The Best Bars in Tucson

Updated October 2026

In 2015 UNESCO named Tucson the first City of Gastronomy in the United States, and its bars drink from the Sonoran Desert around it. The best bars in Tucson spread from downtown's Armory Park and Congress Street to Barrio Viejo, Broadway Village and the Warehouse Arts District. Bacanora, the Sonoran agave spirit, sotol and the tiny chiltepin pepper all turn up on local menus. Owls Club, a Western bar inside a 1920s former funeral home in Armory Park, lights its stained glass and chandeliers over a long whiskey list. On Congress Street, Batch has paired whiskey with doughnuts since 2016, holds Arizona's largest whiskey collection at more than 1,400 bottles and hides a basement bar, Snake & Barrel. Bar Crisol, an adobe in Barrio Viejo that looks like a house, turns from a coffee bar into an agave bar Wednesday to Saturday evenings. SideCar in Broadway Village mixes an Oaxaca Dry Sour with habanero shrub, and The Royal Room pours a $7 Royal Boilermaker on Mondays. These are the bars we would start with.