Nearly seven years after opening Batch, a popular whiskey and doughnut bar in downtown Tucson, owners Ronnie and Christian Spece are aiming their barrels toward expansion.
In April, the couple purchased the building that houses Batch, 118 E. Congress, and also houses the space next door, 120 E. Congress, currently home to M.E.B. Management Services.
Listed as the First Hittenger Block on the National Register of Historic Places, the two-story property dates back to the late 1800s, a project of capitalist Anton Hittenger. Over the years, it has been home to a wide variety of businesses, including a piano store, a confectionary and the Harry A. Drachman Shoe Company.
βIt is an awesome building,β Spece said. βIt was in escrow through COVID, but that deal didnβt go through. We were lucky.β
Even before the Speces purchased the property, expansion plans were already in the works, starting with the addition of a basement bar, which they hope to have open for business by the end of October.
Utilizing about 2,000 square feet of basement space, the new bar will be an offshoot of Batch. Whiskey wonβt be its primary focus, but it will carry the same vibe, Ronnie Spece said.
βItβs still Tucson,β he said. βNot snobby, pretentious, overly complicated. It will be more of a laid back kind of thing. Something nice and classic.β
The space, which has yet to be named, will be anchored by a 35-foot bar and will offer a selection of spirits, beer, wine and craft cocktails.
βWe are keeping our cocktails simple,β Spece said. βIt wonβt be a mixology experience. The cocktails won't have 10 ingredients and take 12 minutes to make. But they will be well-done.β
In addition to the new bar, the Speces are building out a boutique bottle shop in what is currently the M.E.B. lobby next door.
Ronnie Spece said Batch has always done well with bottle sales, especially during the pandemic, when people had no choice but to grab-and-go.
The new shop will offer single-barrel whiskies, with a curated selection of whiskey bottles and other spirits.
βThere is a local prickly pear syrup we use in our cocktails that we can buy wholesale from Cheriβs Desert Harvest,β Ronnie Spece said. βWeβll probably have stuff like that on the shelf as well.β
Ronnie Spece said they hope to have the retail space complete before holiday shopping begins in late November. The timeline for both the bar and the bottle shop were recently bumped up thanks to the approval of a $250,000 investment by the Rio Nuevo Board at its August meeting.
βI think they were surprised and impressed with the scale of what we were doing,β Ronnie Spece said. βWe are native Tucsonans. We are investing in downtown. We live downtown. What they want to do is help someone like us.β
Spece said expansion will not affect the quality at Batch.
The bar has nearly 900 bottles of whiskey in stock, one of the largest whiskey collections offered by any bar or restaurant in the state. The Bourbon Review recently named the establishment one of the best bourbon bars in the country for the second year in a row.
The Speces hope their efforts will leave an indelible impression on downtown Tucson.
βNow that we own the building and have a lasting business down there, we are doubling down for the long haul,β Ronnie Spece said.
Follow Batch at facebook.com/batchtucson.
