In New York City, they’re known as bodegas, the corner stores where you can buy a bagel and a cup of coffee or Kleenex and cigarettes, probably dodging a house cat or two as they scurry through aisles and plop down on the candy bars. In Japan, they’re known as kissa bars, a riff on the 1950s teahouses where jazz fans would gather and listen to their favorite—and often extremely rare—records.
In Florence, Alabama, however, it’s known as All the Best, a coffee shop–snack bar–record store bars such as JBS (Jazz, Blues, Soul) in Shibuya, where the staff picks from more than eleven thousand vinyl albums to play on super high-end audio equipment. “It was one of the most incredible sonic experiences I’ve ever had,” he says. “And I started to daydream about doing something similar here.” Tanner has curated a tight selection of vinyl in the shop, with an emphasis on Florence and Muscle Shoals artists like Dylan Le-Blanc and the late, great Donnie Fritts. Ask him to put on a particular album and he’ll gladly oblige, pumping the sound through a pair of JBL Lancer 77 speakers, which, while bookshelf size, fill the space with crystal clear sound.
