Phoenix Theater, Opera house and nightclub in Petaluma, United States.

The Phoenix Theater is an all-ages nightclub in Petaluma, California, in a building that opened in 1905 as the Hill Opera House. Its interior was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and later renovated; the venue has hosted The Ramones, Green Day and Metallica.

The Hill Opera House opened in 1905. A fire in the early 1920s forced it to close; by 1925 it had been restored as a movie theater, and around 1935 California Movie Theater bought it and renamed it California Theater. A fire on August 5, 1957, took the roof; the Tocchini family restored it as the Showcase Theater, where Petaluma native Jeff Dorenfeld put on the first live concert. After buying the theater in 1982, Ken Frankel rehired Tom Gaffey as manager, and Gaffey renamed it Phoenix Theater because the building seemed to rise from the ashes.

The name comes from the mythological phoenix, chosen by manager Tom Gaffey because the building seemed to rise from the ashes after repeated fires. The venue has hosted early shows by The Ramones, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Primus, Sublime and Pennywise. Bradley Nowell of Sublime played his last show here on May 24, 1996; Neutral Milk Hotel gave their final concert here in 2015.

The theater is located downtown and maintains regular opening hours on most days, though visitors should confirm specific times before arriving. Upon entering, guests will find multiple entrances and different areas, so it helps to spend a moment orienting yourself to the layout.

In 1999, when the landlord planned to sell the Phoenix for demolition and rebuild it as an office building, four employees of Cerent Corporation, all musicians and two former regulars, took over the escrow and founded the non-profit Petaluma Phoenix Center, Inc., which still owns the theater.