If you’re looking for something to get you over the mid-week hump, consider stopping by Union Public House for our new “Whisky Wednesday.” The concept is simple—half-off all whiskey, scotch, bourbon, etc.—paired with our always excellent bar and dinner menus. So, if you are considering how to fit Wednesday into your Tucson nightlife plans, think Union.

Whisky Wednesday Offerings

 
At Union Public House, we are proud of the range of whiskies we’ve put together on our menu. Both in terms of depth and breadth, if you like whisky, we’ve got you covered. What that means is, whether you drink whisky, whiskey, or you don’t know the difference, we have something for you. Plus, with everything priced at half-off, you should feel free to venture out of your comfort zone, or maybe try a taste of that top-shelf bottle you’ve had your eye on. Our Scotch whisky list includes a range of options both single malt and blended, from the very peaty to the very light, from young to old. What’s more, if Irish, Canadian, or American Whiskies (i.e. Bourbon and Rye) are you thing, we’ve got you more than covered, with everything from Jameson to Basil Hayden’s on offer.

The Thinking Behind Whisky Wednesday

 
This brings us to our favorite part of Whisky Wednesday: It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to Scotch whisky, or whiskey in general. You find something dependable, you like it, and you stick with it. That’s where we hope Whisky Wednesday can help. You’ve always liked the Macallan 12 year, but never wanted to splurge on the 15 year—now, at half off, $8 for the 15 year is a bargain even compared to a regularly priced glass of the 12 year. Always wanted to try Johnnie Walker Blue? Now you can see what all the fuss is about, and buy dinner too. Maybe you really enjoy Bourbon, but you have a hankering for something new and you’re considering the switch to Scotch—try a few and see what you like. Maybe the Ardbeg 10, the Aberlour 12, or a glass of the Oban 14 will strike your fancy.

This applies, of course, to the more budget conscious as well. If you’d simply like to enjoy your Jack and Coke (which we suppose could be a cocktail of choice for someone out there) you can—and it’s half off too. Of course, we encourage everyone to enjoy whisky Wednesday responsibly.

The Bar

 
As always, the Bar at Union Public House offers a lively atmosphere for anyone seeking to unwind. Come for dinner in the dining room and stay for whiskey at the bar, or if you have other plans, stop by for drinks afterwards and enjoy the DJ. The crowd on Wednesdays is always lively, but the vibe is always relaxed as well, ensuring that you can have a good time no matter what you are looking for.

Regardless of your taste in cocktails, we hope you’ll join us on Wednesday this week and see what the Bar at Union Public House is all about. Try something new, or sample an old favorite. Whether you’re starting your weekend very early, or you simply need a pick-me-up to get you through until Friday, Union Public House is here to help.

On Thursdays, start the weekend off early with $4 beers all day. There are several local breweries on offer, such as Borderlands, currently offering a Prickly Pear Wheat Ale with the refreshing summer flavors of lemon and grapefruit. Pair this beer with Union’s Spinach Frisee Salad and you have a perfect summer meal. Other Arizona breweries featured include Tempe’s Four Peaks, Flagstaff’s Lumberyard, and Tucson’s own Dragoon. The dj plays music that creates a laid back vibe, but that does not stop people from getting up and dancing when they hear a song they love.
 
Friday and Saturday nights are when Union’s bar really comes alive. At 9 pm Union’s resident dj, Big Brother Beats, starts spinning and mixes until 2 am. The energy level starts to rise and guests can be assured of having a good time. Union’s crowd is a mix of regular faces and newcomers. Bring some friends in and try out one of Union’s punch bowls. You have to have at least three friends to enjoy one of these larger offerings. The popular cocktail, Moscow mule, has been amplified and serves as one of the more popular styles of punch bowl. After one of the bowls you should be feeling friendly, so go meet someone new and invite their friends for another!
 
After a long night of indulging in Union’s clever libations, sometimes you need that midnight snack to keep you going. Union serves a late night menu until 1 am. The late night menu offers great pub food to get you back on your feet. If pub chips and sliders are not your style you can order a rib-eye steak until 1 am. The rib-eye is served with horseradish root potato cake, wilted young spinach, topped with a bordelaise sauce cooked to perfection—Bar food doesn’t get much better than that.  So, if your weekend plans include any Tucson bar stops, you should include one at Union Public House.

Looking for the perfect spot for a wedding anniversary to be shared with your children, friends, and family? What about a business meeting in an atmosphere that is both elegant and comfortable, accompanied by good food and all the amenities necessary to give your presentation to the board? No matter what your Tucson private dining needs may be, from these specific situations to anything in between, at Union Public House, we offer a range of options to meet your needs.

Located at River and Campbell in St. Philip’s Plaza, our culinary focus is on rustic American comfort food that is sophisticated, contemporary, and approachable. The restaurant itself is a highly configurable space. The main dining room seats as many as 125 patrons, in addition to which we have two patios with room for forty patrons each, a stainless steel bar that seats forty, and a pair of ten person split log tables. Of course, we also have a designated private dining area, complete with a 55” LCD screen and all the audiovisual equipment needed for a conference, meeting, or presentation.

Along with a wide number of options in terms of space, we also offer flexibility on the food and drinks for your Tucson private dining event. Our chef is happy to help personalize a menu for your party, or you and our guests may order off of our main dinner menu. Union Public House can accommodate all sorts of needs, like a buffet of appetizers including our Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp cocktail; pretzels with smoked sea salt, white cheddar sauce & stone ground mustard; or an array of seasonal fruits and cheeses. Custom meals can be set at a given price point per guest, adding or removing courses as you prefer. You could create a meal starting with a fresh, seasonal salad, followed by a choice of pan seared salmon with cascabel infused oil, or a dry-rubbed NY strip steak with smoked gouda gratin and roasted asparagus. These are just a few examples from past meals, but keep in mind that at Union Public House we are proud to focus on seasonality and sustainability in our food. That means tailoring every meal to the best available ingredients, and using as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. Rest assured, your private dining event will have all the hallmarks of a unique dining experience at Union Public House.

Feel free to browse through the specifics on how our arrangements typically work, but remember that we will work to personalize things to meet your needs. Make sure to contact Ayana Taylor at either ayana@uniontucson.com or 520-329-8575. She will work to make sure that any information you need in answer to specific questions about your group. Whether to host an upcoming event, for a meal, or just for our award winning “social hour” we hope you’ll join us at Union Public House!

For some, Sunday mornings offer a welcome moment to relax, see loved ones, and take stock, all while eating some delicious food before the start of another hectic week. For others, Sunday means recapping the crazy weekend spent with friends, sharing stories and laughter, at the same time indulging in a bit of the hair of the dog. Either way, good times are always better with great food. Union Public House’s brunch is the perfect setting for these Sunday scenarios and many more. The open atmosphere, with a view of the plaza and the weekly farmer’s market, lets you escape life’s hustle and bustle. In that moment there’s only good people, great food—and maybe a mimosa or two.

Brunch is served every Sunday between 10 am and 2 pm. The menu offers quite a few options for guests. You can build your own omelet, or opt for a chef-inspired “Awakenings” option, like the delicious, patron-favorite Eggs Benedict. Two poached eggs served over a thick slice of crispy pork belly on an English muffin, topped off with traditional hollandaise sauce, Union plates its Eggs Benedict with a small mason jar of fresh fruit and seasoned potatoes as well. On the sweeter side of things, Union’s brunch offers house-made sticky buns, doughnuts, and puff pastries stuffed with fresh, seasonal fruits. One patron in particular visits Union every week just for sticky buns, always ordering a few extras to go for the week ahead. If sweets are not your thing, Union offers other savory treats, like a build-your-own Blood Mary bar where you are free to concoct any style of Bloody Mary you like. Heat up your Bloody Mary with house-pickled jalapeños and a kick of hot sauce, or make it savory with a slice of apple wood smoked bacon. Either way, it’s a great opportunity to try something new, and to share your creation with friends.

There really is something for everyone at Union Public House’s Sunday brunch. Looking around, you may spot a table of women enjoying Bellini’s after shopping, while another table might be occupied by a young couple sipping coffee next their dog on the patio, soaking up the Arizona sun. Next to them, there could be a group of twenty-somethings laughing over their antics from the weekend, hoping their Bloody Marys will cure their ailments. That is a quality that makes Union unique. It is a place where all kinds of people can come together to socialize, relax, and enjoy themselves with a great drinks, food, and company. All of these things come together to make Sunday brunch at Union the perfect capstone to any week.

If you enjoy Union Public House, be sure to remember us when selecting gifts for your friends, family, workmates or others that you are in a giving mood for!  Union Public House gift cards can be purchased in any denomination and can be used on any item(s) here at Union.

If you understand how nice it can be to enjoy a hot sizzling Ribeye after a hard work week and not have it come out of your paycheck, or understand what a special day it is when you get to dive into a restaurant on a rainy day when funds are low and then whip out a gift card so that no money comes out of your pocket and you still have a few dollars left over, then you can see why a Union Public House gift card is a gift to savor. Husbands, students, wives, parents, awesome workmates, bosses, and secretaries – all come to Union Public House and enjoy a reprieve from everyday life.  Warming cocktails, glowing lights, steaming food, all of these are just the right things sometime. And with a gift card, one can choose just the right moment when they need a little TLC in the form of Union Public House food, drink, and service.

Since Union Public House also specializes in private dining, how nice would a larger gift card be that could cover the costs of a rehearsal dinner or a wedding day brunch perhaps?  Or how about an anniversary party or dinner?

Yes, sweaters can be nice, and so can concert tickets, and luggage and kitchen items. But once you have a sweater, where can you wear it to? Or after a concert, where can you get a late night drink? Or when heading off to the airport, where can you have lunch? When you are too tired to cook, where can you eat?  Union Public House can handle all of these occasions for you. If you trust us to provide you with delicious burgers, tasty flatbreads, house-made chips, delicious entrees, hand-crafted cocktails, and more – what better gift than a Union Public House gift card could there be for someone that you want the best for too?  Everyone loves food and drink – especially in an inviting and cozy atmosphere where it doesn’t have to be paid for.

Make someone happy and offer them something they won’t feel the need to regift with a Union Public House gift card.

This fall and winter, if you need a beautiful and accommodating space to hold a group event or meal, consider Union Public House’s private dining options.  In our specially designed private dining room, we can service breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, a cocktail party, or whatever it is that you wish for.  The tasteful and comfortable room can seat 40.  You can talk with our chef and create a custom menu according to your tastes, or if you prefer Union Public House favorites, you can also select items from our normal menu, such as Ribeye  or Grilled Salmon.   We have wonderful salads, soups, flat breads, and desserts too. The whole range of options from our bar is available as well.

In case you can make use of it, the room is equipped with a 55” LCD television and all of the audio-visual enhancements needed for conferences, meetings, or presentations.  Besides using this for corporate meetings, this could be great as well if you just want to show off some family photos or recap the last year via video!

Whether you choose to eat in the main dining area, on the beautiful patio, or in the private dining area, we are passionate about helping create memorable experiences – where every detail is thoughtfully handled.  If you are considering holding a party, a dinner, or a corporate event be sure to reserve early so that the dining room is available for you.  Serving your group would be our pleasure.

For more information, contact us. And for quicker service, feel free to schedule your event by contacting Ayana Taylor: ayana@uniontucson.com or 520.329.8575.  We look forward to serving you!

The Moscow Mule at the Union Public House in Tucson

If you are in the mood to try a trendy beverage that would inspire and interest even the most expert mixologist, you may enjoy knowing about the Moscow Mule. It is one of our most requested drinks – and is such a favorite that you motivated us to design a desert off of it – the Moscow Mule Cheesecake. But, before we talk about the cheesecake, let’s learn a little about the Moscow Mule – its history, its ingredients, and what makes it so special.

The owners of Union Public House discovered it a few years back, and are helping to put it on the map again. But back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, it was famously popular and the talk of the town – a star in the vodka craze! One “secret” ingredient in it is Ginger Beer. Interestingly, Ginger Beer isn’t alcoholic and it tastes like spicier Ginger Ale – Ginger Ale with a kick!

Legend has it that three men in New York, “Jack” Morgan, a maker of Ginger Beer, John G. Martin, and Rudolph Kunett, then president of Pierre Smirnoff (a vodka division), were taking it easy, eating hors d’oeuvre, and thinking about Vodka. They wondered what would happen if two shots of Vodka were mixed with Morgan’s Ginger Beer. So, they grabbed some ice and lime, and tried it out. With the decision that it tasted good and that it “lifted the spirit to adventure”, the Moscow Mule was born.

Los Angeles was most in love with the drink and the Hollywood elite were apparently some of the biggest fans of the cocktail. The Insider Hollywood of December 1942 wrote this,  ”There is a new drink that is a craze in the movie colony now. It is called ‘Moscow Mule.’”

The good news is, you don’t need to go to Los Angeles  or travel back in time to have a  Moscow Mule and have your spirits ‘lifted to adventure too’. Union Public House has perfected the drink themselves right here in Tucson –  even serving it in a special superior copper Moscow Mule cup. Union Public House’s chef says, “The mix of the Ginger Beer and the copper cup create a taste that cannot be replicated in any other way.”

When you try a Moscow Mule at Union Public House, the owners and chef recommend trying it with a hot and toasty salty pretzel as an appetizer, or with their tasty  lobster Buccatini for dinner. And don’t forget to try their specialty Moscow Mule cheesecake. It is a lime infused cheesecake served on a ginger crumble. Tasty! I’m sure that Jack, John, and Rupert would approve – not to mention Fred, Ginger, Marilyn, Gene, and the rest who were visitors of Sunset Boulevard. Be hip, be cool, and try a Moscow Mule.

 Come experience Tucson’s premier Sunday Brunch at Union Public House between 10 AM and 2 PM.