About Us

​South Rims Wine & Beer Garage is northern Arizona’s premier tasting room with full dining, featuring Arizona wine and craft beers, unique specialty gifts and souvenirs, and Native artisan collectibles.

Located on historic Route 66 just south of the Grand Canyon in up-town Williams, South Rims offers 20+ wines and 12 Arizona craft beers on tap including innovative beer and wine flight options, free Internet Wi-Fi, and a delectable menu of specialty meats, cheeses and small plates.

Experience our casual atmosphere in the main dining room, or enjoy our sprawling courtyard and patio. South Rims is the perfect location for your next party, event, or personal dining experience.

South Rims proudly supports Arizona brewers, vintners, local artisans and the local community. Discounts are available for local Williams residents.

Greg Cole,
Sole proprietor

​An Arizona native, who received his taste for the restaurant business while working at Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse in Tucson, found his inspiration and calling while working at a high end Italian restaurant.

As his experience grew through managing several restaurants and properties over the past 25 years, he began to cook for himself. As he did, he realized his love for cooking and began dreaming of owning his own restaurant.

His passion is service. Which includes giving great attention to presentation, a fabulous and unique menu and personal care during the guests’ visit. He calls it, “the experience”.
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When not working, he can be found playing sports and spending time with his family.

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History of South Rims - written by original founder, Dan Watt

"Together, Linda Watt, Kathi Tanamachi, and I created the South Rims Wine and Beer Garage almost by accident. In 2012, we all retired from The Boeing Company and bought ranches close to the Grand Canyon to enjoy the serenity and wildlife, and most importantly, to relax and slow down from the fast-paced Aerospace industry.
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After relaxing for about a year on our porches and watching the world through non-frantic eyes, we wanted to start a business where we could find a product, place it on the web, sell it and distribute it from one of our ranches. Seemed pretty easy as we sat on our porch! As we viewed our new distribution center (a.k.a. our barn), we thought that leasing a building in nearby Williams was a better road to success.

We found a building that was just placed up for auction, and seized the opportunity to buy it. Now we had a building and an idea—but no product. Hmmm. At this point, we approached the Williams Chamber of Commerce armed with the question, “What does Williams need in the form of a new business?”

The answer? A wine tasting bar.

No problem, we said to ourselves, sounds really cool. So off we went to visit a local winery to learn about wine bars—or more specifically, all of the many, many things that we didn’t know about wine bars.

We steadied ourselves, rolled up our sleeves, and went to work learning about wine, craft beers, and wine bar operations, all the while beginning the process to completely renovate the building we bought and transform it into a wine tasting and craft beer bar.
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Boy, did we learn a lot about what to do, and what not to do, from making one mistake after another. Still, we learned. Among the most important takeaways for us was the insight that we could have the coolest building, products, and ambiance, but without the personal touch of knowledgeable and personable service, it’s all for naught.

So we sought out and hired staff and servers that really know how to take care of our customers. They are the best, working tirelessly at their craft to ensure the best possible customer experience. They are awesome! People do business with people they like, and we always enjoy hearing our customers say, “We’ll see ya next time!”

I am often asked about one of the unique aspects of our bar - a jet black 1967 Pontiac GTO parked inside. When we pulled up the floors during the building renovation, we found a fully intact car lift and grease pit left over from the building’s origins as a Route 66 gas and service station.
As fate would have it, we had just recently finished restoring that GTO. Wow, talk about kismet! We knew right then and there where the car was to reside, and thusly created the South Rims Wine and Beer Garage."
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