Bartender Ciaran Wiese - Recommendations - Find. Eat. Drink.
Bartender Ciaran Wiese, Scott & Co., Tucson, AZ, Arizona, Where to drink in Arizona, Best Bartenders, Best Drinks, Recommendations, Where to drink in Tucson, Advice, Tips, Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania, New York, NY, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Dive Bars, Restaurants, Houston, TX, Texas, New Orleans, NOLA, LA, Louisiana, Portland, OR, Oregon, Liquor, Spirits, Aquavit, Apple Brandy, Whisky, White Whisky, Rum, Vermouth, Aperitif Wine, Pisco, Books, Blogs, Websites, Magazines, Resources
Tucson, AZ
Brooklyn, NY
Houston, TX
New Orleans, LA
Philadelphia, PA
Portland, OR
FEAST
The menu rotates monthly, but a few fan favorites usually stick around. Chef Doug Levy is a master at creating unique combinations of flavors and incorporating them into some of our favorite classic or comfort food dishes. The wine selection is also fantastic.What we would order right now: the Fried Oyster B.L.T. or the Roasted Bricked Chicken.
Tucson
Global / International
Restaurants - Tucson, AZ
CAFE POCO COSA
It might not be ‘classic’ Southwestern, but no other Mexican food restaurant in Tucson has received more press and accolades, and there’s a reason for it. Suzana Davila has been putting her signature style on Sonoran classics for years, in a space that is both up-scale and still ‘Tucson casual.’ It’s a great dining experience! The menu changes all the time and it’s presented at the table on a chalkboard, but we almost always go for the Plato Poca Cosa, which is the Chef’s Choice of three of their offerings that day.
Downtown
Mexican / Latin American
POCO AND MOM’S
It’s New Mexico-style Mexican food and it’s delicious. Their location is a little out of the way and kind of a dive, but once you’ve had their chile sauces (red or green) you’re never going anywhere else again when you get a craving for your favorite Mexican dish, whatever it may be, smothered in sauce.
East Tucson
Mexican
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Bartender Ciaran Wiese - Recommendations
CUSHING STREET
Prettiest bar in the city and exactly what I think of as the ideal Tucson Bar. Sadly the drink selection isn't great.
Downtown
Bar
Drink - Tucson, AZ
KEEYLOCKO COWTOWN
12230 South Coleman Road, Tucson, AZ 85735
T: 520.429.5778
If you really want to make the drive, seek out the Keeylocko Cowtown. One of the only functioning ranch bars left, as real as it gets.
Ajo Highway
Old West
SHELTER COCKTAIL LOUNGE
4155 E Grant Road, Tucson, AZ 85712
T: 520.326.1345
Shelter is a cult classic bar that takes you back to a Lynchesque 1960s.
Northeast
Cocktails
THE RED ROOM AT GRILL
It's where I drink, best liquor selection and best bottled beer selection by far. These guys care and it's my kind of scene, though it can get a little loud at times. Take your pick; I drink whatever I fancy because they have pretty much everything.
Downtown
Bar
CHE’S LOUNGE
Downtown
Dive Bar
Dive Bars - Tucson, AZ
DISTRICT ON CONGRESS
Downtown
Dive Bar
THE BUFFET
Downtown
Bar
In all honesty, if you want to see Tucson, walk south down Fourth Avenue and turn right on Congress after the underpass. Tucson is known for its dive bars for a reason, with Che's Lounge, the Buffet, and the District on Congress, you don't have to go far to see the heart of Tucson.
Run by my very best friend, Maxwell Britten.
Williamsburg
Oyster Bar / Wine Bar / Absinthe Bar
Drinks - Brooklyn, NY
DRAM
One of my favorite newcomers to the scene. Look for Nicholas Jarrett - Mad vagabond on a constant vision quest. Also a Franklin Alumni, Nic Jarrett is the kind of bartender every bar across America wishes they had. He slings drinks across Brooklyn, my favorite being Dram bar in Williamsburg.
Williamsburg
Cocktails
Drinks - Houston, TX
ANVIL
I've never set foot inside the bar, but every time I look at the menu I see something I like.
Montrose
Cocktails
Drinks - New Orleans, LA
CURE
Look for Kirk Estopinal- Head Barman at Cure, THE craft bar in Uptown New Orleans. Without Kirk and Maksym Pazuniak's book, “Rogue Cocktails,” taking chances would have taken me a lot longer.
Uptown
Cocktails
Drinks - Philadelphia, PA
FRANKLIN MORTGAGE AND INVESTMENT CO
Look for Al Sotack. Without Al and Colin Shearn, Philly just wouldn't be the drinking city it is today. Al resides at the Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. in Philadelphia.
Rittenhouse Square
Cocktails
Drinks - Portland, OR
BARTENDER DAVID SHENAUT
Man about town in Portland, Oregon. He has worked at just about every noteworthy cocktail bar in the city, most recently Rum Club and the newly opened Kask.
Bartender
KASK
Southwest Portland
Cocktails
RUM CLUB
Industrial District
Cocktails
Liquor - Apple Brandy
LAIRD’S BONDED APPLE BRANDY
Available at these retailers
No, I'm not talking about Calvados. As old as America, and still cheap as dirt: Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy. It’s more like Apple Whiskey if you ask me.
American
Liquor / Spirit
Liquor - Aquavit
AALBORG AQUAVIT
A close cousin of gin and vodka, but with a quick kick of caraway. When mixed it adds the clean crispness of good vodka, but as if you had just bitten a chunk out of a loaf of marbled rye bread.
Denmark
Liquor / Spirit
Liquor - Pisco
CAPEL PISCO
Bold, robust, and at the same time, as delicate as a flower. A source of contention amongst Peruvians and Chileans, nuff' said.
Chile
Liquor / Spirit
Liquor - Rum
SMITH AND CROSS
Jamaica
Liquor / Spirit
WRAY AND NEPHEW
Available at these retailers
Jamaica
Liquor / Spirit
Imbued with extreme ‘hogo,’ the funkiness in rum, these two rums of the Jamaican style are the embodiment of pirate juice.
Liquor - White Whiskey
DEATH’S DOOR
USA
Liquor / Spirit
HIGH WEST SILVER
USA
Liquor / Spirit
More akin to a grain Grappa than the Georgia Moonshine associated with most young whiskeys. Nuances of banana, plum, butterscotch and popcorn.
Aperitif - Wine
COCCHI AMERICANO
Cocchi Americano aperitif wine with a robust pisco, the tartness of fresh lime, the brightness of pineapple syrup and a touch of allspice.
Italy
Aperitif Wine
Products / Ingredients
CREOSOTE BUSH
CHAPPARAL
Buy on Amazon.com
The smell of the desert after a heavy rain, this is nostalgia to anybody that has ever lived near the border. A native medicinal plant of the desert that makes and amazing aromatic in bitters and sprays.
Bitters / Ingredient
FENUGREEK SEEDS
Buy on Amazon.com
Sounds scary, smells like Maple Syrup.
Ingredient
Cocktail Resources - Forums
EGULLET SPIRITS AND COCKTAILS
I learned more inane, nerdy, cool trivia from this site than anywhere else. While it seems nowadays the forums are simply a tool of dispute amongst drink nerds, check out the archives for the best tips or tricks passed through the community.
Resource
Forum
COOKING ISSUES
The only blog I still take seriously, Dave Arnold's Cooking Issues. Yes, it's a blog about cooking, but Dave pays quite a bit of attention to the liquids and without him the cocktail world would be a lot more boring.
Resource
Blog
Cocktail Resources - Blogs
Cocktail Resources - Books
IMBIBE
Author: Dave Wondrich
Buy on Amazon.com
When I train a new bartender I make them read this no matter what. I discover something new every time, something that reminds me why I love this job.
Resource
Cocktail Book
ROGUE COCKTAILS
By Maksym Pazuniak
Resource
Website
Cocktail Resources - Websites
Who
Ciaran Wiese is the bar manager at Scott & Co. in Tucson, Arizona.
Why
Celebrated mixologist Wiese has built a national reputation for using imaginative ingredients in his craft cocktails.
Recommended By
- Bartender Brooks Reitz (FIG & Jack Rudy Cocktail Co.)
Recommendations
Ciaran Wiese’s recommendations for liquors to use and where to drink in Tucson, Brooklyn, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Portland.
October 20, 2011
Scott & Co. - Tucson, AZ
