Union Public House swept Zona 78 in the final round of Caliente’s Happy Hour Madness competition last weekend by more than 70 votes.
The popular St. Philip’s Plaza gastropub turned out to be more competition than Zona 78 could bear, even with Zona’s two locations — 78 W. River Road and 7301 E. Tanque Verde Road.
“I think we were a little bit of the underdog as far as popularity,” said Zona 78’s social media manager Lauren Valenzuela. “I was a little surprised because we’ve won happy hour (contests) before. But Union has quite a bit more traffic and a lot more friends on their social media sites.”
Union Public House owner Grant Krueger attributes the win to what he describes as “one of the best happy hours in Tucson.”
“We do a happy hour seven days a week. … and the happy hour goes from 3 to 7 p.m.,” he said, which gives people who work later time to join the fun.
Union and Zona 78 emerged from hard-fought rounds against some pretty formidable competition including Kon Tiki, Barrio Brewing, Risky Business and Thunder Canyon Brewery. Zona 78 easily bumped Canyon’s Crown English-style pub on East Tanque Verde Road to advance to the second round. It took out Oro Valley’s The Keg Steakhouse and Bar and the following week eliminated another Oro Valley eatery, Harvest Restaurant, before dusting off Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar from the Foothills to advance to last weekend’s championship round.
Union Public House took down Trident Grill on East Speedway and Lodge on the Desert on North Alvernon Way in early voting to advance to a showdown with Acacia Real Food & Cocktails. Union slipped past to advance to the semifinal round against The Parish, which waged a hard-fought effort against Union.
“We have a big social media presence with 7,000 Facebook likes,” said Krueger of Union.
Krueger said his staff took the competition seriously.
“They really wanted to win this,” he said, adding that when all was said and done, the competition was all in good fun.
“We thought it was pretty fun to compete against the other Tucson restaurants,” he said. “Tucson is a very happy hour centric type of town.”
“I’m so sad,” said Zona 78’s Valenzuela. “We did everything we could do to win. Next time we need to have a big party, more of an event instead of just social media.”
Background
Zona 78 opened its original location at 78 W. River Road in October 2003 and quickly gained a following for its distinctive wood-fired pizzas including the Tuscany prepared with house-made sausage. Owners Tom Firth and Rick Fink opened a second location in February 2008, moving into a 5,000-square-foot space at 7301 E. Tanque Verde Road, serving an identical menu of pastas, pizzas and salads.
Grant Krueger and his business partner Jason Anderson spent months and hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating the sprawling St. Philip’s Plaza space where they opened Union Public House in early November 2011. They followed a couple of other gastropubs into the Tucson market offering craft beers and wine with a menu of upscale pub food including a beer-brined grilled pork chop and beer-battered fish and chips made from cod.
Krueger and Steve Stratigouleas opened Reforma Cocina y Cantina across the patio in St. Philips Plaza in mid-December. The restaurant specializes in Central Mexican cuisine using carefully sourced sustainable ingredients.
