1702 / The Address Brewing Co.

mkorpal

Wyoming

3.88/5  rDev -12.4%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

I usually make it to 1702 when I was in town for spring training. There isn't a ton of top end beer places in the desert, but this does stick out as an oasis of high quality suds. Anyway, the selection is always quite impressive. You can see that on their website. They seem to do a good job rotating the selection as well as keeping them tapped.

The food is quite good. The taste is average, but the portion size is gigantic. The calzone I got here was as long as my forearm, and as thick as my calf. They did go a bit overboard with the ricotta cheese, and a bit underboard with the fillings, but it was still good.

Where they have problems can be service. Sometimes you get someone who gives a crap about you, but often times you can be ignored. It should never take 15 minutes before you are greeted after sitting down. plus, once I had a beer half done almost taken away by some grumpy old guy who was muttered some stuff. he seemed friendly with the 4 or 5 employees/regulars who were there, but he seemed to hate us, To be honest, i actually felt unwelcome here. It was an odd feeling. Oh well, I like the food, and love the beer, so I guess I can put up with it.

07-28-2010 21:58:06 | More by mkorpal

mulder1010

Australia

3.43/5  rDev -22.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 2 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3 | $

A-- kind of run down and dive like. Very small bar.

Q-- Excellent selection of beers on tap and in bottle. Before moving to Australia, this was my next place to hang out after Old Chicago, up the street on Campbell. Last time I was there they had Odell Bourbon Barrel Stout on tap.

S-- Slow and poor. Also not knowledgeable. Biggest drawback of the place. Generally UA students who do not give a crap.

S-- Great selection of beer and a lot of stuff you generally do not see around Tucson. Only Plaza has a better collection of hard to find beers.

F-- Pizza. NY style and workable.

V-- After Plaza the best selection of stuff in town. Old Chicago gives ten times better service but the prices of beers there are on the nice side. Food is well priced. Only real issue I had was it was closed on Sundays and the lack of a decent staff.

05-03-2010 07:53:12 | More by mulder1010

IBhotterthanU

Arizona

4.55/5  rDev +2.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $

This place not only has some of the most eclectic, rare varieties of draft and bottled beer; the food is phenomenal. For example, I am a vegetarian and I came with two gentlemen who are not, however, to cater to me, they ordered the veggie pizza. AND they actually enjoyed it. I think any place that can please a carnivore with it's herbivore version of handtossed deliciousness is an A in my book!

I also love the tables; they have a lable from almost every beer I have ever heard of embedded in acrylic right there on display for you to eat on. And the brewery T-shrts framed on the wall give it just another peak in to the creative, wild, passionate minds of the owners. All around, great experience! Something for everyone.

02-04-2010 15:04:14 | More by IBhotterthanU

woodychandler

Pennsylvania

4.58/5  rDev +3.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

The sign above the door read "1702 - it's the address". Yep, that would be 1702 Speedway. They had a long, wide window front with the entry on the far right. High tables and swiveling bucket chairs lined the windows and the center of the bar area. The wood, inverted "S"-shaped bar was straight ahead from the door with a two-door cooler and the bank of taps along the back wall. The kitchen was left of the cooler and the smells of baking pizzas was sumptuous. A blackboard to the far left of the bar area and right of an archway leading to the restaurant area listed their available beers. Blackboard, smackboard! I've got mine peepers. Over in the restaurant area, it was all booth seating with vintage rock posters on the walls. For the easily bored, a bunch of board games with an emphasis on Trivial Pursuit were available to the far left of the bar.

Beers: 47 bottles, including both Westmalles; all three Rochforts; all three St. Bernardus; plus a lot of DFH and then a wide selection of domestic micros and quality imports.

Taps - 50 taps on a 75 % N2/25 % CO2 delivery system.

12-22-2009 22:14:57 | More by woodychandler

merryjoulton

Arkansas

4.41/5  rDev -0.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Came here for a couple pints after enjoying a little bit of chicken tikka masala from Kebabeque, I can't stop eating that stuff its so addicting. I liked the atmosphere, it was definitely geared toward the craft brew crowd with lots of posters and memorabilia from different craft breweries. Quality was great, the beers on tap we tried were very fresh. Service was outstanding, our waitress was super friendly and speedy and helpful. Selection was great, it was difficult to pick a beer from such a huge list of taps! Most pints ranged from $4-6 which was pretty reasonable, they had Old Crustacean for $6 which is the best price I've seen anywhere for that stuff.

06-20-2009 18:21:39 | More by merryjoulton

Reagan1984

Massachusetts

3.66/5  rDev -17.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

BA beerfly strikes again. I head to a city on business and show my colleagues their best local option for quality beer. I brought our local manager to 1702 and he never really heard of it. About 50 taps and another 30 or so in the bottle.
Decent selection. Nothing overwhelming, but you can find a decent beer. Service was spotty. First waitress left (shift over) and the new person on never checked on us and we had to flag her down. Important to note that the place was not busy at all. Was not due to big crowd.

They were generous with their samples. If this was in my hometown it wouldn't hit my top 5, but for Tucson, it wasn't half bad.
Pizza looked great but we didn't eat any.

I'll go again if in town.

04-02-2009 02:28:14 | More by Reagan1984

BearsSox

Wisconsin

4.6/5  rDev +3.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I was recently in Tucson to visit some family, and stopped by 1702 on a whim. I'd looked for beer bars in the city here on BA, and I'm so glad I made the trip down Speedway.

This is a fantastic beer bar - one of the best I've been to. Austin (the owner) was really hospitable. I sampled the Ola Dubh 30, the Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre, and the Hop Head Red. All delicious. So was the pizza.

I run a beer bar myself and I have to say I was really impressed with the selection and Austin's enthusiasm. Great place - I'll definitely stop in again when in Tucson.

11-21-2008 02:39:33 | More by BearsSox

rxdrewthejew

California

4.45/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I always loved this place when it was Eric's Ice Cream...but now that it's 1702, I love it a lot more.

Atmosphere was a bit surprising actually...I expected to see a ton of college students there (Wednesday night), but it was almost all families. I suppose that's probably a reflection on the beer drinking habits of most college students than anything else. However, the crowd was good, and considering there was a UA basketball game going on, that's pretty impressive. Didn't see him yesterday, but in the past (when it was still Eric's Ice Cream), Eric was always walking around, talking with customers, joking around, and overall being a great guy.

I think the building itself is pretty nice...fairly spartan decorum with beer signs and tap handles adorning the walls...a very open front room and then a back area with booths. I can imagine that on weekends there might be a bit of a wait to get a table. Service was good. Very prompt, and they offered good suggestions. When I ordered a Dale's Pale Ale, they said they were out, but found a good alternative for me. My biggest (and really only) complaint was the location of the tap list...up on the wall behind the table we were sitting at. I'm fine with putting the tap list on the wall, but I'd rather it be printed out so you aren't always having to turn around and look at the menu. Or appear to be staring at the people sitting at the table in front of the menu. I know it's more a pain in the ass to have to do that, especially when you have rotating taps...but lots of places do it and seem to manage.

Selection is fantastic. I would say as far as number and quality, it rivals some of the really good places in LA that I've been to. I would guess there were at least 40 brews on tap, and all of good quality. Lots of California brewers, notably Port/Lost Abbey and Green Flash. A few Arizona breweries were represented, as well as some from Colorado (Great Divide, Avery, New Belgium, Left Hand, Oskar Blues). They had 3 DFH brews, some stuff from Flying Dog, some German and Belgian stuff...and they had Ola Dubh 30 on top as well. Seems like they get some rare stuff once in a while...they had Stone RIS '05 yesterday, along with the Ola Dubh and NB Eric's Ale (although it seems that's been pretty well distrubuted). I had a Port Shark Attack, NB Eric's Ale, and then (I think) a Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale (not really sure, I ordered Dale's and Hop Trip, but they were out of both and I think this is what I ended up with). This is by far the best place in Tucson, and I would say, selection wise, right up there with almost any other place I've been on the West Coast.

Food is pretty basic (from a selection standpoint). Typical beer place appetizers, salads, pizza and calzones. I had a calzone which was really really good. Pizza slices were big, thin crust, and looked pretty tasty.

Prices were typical for Arizona. To me, being from LA, everything seems really cheap. Pints were 4-5 bucks, pizza slices were 5 bucks, calzones were 8 bucks plus a dollar for each extra topping. I think in all with a 1 topping calzone and three beers, I ended up spending only 25 bucks.

Super super place. I've also noticed they do themed nights and they just had a DFH Dinner which was before I came to town for my vacation sadly. If you are every in Tucson, you absolutely cannot miss going to this place.

11-13-2008 21:17:19 | More by rxdrewthejew

HopHead1982

Virginia

4.25/5  rDev -4.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $

1702 is easily the best beer location in Tucson, and probably Arizona. It's only rival would be Papago in Scottsdale. It has been awhile ( a month) since I have been there, but last time I was there they had a least 35 "craft brew" taps. Taps you won't find anywhere else in Tucson. Beers ranging from my favorite Green Flash west coast IPA to North Coast Old Rasputin. Most of the taps are from the western US, which is understandable considering out distributors, but nonetheless an excellent place to come and have beer. The food is decent, but who cares with such a great selection of beer.

Cheers

11-05-2008 05:06:14 | More by HopHead1982

FMetzger

Arizona

5/5  rDev +12.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $

In Tucson you will generally find $5+ per pint Guinness and a dearth of good craft beer in restaurants. Not so at 1702 whose selection is remarkable, both in bottles and on tap. 1702 is a shining example of what can be done with a little effort and forethought, while respecting the customer, which is quickly becoming a lost art in bars across America.

The staff are friendly, and equally importantly, they know beer. I know that doesn't sound like much, but as any fan knows, go to a place where the staff doesn't and you will know why it is important. The staff at 1702 works very hard at perfecting this beer Paradise in the desert we call home. Changing the 40+ names of craft and import beers draft on the chalkboard of the beers on tap is a chore, and they stay on top of it to provide the most up to date list possible. This place is an American craft brew heaven for us, and really should be a destination for all beer lovers visiting Tucson. They also have a good selection of Belgians and imports, and the prices won't be outrageous like they are elsewhere.

The food is fantastic: huge slices of pizza, ENORMOUS salads (no joke, a full platter fit for two!), and fresh soups with season specific ingredients. The chef's also experiment with the use of hops as INGREDIENTS in the food! Amazing.

It can get busy, but who doesn't see that as a good sign? Overall impression: Visit 1702.

10-18-2008 20:52:50 | More by FMetzger