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 Plaza Liquors
and Fine Wines
There are
plenty of reasons not to want to live in Tucson these days. Linda
Ronstadt, a third generation Tucsonan her ownself, pointed some of
them out recently when she finally packed up and moved to the Bay
area. The "strip-mall culture and right-wing mentality"
was the way she put it but she could have just as easily mentioned the crime, aggressive
terrible drivers, the increasingly illiterate populace, the
hedonistic snowbird influx, the no plan is the best plan expansion, and the stifling heat. Someone told us
that at a recent local Republican debate, three of the six
candidates hoping to fill Jim Kolbe's seat said that they thought
the earth was 6000 years old or less. Jesus! Where did these
people go to school? Probably in TUSD where increasing budget cuts
and a short sighted and ever graying sunbaked citizenry continues
to vote down any bill supporting education that might take a small
pittance out of their pockets and put it back into the common good.
Anyway, we don't blame Linda one bit for getting out and seeking
greener and more civilized pastures. We at the Goliard however are stuck here at the
moment and find it more therapeutic to focus on what's good about
the Old Pueblo than to sit around crying in our beers about it's
cultural deterioration.
And speaking of beers, we were reminded
recently that one of the things that definitely falls on the good
side of the quality of life in Tucson column
is the midtown beer emporium known affectionately as "Plaza". If a Goliard is going to reside
is Arizona and be forced to put up with the cultural and
meteorological drawbacks listed above, (not to mention the current global
situation and this country's depressing role in it) then dammit a
good purveyor of quality spirits is going to be required. Luckily, Plaza Liquors
and Fine Wines is just that kind of place and more.
 Located at
2642 N. Campbell on the east side of the street between Grant and
Glenn, Plaza doesn't look like much on the outside (as illustrated
by the picture we snapped while driving by this morning). A toping fellow,
unfamiliar with the area and just cruising
around in search of a particular six pack, might either miss the
place altogether or not think a stop would be worth his time.
Unlike some of the other great liquor stores in the country such as Applejack in Denver,
Charles Street in Boston, or
Liquor
Mart in Boulder, Plaza is not an expansive place and isn't located in an
ex-Safeway or Walmart. Far from it in fact but somehow it doesn't lose anything to these giants
of the trade in
the selection department. We understand that this seems unlikely but
enter the place and see if we don't speak the truth. Showing an ongoing
knack for spatial
creativity, Plaza stocks over 600 different beers, 100 different
tequilas, and 75 single malt scotches. They have an extensive wine
collection as well, devoting the limited shelf space to quality and
value over the quantity they don't have room for. Almost all their beer is displayed cold and in singles
so a person can mix and match their own six pack which allows an
imbiber with a curious palate to grab an empty cardboard tote and try
some new stuff without paying through the nose. Plaza only charges a sixth of
what would be a full six pack price
for each beer instead of jacking it up for singles which makes it
easy for those interested in staging personal tastings of different styles or
for someone wanting to bring a
diverse but genre similar six pack to any kind of theme dinner. No you can't get
a 18, 20, 24, or 30 pack of Bud Ice but who the Hell cares. Go down
the street to Walgreens if that's what you want.
Another thing that makes Plaza great
is that Mark Thomson, who owns
the place, is the type of guy who we feel like we've known for years
and is a good friend of ours even though we had to look up his name
to write this piece and have never officially met him. He's almost
always at the store and will notice what customers are buying and comment
on the choices with the kind of knowledge that makes one realize
what snobs and posers most people who try to discuss such libations
are. He'll often tell you a quick story about his family or pet or
mention a trip he went on and effortlessly transfer these tales from one
customer to the next, without seeming in the slightest like he's
being disingenuous or cares if you are buying anything from him or not. He can recommend a wine or
beer for any occasion and for each specific taste without sounding pretentious
and will happily offer to order any beverage for you that he doesn't have in stock.
He looks you in the eye and listens to what you say and we don't
know how he does it but we've seen him stand there carrying on
extensive conversations with all manner of windbag and jackass that
the little impromptu wine tastings he often puts on seem to attract.
The weird thing is he even
seems to genuinely enjoy it. The rest of the staff is always
friendly and reasonably knowledgeable as well and it's clear that he
takes the time to hire quality people rather than just put cheap
help behind the register. In the twenty years we've been going to
Plaza, we've never had a bad experience with the
staff and they often end up seeming to us just like the owner does,
as if they are old
friends of ours even though we've never actually gotten to know any of them
personally.
  Another thing Plaza does a great job
of is rotating stock for the
changing seasons. When
the air begins to nip down a bit at night we always start watching
the sign out front for some form of the inevitable "Holiday Ales
have arrived" message. When it appears there's nothing better than yanking your ride into the
parking lot, mixing and matching a case or two of that
year's seasonals, and driving off with a trunk full of Xmas brews to
sample from around the country and world. Plaza dabbles in seasonal
wines as well and the staff offers helpful, hand written descriptions
of any vintners and labels that they've tried and enjoyed.
Which leads us to why we decided to
sit down and pound out this review last night instead of getting some much
needed shut eye even though we've been going to Plaza for years.
After a particularly trying day at the mines, an afternoon of
battling Tucson back to school traffic and dodging Friday afternoon
jack offs tailgating and weaving to get from their depressing strip
mall or office park cubicle jobs to their depressing new tract homes
on the Northeast side, we happened to pass by Plaza and decided on
the spur of the moment to pull in. We'd been reading about Petite
Syrahs lately (there's nothing petite about a petite syrah) and we
were thinking one might go rather nicely with the Fioritos
pizza we were on our way to pick up. We didn't have a certain vineyard
or price range in mind but knew we were in good hands and let the
little staff recommendations lead the way. We hadn't seen the owner
when we came in but the place was pretty crowded and we soon could
hear his voice somewhere among the tight aisles discussing the term
"organic" with a customer. Sure enough, when we eventually
approached the counter, Mark was there, listening politely to some bloviater
explain how his supposedly upper crust buddy told him that orange
bitters was the ingredient he lacked to make the perfect cocktail.
He had been disappointed to find that Plaza didn't stock it.
"Well they might have it up at AJ's," Mark said to the guy's
back as he was leaving, adding to us with a side smile as we
placed our selection before him, "As much as I hate to promote
the bastards." He then looked over what we had chosen as he was
bagging it up and placing little pieces of cardboard between the bottles for
what he called "clink protection."
 "Ah the McManis
04 Petite," he said
smiling. "This is one full wine. Be careful when you drink it
that you don't end up with one of those red clown mouths. You'll feel
like you have one anyway. I'm telling you this stuff is full!" We had
noticed Plaza tee shirts hanging overhead as he was ringing us up
and a sign that said "10 percent off when you're wearing your
shirt". When he saw us looking up at them he pointed out that if we picked
up one of the shirts now, he could give us ten percent off what we
were buying right then and the shirt would half pay for itself.
"Can't beat that," he said smoothly tossing us one in
blue, completing the
transaction and
moving on to the next customer.
"Take it easy."
And as we left the store and got back
on the road, we felt as if a certain weight had lifted. Traffic had
thinned a bit, a spectacular sunset was flitting through a rosy western
monsoon sky and Tucson didn't seem like such a bad place to be all of a
sudden. And ironically enough, as we pulled into Fioritos to pick up
our pie, we just happened to hear on the radio that
Linda Ronstadt herself had moved back to town. Apparently she'd
needed a sudden minor operation and had wanted to be in Tucson so
she could "rest and recover."
One thing's for sure. It
is much easier for us Goliards to take
it easy and rest and recover in this town knowing there's a Mark Thomson and a Plaza Liquors
located smack dab in the middle of it with us.
Plaza Liquors and Fine Wines
2642 N. Campbell Ave.
Tucson, AZ
520-327-0452
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