The Still, Tucson, Arizona
If you like hidden gems, The Still is your kind of place. It’s a speakeasy and cigar bar behind a secret door in a beloved Italian restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, and the result is a winning three-in-one combination. If you are hungry you can order off the bar or restaurant menus. If you’re thirsty, there is a very high level of serious mixology, making it one of the best choices in the city for cocktail fanatics. In the mood for a fine cigar? Choose from around 20 selections from the humidor, and light up on the comfortable patio. There are a few other places in town where you can buy a cigar and light up, but this is the only one where you can also enjoy adult libations while doing so.
Vero Amore was the first Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, or VPN, certified pizzeria in Tucson, and one of about a thousand on earth. This requires the wood-fired pizza to be made from the same ingredients and standards as the real thing in Naples, the birthplace of pizza, and while there are many pizzerias claiming to serve “Neapolitan-style” pies, this is about as authentic as it gets. Vero Amore has been wildly popular here for almost two decades, but the Still is a more recent addition.
“My uncle put a cigar in my mouth when I was 12 thinking I would hate it, and that would be that,” says owner Josh Mussman. “But I was like, ‘this is good,’ and now I have a cigar bar.” Mussman owns a handful of Tucson restaurants. He always wanted a speakeasy, and when the space next door to Vero Amore became available he expanded. He installed a hidden door—disguised as a rack of Chianti bottles—that leads to The Still.
In Prohibition people would buy wooden tokens and exchange them for illicit drinks, so The Still hands out wooden nickels with its number for texting reservations. (You can get that off the website or make them online.) Reservations at least two hours ahead are highly recommended, as the small space is very popular, often fills up, and if you don’t have a booking you may have to wait.
The humidor is located inside the small cocktail bar, but you can’t smoke inside since food is served there. The patio is much like a residential backyard, enclosed, homey and filled with comfortable tables, taking advantage of the Tucson climate, which is great for much of the year. The full menus of the Still and Vero Amore are available, and it’s the kind of place where locals come and play cards while enjoying a smoke, like being invited to a house party. Mussman’s personal favorite is the Plasencia Toro ($18) but the selection includes about 20 options from major brands, including Arturo Fuente, Caldwell, Cohiba, La Gloria Cubana, My Father, Padrón, Partagas, Rocky Patel and Undercrown. Prices start at about $12, with many cigars in the $15 to $18 range. The Cohiba Serie M, at $30, is the most expensive cigar on the list.
Because golf is a huge part of Tucson’s tourism scene, they also sell a lot of grab-and-go cigars for the course, and The Still is close to the Westin La Paloma resort, which hosts the city’s PGA Championship Tour event.
The bar specializes in pre-Prohibition cocktails and makes all of its own mixers and ingredients from scratch, even schnapps. There are more than 100 whiskies, tasting flights, and mixologists will do cigar and drink pairings on request and advice is freely dispensed across the board.
You can even bring your own cigars and enjoy them without a cutting fee. “To me as a business owner,” says Mussman, “the best advertisement for cigar smoking is someone smoking a cigar.”
The Still
Inside Vero Amore Restaurant
2920 North Swan Road
Tucson, AZ 85712
520-909-6299
https://thestilltucson.com/
Monday, Wednesday & Thursday: 6 p.m. to close (2 a.m. or earlier)
Friday to Sunday: 5 p.m. to close (2 a.m. or earlier)
