photo: Chris Zukowski
Justin McLamarrah has tended bar at Plush since the beginning.
“We’re coming up on our 10-year anniversary,” he said. It’s a milestone for both the local music scene and McLamarrah personally.
McLamarrah was friends with one of the managers when the place opened, and he was put to work backing up the bartenders and painting the walls.
“I kind of fell into this job and now I don’t want to leave,” he said. “I truly, truly love my job.”
It was his first as a bartender and now he is heralded as one of the best in town.
At 34, McLamarrah is entrenched in Tucson, in cocktails and in local music.
“I have a bachelor’s of science in regional development but (bartending) is too much fun,” he said. “(Plush has) an eccentric, kind of eclectic staff. Everyone else sings or plays like five instruments. … It’s a really bad-ass culture.”
These days, McLamarrah is somewhat more of a traditionalist. He spends his days bird watching with his family. The married father of two daughters, with another on the way, appreciates what he has and what his profession has gotten him. Even his cocktails preferences skew toward the proven.
“My favorite drinks are the old-school drinks,” he said. “Those are the ones people still order the most, anyway.”
On trends in mixology: “There are a lot of people who are drinking flavored tequilas and whiskeys. There’s Wild Turkey with honey flavor, Southern Comfort with lime already in it. That’s another trend. They have lime in everything. But every bar you go to has limes. It’s strange.”
Favorite spirit: “Jagermeister. Terrible, I know. It’s evil. It does strange things. It’s a different kind of drunk. Many times a night I’m asked, ‘What do I want?’ And I always answer, ‘Jagermeister,’ although nobody ever takes me up on it.”
After his shift: “I usually will have a drink with bartenders from other bars. Then I go home to my family.”
Signature drink: Old Fashioned
1 ½ oz. bourbon
½ oz. sweet vermouth
dash of bitters
muddled orange and cherries
Shake the bourbon, vermouth and bitters in a shaker over ice. Muddle the orange and cherries. Add ice to the glass with the fruit on the bottom and drain the shaker into it.
“All the bartenders order that drink,” McLamarrah said. “They know what’s good.” n
Plush is open 4pm-2am, Monday-Saturday; 6pm-2am Sunday at 340 E. 6th St., online: PlushTucson.com. For more information, call 798-1298.
