The owners of the popular midtown restaurant Prep & Pastry are opening a second restaurant this summer.
Commoner & Co. could open as early as June in the space that was once The Abbey, 6960 E. Sunrise Drive. It’s a place that Nathan Ares and his partners Brian Morris and William Meinke know very well after working for several years at The Abbey and for its parent company, Metzger Family Restaurants.
“There are so many of the guys and gals excited to get back in here,” said Ares. “We thought about making a run for this space because we were so tied into it. We love this space. I think this is the only project we would really touch in Tucson that wasn’t another Prep & Pastry.”
Ares and his partners — a fourth one, Brian Pracko, was not an Abbey veteran — are investing as much as $40,000 in renovations to the space including removing the old chalkboard wall and pulling back walls to open up the dining room.
The restaurant’s menu is still a work in progress, but it will borrow sensibilities from Prep & Pastry, 3073 N. Campbell Ave., a restaurant specializing in crafted modern comfort food that twists dishes as simple as a breakfast sandwich — sausage, egg and cheese between a biscuit or English muffin — to make it more complex: tri-tip subs for sausage and a house-made cheddar biscuit gets a slather of jalapeño jam to play off the peppery tones of arugula and buttery accents of scrambled eggs.
They’ll bring that sort of playfulness to Commoner’s menu, as well as a couple of signature Prep & Pastry dishes that will likely be reimagined. Ares said he anticipates a house-made pasta, a chicken entree and house-ground burger on a brioche bun made in-house to be among the offerings.
“We haven’t really dialed it all in,” he added.
But Ares said he and his partners have dialed in big plans for a weekday happy hour from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
“I think we are going to do a really big happy hour up here. That’s really missing in this area,” said Ares, who tended bar at The Abbey, Lindy’s on Fourth and in clubs and restaurants in Vegas.
In addition to featuring local beers (Ten Fifty-Five Brewing from Tucson and Historic Brewing from Flagstaff), Commoner & Co.’s happy hour will include a sangria program curated by award-winning Tucson mixologist/bartender Matt Martinez from downtown’s Scott & Co. and its sisters 47 Scott and Eat.Drink. “I’m asking Matt to give us three different ones: a dry, a red and a white,” Ares said.
Commoner & Co. will serve lunch and dinner daily and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Prep & Pastry serves breakfast and lunch daily and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.
