Plaza Liquors

OK, I know... I am little bit outside of the Midwest. But this great little place has a lot of stuff I have never seen before.

So this is one of the original small bottle shops in Tucson and a couple of years ago, I would have probably rated it higher. However, I don't know if the ever increasing number of bottle shops and tap rooms makes Plaza Liquors appear less good or if their selection has actually shrunk. The place has a rustic gas station in the desert feel on the inside, fairly musty and cramped. Most of the floor space is for hard alcohol and wine but there are a couple of shelves of beer and some fridges. Quite some of the beer is European macros or larger European craft, which doesn't appeal to me. Plaza carries some Tucson locals and some from the Southwest, that are otherwise not too easy to find but as said above, the selection doesn't really blow me away anymore.

Cramped, clean, moderately organized. Friendly staff. Decent sized collection. Some nice choices I haven’t seen before, but nothing crazy. Easily the beer store to stop at un Tucson, but I don’t know about "world class" though.

This place has an impressive selection of beers - local, regional, national and international. Smaller bottles are available individually, which is a huge plus. Prices are pretty reasonable. The staff was very helpful. Definitely a world class beer shop.

Visited 3/3/2011 during Ratebeer Winter Gathering.

Located in a small dusty shopping center next to a planned parenthood (or some such place). I got a kick out of that.

The majority of the floor space is liquor and wine but the back wall and the whole row of fridges are full of beer. One set of shelves is dedicated to Bells. A couple of the fridges are full of AZ and NM beer. The rest is an interesting mix of imported beer and random breweries that distribute to AZ. I found most of the Crooked Line series from Uinta on the shelf but only picked up the barleywine.

The service was nice and very grateful to us for bringing in a dozen customers, though I suspect it had something to do with knowing that they’d be getting rated. Either way, they are nice people.

Prices were good on most items ($1-$2 for single 12 oz’s) and not so good on other items ($12-$15 for the Crooked Line beers). For what ever reason there was a 10% off for beer that day.

Would definitely go back for some new ticks, or for some Bell’s.

By far, the place to visit in Tucson although the beer scene has significantly improved over that last year. Looking at what they’ve recently had available, the Phoenix market should be a bit jealous. Small, quaint, but those working there are quite knowledgable and personable. Definitely hit this place up.

Since the late 80’s, the best place to get great bottled beer in Tucson. Early on, they had things from Merchant du Vin like Aass Bock (greatly missed), but they’ve progressed from that to many wonderful beers from around the world that they love, and what’s more, their wine/absinthe/spirit list is as good as you’re gonna get. I’ve scored Jopen’s Koyt here, ’nuff said. 5 Star rating, yeah.

I like this place, it’s definitely got a local feel, and prices compete well with other, bigger beer stores. The staff is very helpful and knowledgeable. As far as variety, they have all the usual suspects from the southwest/california region, but some more special releases and weird/hard to find selections would bump this place into legendary territory.

My local, they will always have a soft spot in my heart, and in my years of travel I always get reminded how lucky I am to have a place so near by tht is willing to work so easily with me on any of my beery needs.

This is all you need in Tucson. Completely reminds me of Belmont Party Supply in Dayton and yes that’s a big compliment: kinda odd location, slightly cramped floor but friendly, helpful employees and a crazy selection of singles.