Best New/Refurbished Space in Food and Drink: Ra Ra Room, PHX Arena (2025 Excellence In Concessions Awards)

A high-touch, $20 million fine dining restaurant and lounge located within a well established basketball arena may sound like a mishmash of concepts, but it makes perfect sense when you add it all up.

“Mario Carbone and his team at Major Food Group have done this worldwide and were really excited to break into the Phoenix market,” says Paul Rivers, chief innovation officer for the Phoenix Suns, which owns and operates their home court venue, PHX Arena, in downtown Phoenix. “And then for (Suns owner) Mat Ishbia, it started out as kind of a restaurant idea that has manifested as this one-of-a-kind experience. It continues to show Mat’s commitment to elevating Phoenix as a premier destination for sports and entertainment. The restaurant was designed to be a destination in and of itself.”

The Ra Ra Room, located on the arena’s event level, opened in late 2024, offering an exclusive, members-only experience focused solely on providing a premium value for members, who can have a meal before catching a game or concert, meet afterwards for a nightcap, or hold gatherings on otherwise off nights.

The annual membership fee is $15,000, with members able to bring a guest. While the Ra Ra Room is open on off-nights at the arena, it is strictly members only, with membership being exclusive to the Ra Ra Room rather than part of a season ticket package or other perk.

The Ra Ra Room features gourmet cuisine, a curated wine list, a lavishly stocked snack pantry and personalized concierge service. It was designed by Gensler in collaboration with MFG’s in-house design team, and construction was led by Okland Construction, while CAA ICON served as project manager. OVG Hospitality (a division of Pollstar’s parent company, Oak View Group) operates The Ra Ra Room in partnership with Major Food Group.

Rivers says the three-pronged operation between the Suns, OVG and Carbone’s team may sound complicated but, “When you have good people who want to do great things, it makes it super easy. This one has been really great, and the execution has been flawless.” The Ra Ra Room adds to Carbone’s fine-dining experiences in New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Dallas. Rivers says the idea for the Ra Ra Room was less about filling a specific need within PHX Arena but creating something world-class that would drive its own interest and business.

“We’ve got a number of Suns and Mercury ticket members and partners that wanted to be part of it, but it’s been sort of word of mouth, very exclusive and premium-focused, and we haven’t really done any broad marketing outreach on it,” Rivers says. “And that’s worked out really well for us. This isn’t a room that’s focused on scale and quantity, but on the really high-end hospitality experience.”

“The response has been remarkable,” he says, noting many members based in cities across the country rather than just Phoenix. “We’ve got an incredible base of members that use the Ra Ra Room in a number of different ways and are really leaning into it.”