Playground

If you see the bartender in a bad mood don’t even bother. They would mess up your drink.

This place is pretty chill. Aside from hearing gun shots every few hours in this area, it’s a nice bar and club to be at. The rooftop is where you want to go if you want to dance while the first floor is more for lounging and drinking. I had a bachelorette party ask me to show them my chest hair, and I also danced with drunken co-​workers who I thought were sticks in the mud at the time. Good times!

You know, the first time I went here I absolutely hated it. I thought the décor and layout of the place was great (especially the rooftop bar/​dance floor) but the DJ was absolutely TERRIBLE. I was totally turned off. The music really does make the place. I was also expecting it to be a college bar but it seemed to attract an older crowd, which perhaps resulted in the older, awkward music choices.
Anyway, came here the other night with my girlfriend. The music was actually decent compares to last time and we had a lot of fun. I really love the rooftop area! As long as the music is great (I like electronic music… Hehe) I may be back on another drunken weekend evening.

I was mistreated & profiled last night. I was mistaken for someone else, & the manager had me escorted out of the club by two security guards & was told I was being taken to the manager for him to talk/​discuss the matter/​situation too me. Once I was taken to the entrance where the manager was, he looked directly at me & says «yea, I’m not talking to him» & turns around & walked away. Not once was I told why I was being kicked out, I asked the security guards & doormen numerous times & they kept saying that they have to support what the manager says.
Jared is the so called «manager/​general manager» but he’s an ultimate coward & DB & hides behind his doormen.
In the meantime my friend Jennifer was in the bathroom while this whole event took place, I called her telling her that I got kicked out & I was outside by the entrance. As soon as she walked out of the bathroom, she was told by a security gaurd that she has to leave now because they’re maxed to capacity & made her leave also. At the time all of this was going on, the club was still letting people in, & there were only a handful of people in line.
Jared & Playground staff, you all F’d up last night, I’ll be telling everyone & anyone about this.

Once upon a time, I was going through a break-​up (as most of us have) and I came here quite a bit, for some reason. Perhaps to try something new. To try and expand my horizons, or something like that. Or my new group of friends were just into this place. Anyhow, I spent quite a bit of time drinking at the Playground, in the bar, on the patio. At times I’d stand out on the balcony with a cold drink in hand gazing out at the neon signs of Club Congress, or watching a train roll in, or just checking out the action downtown, especially during a music festival or other exciting events, or just gazing at the sky. In the background, a movie would be showing downstairs of the Playground. The bar would be full and crowded, and often would take a while to get a drink request in, or to cash out, because of how popular it gets. I can’t say I really like the place, nor dislike it. It’s an awesome set up for a bar with lots of outdoor room so you can breath a bit. Coming in during an off time is more of a thing for me, but I’m an old fart now, not a young kid wanting to stand in lines and crowds for my drink.

Cover went away.
Rich’s recommendation: it can sometimes be quicker to go out to the small side bar instead of waiting at the upstairs or downstairs bar.

My oh my, how downtown Tucson has grown up. Just a few years ago, I remember there really wasn’t much of a night life scene but during my last visit, it was as if I was in a completely new city. There is now a streetcar that goes through downtown all the way to U of A.
There’s a lot more bars with Playground being one of them. I came here for an alumni event and we had a private event here on the rooftop and it was a perfect ending to a short but eventful trip. The rooftop served as a gorgeous view of the mountainous backdrop known to the city. Overall décor of the bar/​restaurant is pretty typical to what you’ll encounter, hipster-​ish, modern, tailored to your average Millennial.
Good variety of bar bites to choose from including classics such as tator tots, nachos, fries, burgers, wings, and the like. Great addition to Tucson!

Bartenders have horrible attitudes… drinks are watered down… and some of the crowd is very immature

I had my 24^th birthday party here and decided to go with a VIP table with bottle service. The corddinator was great! Awesome communication via email and my table was beautiful! Security was kind of a jerk! They let anyone in and out when I wasn’t there which I wasn’t a fan of. How would they know if strangers came in and drank my 400 dollars worth of alcohol I pad for MY friends and family. The hostess was awful with pouring and I told her to save the rest of the bottle for my close friends but yet was pouring away to everyone. Whatever. Not sure if I will spent $ 400 on bottle there again. Would rate this a one star if it wasn’t for the coordinator.

A really cool bar with a playground theme. Nice comfy booths and a fun atmosphere. We didn’t eat a meal, but the fries are great!

Playground is kind of a staple to Tuscon. Located near Hotel Congress, the Playground has a lot to offer depending on what your looking for. The main floor has a massive bar with tvs everywhere. Perfect for watching sports. Immediately outside is a very trendy kind of patio. Follow the stairs up to the roof where you can get your dance on. There’s frequently a line to get in later in the evening, and it can take a while to get drinks on the roof do to how crazy it gets, but its all good. Playground is a great place to people watch, enjoy the nice weather, and get decent drinks fairly inexpensively. I almost always hit up Playground when I’m in the area and so should you.

I wish I could give this place zero stars… as a bartender myself in San Diego I have never felt so ignored by any bartender. Sitting at a bar for 30 minutes waiting on a drink is way too long. I hope they get their stuff together and figure it out cause this will never work.

Clean, clean bathrooms, clean counters,…cooperative, & good prices.
Update:
Only drawback seems to be food. No food? No wings, fries,???

Update-​I am adding on some more stars because after my review, the person in charge contacted me directly and made an excellent effort in addressing our past experience. Needless to say I am very pleased and this showed that they value their customers. I received an apology and they made it right. I will be returning soon and giving this place a second chance.

Such a fun place to come for happy hour, watch a game, or play trivia! The interior is huge so there’s always space to sit down, especially on a weeknight. There’s an absurd number of TVs playing an absurd number of sports at any given time.
I primarily come to Playground on weekdays for their happy hour which runs until 7pm. It’s great to come with a large group and pig out on cheap appetizers — from $ 5 gigantic bowls of tater tots (which are available at $ 5 all of the time!) to their delicious street nachos to their cheese curds served with sriracha ketchup. We always ask for tons of extra sriracha ketchup and they provide it free of charge. :) These appetizers can be supplemented with copious beer at the lovely happy hour price of $ 3 a pint.
On top of that, if you play trivia and happen to place in the top few teams, they give you discounts on your bill, as if it wasn’t cheap enough already!
I’ve been here once on a weekend night and it got a little too crowded and loud but that’s just because I’m a grandma about loud bars.

Strong mixed drinks for $ 5, friendly bartenders with fast service… Can’t ask for more than that. There is a nice rooftop with music blasting, and a bar upstairs as well along with a courtyard. One really nice thing they do here is that at the bar upstairs there is an ice water dispenser with cups at the end. That is so much better than having to go to the bar when you are being dehydrated by the dual effect of dry desert air and alcohol.
Music was typical mash-​up of current hip hop/​EDM hits. Overall compared to the other nightlife in the area it is one of the better places. They have a doorman but I do not think they were refusing entry to anyone. It was a casual all-​ages crowd. Can’t remark on the food, I was there when they were in «club» mode.

So between the perfect «Three Star Daiquiri» and the veggie nachos, the Playground has made our Thursday night. Nachos amazing — wellnstackednwuthhbyumminess — not just a pile of blank chips at the bottom like other venues. Thanks Playground!

This place is still very hit or miss with me. I stop in every now and then and sometimes the vibe is perfect and fun and other times it is the complete opposite. Oh well. The last time we stopped in was Easter Sunday as we didn’t have any other plans besides doing some lazy day drinking around downtown. The bartender was very friendly and attentive. He introduced us to some cocktail he had come up with for that day with gin — which I don’t normally drink — and prosecco and I think thyme? Anyway it was delicious and we decided to stay and eat so we could have a couple more! Breakfast sandwich was pretty basic but did the job. They have redone their front patio which I wasn’t thrilled about, we used to love to sit at the barstools and people watch. Either way this place is very slowly growing on me.

Came here for rooftop sunday brunch. Note that it’s sear yourself and could be difficult to get a table as it seemed that people stayed there for hours. There was a mariachi band playing (sometimes insanely loud) so it was a nice place to hang out.
It took a pretty long time for our table to be cleared and our drinks to be ordered. The bloody mary was pretty good, points for coming with an olive. It had a good amount of space and flavor.
The southwestern omelet was alright, I’ve definitely had better. The whole thing lacked flavor so I ended up adding a bunch of salt, pepper, and Sriracha which helped.
The server was again slow to come back, and it looked like she might have been serving the entire rooftop. Normally this would have been fine, as we were sitting in a perfect people watching spot and there was good music, but it was about 93 degrees at that time and water was a necessity.

easy to get DUPED to coming here from the loud clubby music you hear on the streets when you walk by
Playground has lots of lounge chairs, but you don’t need to purchase table service which is a plus, HOWEVER the downside is there was a $ 5 cover. ON THE CONTRARY well drinks are only $ 5
the downstairs area had a large screen where they were oddly projecting the movie Jaws. while upstairs was ilke a patio but it was pretty empty when we came
NOTE: attire is CASUAL, come on it’s tucson

Good place to people watch, I enjoy grabbing some beers with friends and hang out at the patio opening right on congress st. Watching the people and cars go by. Good place to chill while waiting to be seated at pizzeria Bianco as well