A towering yellow excavator stood over concrete rubble, steel cables and topsoil Thursday where the Bandersnatch Brew Pub once stood.
"It's a sad day," said Vic Linoff, owner of Those Were The Days! Bookstore at 516 S. Mill Ave. for decades. "Bandersnatch was an icon for downtown."
The pub is making room for an 11-story Residence Inn by Marriott, said Darcy
Gray, senior project manager for Layton Construction, the firm overseeing the demolition.
Bandersnatch, which sat at Forest Avenue and Fifth Street, opened in the 1970s and was a unique pub, Linoff said.
It had an outdoor volleyball court, microbrew tanks and grills where customers could make their own burgers, he said.
Interior design senior Meredith Nunn said older buildings being demolished for new development was a recent pattern in Tempe.
"Tempe is trying to make way for big business," Nunn said.
About 15 trees along the outside edge of the property were left standing, but Gray said the trees were not all that was salvaged.
Many of the items that made Bandersnatch unique, such as its metal sign, stain glass windows and artwork, were salvaged last Thursday before the demolition began, Gray said.
Gray, an ASU graduate and former Bandersnatch patron, said the hotel owners are looking to incorporate pieces of the pub into the new building.
"Since we recognize that many people shared great memories at Bandersnatch, we intend to use some artifacts from the pub in our project to help preserve those memories," said Ronny Finvarb, part owner of the new hotel, in an e-mail.
Finvarb added he doesn't know yet how they will be used.
The Tempe Historic Preservation Commission attempts to save structures such as Monti's La Casa Vieja, Tempe National Bank and the Mill Avenue Bridge, said Joe Nucci, Tempe historical preservation officer.
Although Bandersnatch was a popular pub in Tempe, it wasn't old enough — 50 years — to be considered on the Tempe Historic Property Register to be saved, Nucci said.
But Nunn added Arizona has a limited amount of history and needs to preserve as much as it can.
Finvarb said he looks forward to the hotel, with 173 rooms and a rooftop pool with panoramic views, becoming a part of the Tempe community.
Reach the reporter at: jeffrey.mitchell@asu.edu.
