What's in a name? For these Tucson restaurants, a good story

There was a restaurant in Taiwan around 2008 or 2009 with the extremely unappetizing name Modern Toilet.

Food was served in bowls that resembled toilets and diners sat on actual (decommissioned) toilets.

The concept was popular and by 2020 it had grown to 19 locations in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

When it comes to restaurant names, that one probably ranks right up there as one of the weirdest, which got us to thinking: How do people come up with restaurant names? There’s gotta be a good story there. Sadly, Modern Toilet is closed, but there are some eateries right here in Tucson with inventive names.

So we made a few calls to some of Tucson’s more curiously named restaurants to find out the stories behind the names.

We also tried to reach out to the folks at the 2½-year-old La Chingada Cocina Mexicana downtown after some readers wrote in complaining that the name was a Spanish curse word. Sadly, the owners were out of town and couldn’t be reached so that’s one story that will go untold ... for now. However, they previously told the Star that culturally it has various meanings and they are not using the phrase in a derogatory way. Instead, they are using it in the “fun, spirited sense.”

PopHeads

845 E. University Blvd.; popheads.cool, 520-372-7805

It wasn’t the first name that popped into owner Jim Roberts’ head — pun intended — when he opened his University of Arizona area frozen pops shop in the bustling Main Gate entertainment district.

He and his former partner had called the small shop Peace, Love & Pops when they opened last June, but on the advice of their lawyer, who found another similarly named venture in the U.S. that could prompt legal arm wrestling down the road, they pivoted to PopHeads.

“It’s all about pops,” said Roberts, who changed the sign and is now the sole owner of the business. “When I get customers who come in and they know exactly what they want, they are PopHeads.”

Roberts initially was making fruit juice frozen treats, but after trying gelato pops decided to go all in on the creamy treats.

His “Far Out Flavors” menu includes fruit pops from Lemon Mic-Drop and The Ice Hat (half strawberry, half blue raspberry) to Mango Tango and Cherry Limeade. Beta-Pops are a little more adventurous — My Caramel Romance, Lemonilla Bliss, Pink Cotton Candy and Punkin’ Pie — while the ever evolving Special Features menu — we’re dying to try Candied Piggy’s-in-a-Blanket with candied bacon wrapped in creamy maple gelato and Choco-Minty-Fresh featuring green mint with chocolate flakes dipped in chocolate that sounds like it could resemble a Girl Scouts Thin Mints cookie — has become a go-to for many regulars.

PopHeads also has cream-based frozen pops and pup pops for your pooch.

“Every pop we sell is just packed full of flavor,” Roberts said.

Karichimaka

5252 S. Mission Road; karichimaka.com, 520-883-0311

Mary Ann Lopez has told the story hundreds of times in the 45 years that she’s owned her southwest-side Mexican restaurant; she has it memorized to the point that every time she’s asked about the name, she gives the same answer almost verbatim.

When the original owner opened the restaurant in 1949 in the sprawling brick and wood building surrounded by 13 acres of pristine desert, he borrowed a word from his father’s native Kickapoo Indian heritage. The Kickapoo were originally from the Great Lakes but migrated in the early 1800s to Mexico and maintained some remnants of their native culture and language.

“Karichimaka” — pronounced car-each-ee-macca — means pool of clear water.

“That’s the story we were given and that’s the story on the menu and we’ve kept it,” said the 87-year-old Lopez, who still runs the business end of the popular restaurant.

In all her years there, there’s been only one person to question the story’s veracity.

“This guy from the University of Arizona approached me one time and said, ‘You know that’s not right,’ “ she recalled.

Of course he didn’t offer an alternative so the name remains along with a menu of Mexican dishes that have earned Karichimaka four-star ratings. Diners rave about the Tanichopa salad, that should be dubbed the kitchen sink: a bed of lettuce flecked with black olives, tomato and avocado, is topped by a seasoned chicken tostada and four mini chicken tacos with melted cheese and garnished by black olives.

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“It’s one of my favorites,” Lopez said.

The restaurant also is known for its Mexican T-bone steak, cheese crisp and open-ended chimichanga.

Serial Grillers

Four locations in Tucson including 5975 E. Speedway and 7585 S. Houghton Road; serialgrillersaz.com

When Travis and William Miller launched their food truck in 2012, they were looking for a big splashy name that would stand out at the weekly food truck roundups.

Food Network at the time introduced a new show about food trucks and many of them sported names inspired by rock bands and movie titles.

Which got the brothers to thinking about their passion for scary movies and characters born of the mad minds of Hollywood writers.

Hence the name Serial Grillers, with a menu of sandwiches named after the serial killers of the small and big screens: the Italian meat filled Silence of the Lambs V2; the spicy turkey, jalapeno and avocado American Psycho; the grilled chicken Pennywise; and the Se7en Grilled Cheese.

“We thought it would be cool to celebrate the love for all things weird and off the wall,” said Travis Miller, who was the mastermind of much of the menu.

In the early days when the brothers had a single brick-and-mortar location, they had a couple of customers with children complain about some of the original artwork hanging on the restaurant’s walls that depicted serial killers. Some patrons thought the killers were ripped from the headlines, not the cinema.

“We’re not celebrating real life serial killers. It’s really just celebrating cinematic characters,” said Miller, noting that they subbed out the art for movie posters.

The Millers have four Serial Grillers locations as well as Craft, A Modern Drinkery, Toro Locos Tacos y Burros and the Detroit-style pizzeria Transplant, whose name, Travis Miller said, was inspired by his father’s move from Motor City to Tucson when he was 24 years old. Their father, George Miller, ran Winchell’s Donut House locations in Tucson for years. He died in 2019.

Bumsted’s

1003 N. Stone Ave.; bumstedsaz.com, 520-323-1010

Scot and Barbara Shuman are big fans of the “Blondie” comic strip.

In 2000, the couple opened Daggwood’s, a restaurant specializing in the gigantic sandwiches that were a favorite of “Blondie” character Dagwood Bumstead.

They sold the restaurant in 2013 and five years later opened Bumsted’s, a sandwich shop on North Fourth Avenue that they ran for five years before they closed when they couldn’t reach a deal to renew their lease.

In spring 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown, the couple bought the 5,000-square-foot building on North Stone Avenue and relaunched Bumsted’s.

Both names were plays off the comic strip with different spellings to avoid any legal hiccups down the road.

The restaurant, which the couple recently sold, specializes in big sandwiches with fun names like Who’s Your Daddy, with roast beef, mushrooms and caramelized onion; the Soccer Mom, with spicy mustard complementing peppered bacon, turkey and avocado; and the Excuse Me? five-cheese grilled cheese sandwich.

The menu also includes a handful of kid-friendly sandwiches and entrees with names like “No,” “Don’t Make Me Come In There” and “Are We There Yet?”

Bumsted’s hosts live entertainment including karaoke several nights a week.