Don't let the warm weather ruin your fun!
There are plenty of cool, Instagram-worthy bars in Tucson that serve up unique drinks and have very cold, powerful ACs.
Below is a list of five basement bars and speakeasies you can check out when it's over 90 degrees but you still want to have a good time.
Barbata
As embodied in the name, Barbata is an extension in spirit and style of the conceptual, upscale restaurant upstairs. The atmosphere is minimal, to suggest the drinks and the company are enough to make for a memorable night out.
Its menu, however, is maximalist, elaborating even the classics. Their new drink menu features cocktails with unique ingredients like Oaxacan rum and pie crust gin. Feeling hungry? At 9 p.m. they start selling burgers!
Snake and Barrel
Upstairs, Batch set the tone as playful with its double-entendre: the spot sells batch whiskey and batch doughnuts. The speakeasy downstairs has the same sense of fun (a blueberry cocktail called Purple Drink and a tequila punch named Vert Der Ferk) and love of craft, offering negronis and Manhattans with liquor aged in-house.
Tough Luck Club
Tough Luck Club is Tucson’s original basement bar.
Housed in a former funeral home, the volcanic rock walls have witnessed generations of Tucson’s history and years of raucous nights out. The vibe, fittingly, is old-school, with seasonal menus drawn in the style of Sailor Jerry tattoos, red leather booths and a block-letter board showing their special.
Prohibición
Prohibición doubles as a speakeasy below Sonora Moonshine Company. Like the restaurant above, the bar focuses on agave; mixologists craft agave-centered cocktails on the spot or you can choose from a number of picturesque signature drinks. The space itself glows red, with furniture picked up from a vintage market.
Afterlife
Afterlife is the newest speakeasy to hit the scene! Nex has moved into the building that once housed Ermanos and its speakeasy, Portal. Here, you can grab a tasty meal for dinner and then head to their aesthetic speakeasy dubbed Afterlife. They have all kinds of signature cocktails, including a banana bread espresso martini, fun shots and dessert cocktails for those who want something sweet.
