Grand Canyon Brewing + Distillery

However, I was looking forward to a menu like the one at Williams, and it's completely different, and somewhat disappointing. Right off the bat, the ketchup is not a good brand. Coffee is only available as cold brew nitro, which I admit is interesting, but not my preferred way to drink it. The cheese steak is OK, but no more than that. The prickly pear fries are pretty good. Other items on the menu are bruschetta, flatbreads, and upscale mac & cheese—Flagstaff already has all that coming out the ears, but I'll try some of the more interesting items and see how they pan out.

The location used to be Buster's, which was for years a local institution with a loyal customer base. Then they changed owners, and alienated everyone by wasting a lot of money on garish redecoration. More importantly, the food went up in price and somewhat down in quality. Worst of all, the much beloved bread basket with zucchini muffins became an outright abomination. As a result, people stayed away in droves. This is a classic example of trying to fix something that wasn't broken.

Then it was Trail Crest Brewing Company, which emphasized all Arizona food, beer, and spirits. They also were setting up a brewery, but never got their permits. Although I thought it was a shame to see them go, I have since heard that the owner was a real jerk to other local brewers.

*This brings to mind an incident at the 2019 Coconino County Fair: the Nackard Distributor's beer garden featured liquor shots, and the bourbon shot, for $8, was a surprisingly, truly good brand called "Jefferson's". Afterwards, I looked for it at my usual grocery stores [Bashas' and Safeway], and failed to find it. It struck me as odd that a distributor would spend so much money for the license to promote a good booze that they weren't even making available to the public. This niggle failed to go away, and after nearly two months of it, I went on down to Majestic Marketplace, the best liquor store in town, to find they only had the rich-folk versions, for over $100 a bottle. Forget that! As a last resort, I visited the Fry's grocery store—decidedly off my beaten path—and, sure enough, they had it there. However, even the more "regular" stuff turned out to be nearly $50 a bottle. I bought a bottle then, just to scratch my itch, but any repeat purchase is pretty unlikely. My tastes just aren't that expensive, at least not on a regular basis.