and topped with arugula and green apple diced through a mandolin, it was delicious though two of my dining companions felt it needed more confit. \n\nWe then did a salad and vegetable and i had a small dish of roasted cauliflower with pistachios, capers, and brown butter, and I thought it was quite good though I would have liked the cauliflower a little more roasted but nice - at this point, a solid 4 stars. \n\nAs for the meals, three of us ordered the Kentucky fried quail and while it was okay, it did not come hot, the fried quail was room temperature, the gravy was not all that warm and the cornbread, almost cold and it was little bland. It was the blah part of my meal. Another person had scallops and though large and cooked perfectly she noted they needed some sort of sauce, also a bland dish. Finally, one person got the Kobe bone in rib, the half order, with the blue cheese grits, now that came out hot and it was good - so at this point - because of the slower than expected service from the primary waiter, and the fact that the main dish was blah - the overall agreement by my group of five (mixed group, men and women), was a solid 3 stars though if you just came for cocktails and appetizers (and they have a good list of starters) then we would rate it a solid 4 starts with 5 star potentials if they work on the operational workflow of the kitchen to get the food out hot.\n\nOh, one final point, I could not figure out how to work  the salt and pepper shakers, the waiters might want to point out how those work. Bottom line, I probably won't go back for a full meal here but I will come back in a heartbeat for the wonderful cocktail and drink selection and the small plates, which may be the way to go. In my mind, this is about the closest  thing to a cool cocktail bar, like you might find in New York or San Francisco, that one is going to find and the location off of the light rail and big events in downtown Phoenix can't be beat and yes, I'm already looking forward to my next old fashioned at the bar!