A new dining concept is coming to Tucson’s south side, in the space once occupied by a popular meat market.
American Eat Co., will open a dining center with restaurants, a bar and a butcher shop in the former American Meat Co. The meat market closed in 2015 after 62 years in business.
Inside the sprawling 8,000-square-foot building at 1439 S. Fourth Ave., diners will be able to sample a diversity of food, from Greek to Mexican.
Common Group, the project’s owners/developers, will operate Market Bar, a wine and beer bar serving Tucson craft brews and Arizona wines; and a rice bowl restaurant called Dumb Fish. Other concepts will include Isabella’s Ice Cream and Cafe con Leche coffee stand. American Eat Co. owner Jesus Bonillas said the coffee shop will serve traditional pan dulce from a local baker.
“The No. 1 reason we’re down here is because we love to eat,” Bonillas’ partner Guillermo Gallegos said last week as the partners led a couple of neighbors on a tour.
Common Group, which over the past several years has bought and restored several distressed commercial and restaurant properties on the south side, invested more than $1 million into the project and since they bought the property in November 2016. The plan was to open by spring, then summer 2017 but design and permits took longer than they expected.
“It was one heck of a process, but I’m happy with the result. The time doesn’t even matter to me. Now that I see how this thing came together I wouldn’t do anything different. The finished product is exactly what we envisioned,” Bonillas said.
What they envisioned was a place where cuisines and cultures would come together under one roof, with customers sitting in a common dining room that can seat about 250; there’s also an outdoor patio.
A hostess will greet customers near the front door and service is at the counter. American Eat Co. staff will be responsible for cleaning tables and maintaining the dining areas.
General Manager Daniel Gutierrez, whose AZ Rib House concept is next to Market Bar, will manage the dining room including overseeing hiring as many as 50 employees in the next few weeks for all the concepts and the dining room. (They are accepting applications at www.americaneatco.com)
“We can’t wait to start this amazing dream,” he said Wednesday, noting that there will be a dozen TVs throughout the building, all of them tuned to sports when the University of Arizona Wildcats football and basketball teams play.
Bonillas said they have a few finishing touches left to tend to, including finishing the counter tops and installing the kitchen equipment, before they can open.
Andy Arias is leaving real estate sales to open Dos Amigos market and butcher shop, modeled after the south side meat market his father Armondo ran for 29 years on West Drexel Road and South Cardinal Avenue.
“I couldn’t pass it up,” said Arias, who worked alongside his father for years before the senior Arias closed Dos Amigos Meat Market two years ago. “They have a good concept here.”
Arias said he will sell prime meats as well as his father’s popular chorizo. The market will offer a limited selection of grocery items, including sauces, tortillas and chiles.
The butcher shop was one of the first ideas that came to Bonilla and his partners when they were dreaming up plans for building, which was home to the Islas family’s American Meat Co. from 1953 until late 2015.
Filiberto Islas, the last of the Islas brothers who ran the butcher shop, said he planned to donate some old family photos when American Eat Co. opens.
Islas, 82, said Bonillas gave him a tour of the building, and he was pretty impressed by the makeover.
“They spent a lot of money renovating that building and it looks great to tell you the truth,” he said. “I think they may make a go of it.”
