The Buffet Bar

By 9 p.m. on a recent Friday, The Buffet Bar was filled with an eclectic, electric mix of people. Gutterpunks had wandered in from Fourth Avenue, and University of Arizona students lined the wraparound bar that dominates the room. Middle-agers packed the tables along the walls and stood in the corners, throwing back shots and laughing. Actually, anyone can find themselves at The Buff. Lured by the promise of a Jumbo (16-ounce Coors for $1.75), Happy Minute (we'll get to that) or the hot dogs (cooked in Coors and only a buck), you'll wind up at the venerable bar at 538 E. Ninth St. Ted Bair, 77, has seen generations of patrons return to the bar he's owned for 25 years. "During homecoming, we have grandparents and parents that came in The Buffet when they were going to school," he says. "It looks just the same now as it did 30, 40 years ago." The building went up in 1929 and the tavern opened five years later, he says, making it the oldest bar in Tucson in the same location. (The Shanty holds the oldest liquor license, Bair says, but it has moved once.) The Buff first catered to railroaders, who had to live near the Downtown train station. When the station moved, the bar became a neighborhood joint, but the transition didn't change it much, and it's questionable if anything could. This place is old and you can feel it, from the generations of names carved in the walls to the worn bar counters and tile to the paintings waiting for '50s retro to come into style. But it's aged in a good way. Years and thousands of people have had a good time here. Some admit they come for the aged reputation. "You have to do it," says Winter Fisher, 25, a waitress and UA biochemistry student. "It's a classic dirty bar." "But it's a great bar," interrupts Will Bissell, 29, and Fisher concedes: "I love this place." The pair came in with friends to celebrate Bissell's birthday. To help celebrate, the bar gives birthday babes a half-yard of beer and a shot on the house. "As a drinker, I just love this place," says Bissell, a construction worker. "It's comfy. You don't need to come here with friends. They're already here." And they're here all the time. The Buffet opens at 6 a.m. every day but Sunday. The place also is crowded at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. - That's Happy Minute. (Told you we'd get there.) At 6, the bar buys you a second of your poison. At 11, it's $1. Now that's what we like: a bar that cares.

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