How to Book Society in Tempe
Published
Society is Tempe’s answer to a specific question: where does dinner go when it wants to become 1 a.m. without changing address? The EVO-family Italian-Mediterranean lounge at University and Rural books on OpenTable, feeds until deep in the night, and swaps its dining-room manners for a DJ as the evening turns.
Dinner That Becomes the Night
Opened in 2022 by the team behind Scottsdale’s EVO — Nick Neuman, Randy Feldman, Dominic Scappaticci and Lee Baron — Society runs the dinner-to-lounge arc the way the Mediterranean beach clubs do, translated to an ASU-adjacent corner: chef Armando Aguirre’s Italian-Mediterranean menu early, a DJ and a room-length energy shift late. Our Society review is clear-eyed about the category — this is Tempe’s scene table, not its tasting menu, and judged as that it wins its bracket.
Booking the Right Hour
The channel. OpenTable (society-tempe) or (480) 550-7801. The hours honesty: published schedules conflict — the house says 4pm to late nightly, its own ordering platform trims some evenings, so for a specific late-night plan, call. What is stable: doors at 4pm, dinner-first until roughly 9, lounge-first after. The strategy. Book 6:30–7:30 to eat as a restaurant; arrive after 9:30 on a weekend to join a lounge with a serious kitchen still awake behind it. Game days at ASU rewrite every rule — book anything you care about.
Aguirre’s Card
The menu’s documented anchors: the EVO meatballs imported from the Scottsdale sibling, a duck meatloaf that has become the house’s conversation piece, whipped feta dip, diablo tips, bolognese steak fries on the late-night end, arancini (about $15) and a butter cake finish. The house publishes few prices online — plan mid-$$ American-lounge economics, driven more by the bar than the kitchen. The cooking is more serious than the DJ implies; that gap is the whole concept.
The Tempe Play
Book the 7pm table, eat the meatballs and the duck meatloaf while the room still belongs to conversation, and decide at 9:30 whether the night continues in place — the only Tempe address where that choice requires no second booking. The valley’s wider table is in our Tempe dining guide; the team-dinner list rates the long tables early-evening, and the dinner-into-scene genre’s luxury cousins in this guide are Nōema and Gaïo — same arc, different oceans.
View Society on Restaurants for Kings →
Related Reading
- Our full profile: Society review.
- The city: Tempe dining guide.
- The dinner-to-scene arc elsewhere: Nōema, Mykonos and Gaïo, Saint-Tropez.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you book Society in Tempe?
Through OpenTable or on (480) 550-7801. Doors open at 4pm daily; for late-night specifics call ahead — the published closing hours conflict between the house’s own channels. ASU game days require booking anything you care about.
What kind of restaurant is Society?
An Italian-Mediterranean restaurant-lounge from the EVO Scottsdale family, opened in 2022 at University and Rural: proper dinner service early, DJ-led lounge energy late, one address for both. Chef Armando Aguirre runs the kitchen.
What should you order at Society?
The EVO meatballs — inherited from the Scottsdale sibling — and the duck meatloaf, the house’s signature conversation piece, with the whipped feta to start and the butter cake to close. Late-night, the bolognese steak fries are the correct decision.
How much does dinner cost?
Mid-range lounge economics — the house publishes few prices (arancini about $15), and the bill is shaped more by the bar than the kitchen. Dinner-and-drinks lands comfortably under Scottsdale resort pricing.
When does it turn from dinner into a lounge?
Around 9:30, most nights — earlier on ASU weekends. Book 6:30–7:30 to eat in restaurant mode; arrive after 9:30 to join the second act with the kitchen still open behind it.