Rebecca Safford, Tap & Bottle co-founder, sees the Tucson brewery community as a family.
She attributes that, in part, to the success of her three locations.
“Although we’re not participating in the Tucson Craft Beer Crawl, we love and support everybody who’s doing it,” she said.
“I think, in the beer world, the breweries are all very supportive of each other. During COVID, all of us helped each other with supplies.”
Tap & Bottle Downtown opened its doors in 2013 in a historic building close to Congress Street, Fourth Avenue and the University of Arizona.
T&B Downtown offers live music, trivia, food trucks, tasting events, and an array of craft beer, wine and ciders.
Serving Northwest Tucson and Oro Valley, Tap & Bottle North opened in 2017 in Cottonwood Plaza. It boasts curated beer and wine, ample outdoor space, a private event room, and Trivia Thursdays.
A year later, Rebecca and her husband, Matt, introduced Tap & Bottle Westbound, in the MSA Annex. Tucsonans refer to this location as “Westbound,” she said. The bar is nestled in a shipping container and surrounded by local shops and restaurants. Westbound also provides an array of spirits in the bottle shop.
All three locations have curated bottle shops offering a wide selection of beer, wine, cider, seltzers, hard kombucha and nonalcoholic beverages.
“We really opened our original location about 10 ½ years ago because my husband and I love beer and we wanted to celebrate beer.
“We don’t brew it ourselves, but we highlight beer from around Arizona. We have a big bottle shop and a great beer selection. We added spirits last year. Now we have a full bar. It’s great. We’re really happy that we’re here.”
The Saffords will celebrate Beer Week for 10 days.
“We just really try to highlight beers and breweries that have been a fit over the last year for our spot, or someone we’ve had a really long relationship with,” she said.
They will kick off the festivities on Thursday, Feb. 15, at Westbound, in the annex, with an AZ women’s collaboration brew release party from 5 to 7 p.m. Tap & Bottle Westbound will tap the Mexican-style lager, brewed in collaboration with the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, women working in beer from across the state, and Dragoon Brewery.
“The collaboration does happen every year and it rotates breweries,” she said. “We’re always excited when it’s in Tucson.
“We’ll have people from Dragoon there.”
Another highlight, she said, is “Nerding Out with Cerebral Brewing” from Denver at Tap & Bottle North. It will offer Neural Glide, Hollow Fang, Gasoline Rainbows, Character Reference, Astral Predator and Here Be Monsters. Safford said special prizes will be handed out.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, Tap & Bottle’s Downtown location will host a pop-up with Flagstaff’s Pizzicletta, to nourish the participants in the beer crawl. (See related story.)
The pop-up runs from 2 to 4 p.m., or until sold out.
“Last time, there was a huge line, and it was really fun,” she said. “There was pizza and beer all day long. Pizzicletta brings a whole crew down and puts the pizza oven outside of Tap & Bottle and sling pizzas forever until they sell out.”
Tap & Bottle closes out Beer Week with the Beer Brunch with Arizona Wilderness and Holy Focaccia. Tap & Bottle will open early on Sunday, Feb. 25 (at 11 a.m.) for Arizona Wilderness beer and Holy Focaccia breakfast offerings. The featured beer is Dream Date, a special version of the Dreamsicle Double IPA brewed with Arizona-grown Medjool dates, milk sugar, vanilla and Sabro, Talus and Mosaic hops.
“When you drive through Dateland, you think of a date shake,” she said. “This is their take on a date shake. It’s a milkshake IPA. We’re going to release that beer.”
The Saffords innate ability to choose beers that will please guests is a secret to their success.
“Having multiple locations helped us out, too,” said Safford, who studied education at the UA. “We get to build our customer base in three areas. I think the growth allowed us to take on new things, adding spirits and cocktails.
“All of that — and definitely having a bottle shop in addition to a bar — allowed us to do to-go relatively quickly during the pandemic. We diversified, not just doing the same thing over and over again… That allows us to keep it fun and interesting.”
Tap & Bottle
www.thetapandbottle.com
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2024.
