Great drinks, atmosphere at Tuck Shop

Tuck Shop (Credit: Megan Finnerty/Metromix)

Why someone would bother making tonic water from scratch eludes most of us.

This sweet and bitter carbonated water often is a bartending afterthought. If it's fizzy, it's fine.

But those people haven't had the gin and tonic at the Tuck Shop.

At the corner of 12th and Oak streets in Phoenix, owner DJ Fernandes and his girlfriend, Jessica Ruiz, have opened a tiny restaurant and bar in the former Arizona Showmen's Association building in the Coronado neighborhood. The kitchen serves comfort food with Southern touches in tasting and sharing sizes.

"Everything here we try to do different, the way we like things to taste, so you're getting food we love, that we hope you love," said general manager John Cavanagh.

The menu includes red beans and rice with linguisa sausage and Creole shrimp, macaroni and cheese with crispy prosciutto, and maple-roasted pork tenderloin with pear crisps and Gorgonzola grits.

The micro-size bar dictated a pared-down liquor selection and a focus on retro drinks that can be made with only a few ingredients and without a soda gun.

So Fernandes and Cavanagh put together a selection of quality spirits that suits their palates and lets them keep cocktails between $7 and $9.

There's Tito's Handmade Vodka from Austin; Hendrick's Gin, flavored with Bulgarian rose petals and cucumbers; Flor de Caña rum; Wild Turkey Rye Whiskey; Pernod Pastis; Lillet Blanc; and Pimm's No. 1, among other spirits.

And although the bar makes its own lemonade, citrus soda and ginger ale, the tonic is a revelation, tea-colored and sharp-tasting but sweetened with agave nectar.

It begs the question: "Why doesn't everyone do this?"

The gin and tonic is garnished with a ribbon of shaved cucumber and is refreshing and biting in a way that makes you feel like you could have nine of them. The Tuck Shop Wallbanger is an unusual mix of vodka, orange juice, a splash of ginger syrup and Pernod, resulting in an unexpected mix of bright citrus and medicinal licorice.

Also on the fledgling cocktail menu: the Rye Manhattan, served over ice and garnished with a decadent-looking slice of blood orange; and the Sazerac, made the old-school way.

In a chilled rocks glass that has been doused with a swirl of absinthe, the drink is served neat, a mix of agave-nectar simple syrup, whiskey and Peychaud's bitters, with a lemon twist. The drink is intense and complex, but skillfully balanced. It leaves you feeling like you should be somewhere in the South, listening to your great-grandfather tell stories.

The low-slung building has a seven-seat bar, a nine-table dining room, including a community table, and a waiting area called the Reading Room, outfitted with better furniture selections from thrift shops.

The space is delineated by a low, long set of shelves stacked with leather-bound books, colored pencils and old-fashioned games. Local art hangs on the walls and fits in with the space's crafty, vaguely '70s-era feeling.

It all looks well-merchandized, but mercifully, nothing's for sale.

"We wanted to create something where people can say, 'I feel really comfortable here,' " Cavanagh said.

Other comfortable touches include sets of mismatched chairs at the tables, flickering votives and fresh flowers throughout, and the staff-selected iPod mix, including Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Ben Harper, Cat Power and Beck.