The Great Crush Festival this Saturday, Sept. 8, boasts quite a line up.

There will be beer by Dragoon Brewing Co. and Old Bisbee Brewing Company, and wine by Arizona Hops and Vines. Several food trucks are also planning to attend—including the mighty Jamie's Bitchen' Kitchen—and there will be a petting zoo and homemade sodas for the kids.

It all takes place at the wonderful and sometimes gloriously weird winery Arizona Hops and Vines down in Sonoita. If it sounds like your sort of thing, there's more information over here.

(Update! We've just been told Old Bisbee Brewing Company will not be attending the festival after all.)

As part of my ongoing effort to make sure Tucson Weekly readers have the best Labor Day cookout/meal ever, I direct you to a series of wine tastings starting today, Thursday, Aug. 30, and ending Saturday, Sept. 1.

The action goes down from 4 to 8 p.m. at Cata Vinos at 3063 N. Alvernon Way. The focus will be on wines to complement the Labor Day repast. From the CataVinos website:

If you cant beat 'em join 'em is what they say. So it's hot. Instead of whipping yourself into a frenzy let's find a way to enjoy it all and this Labor Day Weekend. How about a BBQ with some big bold flavors and some wine to match? How about a relaxing stint at the patio and a refreshing wine to cool you down after a long day at work? Or hanging out with friends at the pool? Whatever you plan to do this holiday these wines are great crowd-pleasers and if not already some of your favorites they are poised to become your favorites for a long time to come. Chill out with us and enjoy some great wines that are designed for a Tucson BBQ.

The cost is $10, which buys you tastes of six wines. If you spend $10 on wine, the tasting is $8. If you buy a case, the tasting is free. More over here.

The new Total Wine and More store at Park Place Mall holds its grand opening at 6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 30. There will be complimentary wine, opening remarks by the president of Total Wine and More, and a ribbon-cutting featuring Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik. Now that's entertainment!

Anyway, this new store is packed with little details like in-store iPads that help with wine-food pairings; flat-screen televisions playing important booze-related things; an education center; and complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the store. The store is also putting out an app that will help shoppers compare prices with what's available at other stores.

It sounds cool, but I think I'll be staying with Plaza Liquors. These big-box stores are good as far as prices, but they've got zilch in the character category.

It was years ago when Aaron DeFeo first told me he meant to make Tucson a contender in the national cocktail scene. Back then, he was running the cocktail program at Hotel Congress, and modern cocktailing was just starting to gain a little steam here in the Old Pueblo.

Fast forward four years or so and his dream is beginning to materialize. DeFeo founded a Tucson chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild and then went on to hold professional networking events for anyone who wanted to join. He also walked away from Hotel Congress and into a new gig at Casino del Sol, where he's been working up a mean cocktail program.

And now the Tony Abou-Ganim Southwest Spirit Summit has been announced. It's the largest cocktail/spirits event I've ever seen around these parts, and seeing that its taking place at Casino del Sol, it sounds like DeFeo is moving foward with that plan of his. From the press release:

Tucson, Ariz—-To those who have attended the Tucson Culinary Festival for the past 5 years, the legendary "Modern Mixologist" Tony Abou Ganim is a familiar face. Others will know him from his appearances on Food Network's Iron Chef America, paired with such notable Chefs as Mario Batali and most recently with east coast star Chef Jose Garces - both winning challenges.

In 2010, Abou-Ganim was hired as a consultant at Tucson's Pasqua Yacqui enterprise, Casino del Sol, to design a world class beverage program there similar to the one he created for the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

With his strong ties to the southwest, it's no surprise that he has agreed to host his very first professional event in Tucson this November 16 -18. Sponsored by Casino Del Sol Resort. The Tony Abou-Ganim Southwest Spirit Summit is planned to be a three day celebration of sprits that will bring together leading talents, brand representatives, and well-known chefs in an exciting three day adventure in mixology, cuisine and fun. Members of the food and beverage trade and the public are invited to attend the weekend which will include seminars, action-packed competitions, tasting events, cocktail dinners and more.

Beneficiaries are The Helen David Memorial Fund For Breast Cancer which provides support for families of bartenders whose relative has been affected with the disease, the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans and Speed Rack - the exciting national women's bartending challenge that raises funds to benefit Breast Cancer research.

The schedule is after the jump. If you like to drink, this might be a good time to ask for some time off in November.

The third episode of Hopped Up, a series created by local beer enthusiasts for local beer enthusiasts, takes viewers to what I honestly believe is among the city's best pizza places: downtown's Empire Pizza and Pub.

This 21 minute video features a beer summit with Empire general manager Scott Lynch, a drop-in from local hip-hop group The Natives Are Restless, and a short Star Wars riff.

Tucson has many skilled bartenders but Ciaran Wiese stands out from the crowd. He's long been handling the drinks down at Scott and Co., the little speakeasy-style cocktail bar at 49 Scott Ave., but he's also been instrumental in training a new generation of bartenders who are slowly changing the way people think about libations in this city.

Unfortunately, tonight is Wiese's last night behind the bar at Scott and Co., where his cocktails have been grabbing both national and local attention for years. From the Scott and Co. Facebook page:

Our bar manager, Ciaran Wiese, is moving to Portland, Oregon! We're so sad to see Ciaran go, but so grateful for what he's done for us at Scott & Co, and for helping put Tucson on the map! In addition to creating our beverage program from scratch, Ciaran's talents have been featured in the The New York Times, DETAILS, CNN and coming soon in Food & Wine. Catch his skills behind the stick one last time TONIGHT at Scott & Co from 6pm-close.

So consider heading down there and having a drink or three, and make sure to tip the man heavily.

And good luck Ciaran. Thanks for taking Tucson's cocktail scene to places we never knew existed.

From the article at CNN Eatocracy:

This place isn’t brand new (it opened in the summer of 2010), but for Meehan it’s a terrific recent discovery. “Basically, it’s an elite NYC bar in the middle of Arizona,” he says. It’s small, and tucked in next to a restaurant. The seasonal menu features drinks like the Preakness Punch (peppercorn-infused gin, yellow Chartreuse and lemon) and the Vagabond (tequila, sage-infused agave nectar, lime and orange bitters).

I can't vouch for either of those two drinks, but I'm more than willing to step up to the plate for their whiskey sour. Check out their drink list here, though I suspect they've moved onto new seasonal offerings.

Rocco's Little Chicago image by Will Ferguson

The closure of The Safehouse last week is just the latest in a line of popular, somewhat-beloved local places suddenly shuttering up. In the last year, we've lost Grill, Zachary's, Colors and Cactus Moon, among others.

Each has their share of mourners, but let's be honest: We can only grieve for so long. I say that it's time to take some action, Tucson: We need to be finding locally owned replacements giving those our business before they follow in the steps of those who have disappeared.

Take Zachary's, for instance: The building, located just south of the University of Arizona campus, was muggy inside during monsoon season; the tables and chairs were nothing to write home about; and the service wasn't always spectacular. But the pizza was tremendous (often in both taste and size), and the beer selection left little to be desired. So what else is there to take its place?

Rocco's Little Chicago, now the pre-eminent deep-dish pizza in Central Tucson and Best of Tucson Staff Pick, is the obvious choice, though it's a bit far away for students to stumble to.

In Main Gate Square, there's two potential competitors, joints right next to each other: No Anchovies, practitioners of a New York-meets-California-gourmet style; and Frog and Firkin, a British-esque pub whose deep-dish pizzas share menu space with a number of sandwich and salad options. Both are great options for lounging about and enjoying beer in the afternoon; if you don't have a thin-versus-deep-dish preference, it regularly comes down to whether or not you prefer table service (Frog) to grabbing a slice at the counter (Anchovies).

1702 seems to be the next-closest possible successor, with its casual atmosphere, huge slices and great beer—unfortunately, the current construction on Speedway makes it a bit of a struggle to slip in and out with ease.

So what do you think, Tucson? Leave your comments, suggestions, and verbal abuse (for leaving off your favorites) at the bottom.

The giant green placard that signals a place will soon be serving alcohol is hanging on the corrugated metal fence surrounding a piece of property at 417 Herbert Avenue, right next to Ordinary Bike Shop. For those unfamiliar with the area, that's just a block west of Fourth Avenue and Seventh Street.

Closer inspection shows the word "microbrewery" scrawled across said sign and further research shows that this is one of the new microbreweries we already wrote about. A liquor license application has been filed for that address under the name Corbett Brewing Company. The guy who filled out that application is Scott James Cummings, who is either not getting the messages I've been leaving for him at O'Malley's, which he owns, or just ignoring me, both of which I'm fine with.

It looks like a cool little spot for a microbrewery. There appears to be some outdoor seating space and it's a neat old building.

(Thanks to Tucson Weekly reader Craig Gray for the tip!)

The opening of the new Total Wine and More store at Park Place Mall is not exactly what I call hot food-and-drink news, but some of the services the store will offer turn out to be quite interesting.

For starters, the new store will feature a growler-filling station like the one Dan Gibson told you about last week. According to a press release it will also feature:

In-store iPads located at a state-of-the-art tasting bar, to allow customers to interact with an app that recommends specific wines to pair with certain foods/meals that you'll be preparing (recipes and wine recommendations may be printed in-store or e-mailed directly to the customer)

A fully equipped education center to host classes on wine, beer and spirits…the education center can also be booked for use by Southern Arizona non-profits and other business at no charge.

Flat panel screens featuring video content on vintners, wineries and the wine-making process, as well as educational content on beer and spirits.

Complimentary Wi-Fi throughout the store, which is an essential foundation for providing additional apps, including an app for price transparency (they encourage their customers to compare prices, as they strive to be the price leader in this market).

Booze shopping just got high-tech y'all. No word yet on when they'll be able to beam the liquor straight into your central nervous system, but I'm sure they're working on it.