The Daily Wildcat visited Revel on Saturday for the grand opening of the new beer and wine bar. It is located between downtown Tucson and the Fourth Avenue shopping district.
Revel features a long list of wines and beers, ready to be paired with meat and cheese boards. Wine enthusiasts may find a seat along the modern-looking bar, or recede further into the lengthy seating area for a more secluded setting. We sat down with the owners, Todd and Celine Getzelman, to learn what Revel is all about.
Daily Wildcat: What is Revel?
Todd: We are a Euro-inspired wine bar. We do mostly wines, but a little bit of beer as well. We’re also going to have a handful of cured meats and specialty cheeses to go with that.
Why the name Revel?
TG: The inspiration was really to kind of bring down the pretentiousness of wine. We wanted to have more of a relaxed, enjoyable vibe at a wine bar. The word revel means to celebrate, kind of in a boisterous manner, so we thought it would be fun to do that.
What sets Revel apart?
TG: We wanted to find some place that would feel comfortable, truly as a wine-focused place. A lot of good restaurants in town have good wine programs, but nobody is really focusing on wine, as just a place to enjoy it. They do at a lot of craft beer places. We wanted to create that same kind of craft beer environment, for wine drinkers.
Celine: We didn’t have a place to go. We didn’t have a wine bar where we could hang out. So, we needed a place to be, and to drink wine and enjoy.
TG: So we created our own.
How will the drinks change?
TG: A few of our bottles by the glass, the popular ones, we’ll most likely have on a regular basis. We would like to have a refreshed menu pretty regularly. The producers that we like to bring in, the smaller ones, don’t always have massive inventories, so it’s just a natural thing that we’ll have. We will bring in a revolving new menu pretty constantly.
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Do you have a favorite drink on the menu?
TG: It’s like asking which is your favorite child.
CG: We don’t do favorites.
TG: Some of the old-world stuff is something that we definitely enjoy more than others, but all of them are great. We definitely love them all.
What is the future of Revel?
TG: The main goal, originally, and I think it’s probably happening, is that we wanted to bring, like I said earlier, a level of pretention and stuffiness out of wine and make it a comfortable place for people to come in, enjoy, talk about and still have a fun time.
Todd and Celine met in Flagstaff before moving to Tucson. Revel is located at 416 E. 9th Street .
You can view this new wine and beer bar’s menu online.
