The Palo Verde Lounge, one of Tempe’s oldest bars, located at the corner of Broadway Road and Industrial Park Avenue, has closed after the passing of owner Charles Marthaler on Aug. 18.
The bar opened as Park Inn Tavern in 1964, then changed names to Adobe Lounge in 1972 and The Palo Verde Lounge in 1982. One of Marthaler’s bartenders, Rich Thurman, posted a tribute to him on Facebook.
“Today we lost Chuck Marthaler (Palo Verde), and I’ve been trying to figure out how you summarize someone like Chuck, or a place like the Palo Verde Lounge, in a Facebook post. I’m not sure you can,” the post started. He said he was one of the people who started as a patron and became a bartender. He remembered Chuck’s stories. And whether he made people laugh or frustrated them, underneath it all, Chuck was protecting the place he had created.
An invitation to remember the man behind the bar
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