Club 21 Mexican Restaurant, one of Tucson’s oldest family-owned businesses, closed on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, owner Taft “Skip” Jacob said his family “had the privilege of serving generations of Tucson families from our same location here on North Oracle Road” for 73 years.
“First dates, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, new arrivals, graduations, holidays, reunions and even choir practice; made us a part of so many lives,” he wrote. “Thank you for letting us share in all of those special moments with you.”
Jacob said he decided to close last week on the heels of the restaurant’s annual two-week summer vacation.
“It was a brutally hard decision. In the past it was always my father and I. After his unexpected illness and death (in 2006), I had to do it alone,” he said Friday, adding that the grind of working 15-hour days, seven days a week had taken its toll.
Jacob’s father George Jacob, and uncle, Abe Jacob, opened Club 21 in 1946 not long after returning from serving in World War II. They had planned to work at their father’s supermarket, but the store closed during the aftermath of the war because of food rations.
Taft Jacob, left, and father George in 1996. Taft took over after his father died of an illness.
They decided instead to open a restaurant, tapping Abe Jacob’s cooking skills honed in the military. They found the nondescript ramshackle building at 2920 N. Oracle Road and began serving a simple menu of tacos, burritos and enchiladas.
In the early 1950s, they renovated the building, adding more space. The restaurant grew with follow-up renovations in 1961 and ‘81 and got fresh paint and upkeep in the years since.
Skip Jacob worked at the restaurant as a kid and came on board full time in 1975. He never looked back.
“It was part of our family. It was our tradition and it was part of the roots, and roots are important to me,” he said. Working in the restaurant “was something that we grew up doing.”
Another branch of the Jacob family ran El Parador Restaurant and Cantina at 2744 E. Broadway for 40 years before closing in 2013.
10 Tucson restaurants that shut their doors in 2019
Casa Valencia — 2660 N. Campbell Ave.
Updated
The mariscos restaurant Casa Valencia went into the old Yoshimatsu building at 2741 N. Campbell Ave.
Casa Valencia closed its Campbell location, which was the second location for the seafood bistro.
The Campbell location opened in 2016. The original location is at 1825 W. Valencia Rd.
Casa Valencia officials could not be reached for comment when contacted on April 2. The restaurant made no announcement of the closure on its social media.
Prep & Pastry plans to move into the space, which is much larger than the breakfast eatery's current location.
Read more here.
Cushing Street Bar & Restaurant — 198 W. Cushing St.
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The Cushing Street building was originally a house built in the 1860s. It was later converted to a country store, a tailor’s business and in 1972 a restaurant. The Coronet, a popular eatery on Ninth Street near Fourth Avenue, will move to this site.
Cushing Street Bar & Restaurant temporarily closed for renovations in 2018 but announced their permanent closure in 2019.
Cushing Street Bar was born in 1972 when Betsy Rollings’ parents, Kelley and Sally, joined three other couples in the venture. Betsy Rollings ran the decades-old restaurant from 2002 until it recently closed, according to Arizona Daily Star archives.
The Coronet, a popular eatery at 402 E. Ninth St., off of North Fourth Avenue, will move into the space this summer.
In a note posted on its website, The Coronet said it would continue serving at its Ninth Street location through June 2 and will “reopen at Cushing after the monsoon.”
Read more here.
District Tavern Eatz — 1535 N. Stone Ave.
UpdatedNearly four years after Tucson's quintessential downtown dive bar the District Tavern shuttered, it came back to life in 2018, before closing again in 2019.
The reincarnation included food, according to a Facebook post announcing the 2018 grand opening.
The new digs were several miles from the District's original home at 260 E. Congress St.
The Fix, Arizona’s Mac n Chz Headquarters — 943 E. University Blvd.
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The Fix, in Main Gate Square, said nearby construction and the hike in the minimum wage contributed to the closure.
The Fix closed after nearly seven years in business in the University of Arizona area.
The Fix was known for its mac and cheese concoctions — pizza, surf and turf, jalapeño popper, Hawaiian barbecue, enchilada and loaded baked potato, to name a few.
Owners Mike and Sandy Lanz cited several reasons for the closure, including construction of a hotel near the restaurant, the increase in minimum wage and retirement. The Lanzes took over the business in 2013.
Read more here.
Harvest on River — 5605 E. River Road
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Harvest Restaurant in Oro Valley, shown in 2014.
After nearly four years on Tucson’s far east side, Harvest on River, the sister of the popular Oro Valley restaurant Harvest, closed in March.
In an email to longtime customers, owners Reza and Lisa Shapouri blamed the closing on a disagreement with their landlord over terms of renewing their lease. Reza Shapouri said the lease terms were “just unacceptable. There is no responsible way for me to sign that lease.”
Meanwhile, the couple, whose flagship Harvest Restaurant in Oro Valley is one of the most popular restaurants on the northwest side, will open a wood-fired pizza restaurant sometime this summer in the Oro Valley Marketplace, 12155 N. Oracle Road at West Tangerine Road.
Read more here.
Lerua's — 2005 E. Broadway
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Lerua’s Fine Mexican Food, 2005 E. Broadway, was one of the final parcels of land the city needed for its road-widening project.
Lerua’s was one of the last businesses to vacate the area where the city plans to widen Broadway to six lanes starting at Euclid Avenue to Country Club Road.
“We’re trying to be the last to go. Moving a restaurant is not like moving an office,” Mike Hultquist said in December 2018, before the closure deal with the city was approved.
Hultquist, whose family had owned the restaurant for years, said that the deal was a decadeslong process that began in 1987. But the offer fell far short of what he said he would need to relocate the restaurant that had been in his family since his mother, Carmen Maria Borgaro Hultquist, bought Lerua’s in 1961.
Lerua’s, popular for its green corn tamales, stood on that corner since Tony Lerua opened it in 1922.
Read more here.
Lotus Garden — 5975 E. Speedway
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Waiter Richard Latini takes an order from longtime diner Donna McGinnis as customers enjoy an afternoon lunch at Lotus Garden, one of the oldest family-owned Chinese restaurants in Tucson. The eatery is closing May 31 after 51 years.
For 51 years, the Wong family opened the doors of their East Speedway Chinese restaurant to three generations of Tucson diners. They closed in the end of May.
The restaurant was one of Tucson’s oldest family-run Chinese restaurant.
“It’s time,” said chef-owner Dan Wong, the son of Lotus founders Dan and Lillian Wong. “My mom is 87 so we thought it was time to close.”
Serial Grillers, the Tucson-born burger, pizza and craft beer chain, will take over the space when it moves its flagship restaurant from 5737 E. Speedway. The new location will double the restaurant’s capacity, said Travis Miller, who owns Serial Grillers with his brother William.
Meanwhile the Millers are teaming up with Red Desert BBQ & Catering to open a barbecue concept at Serial’s original location. Both restaurants are expected to open in October.
Read more here.
MiAn Sushi & Modern Cuisine — 88 E. Broadway
Updated
Mian Sushi and Modern Asian Cuisine downtown closed on Monday after two years in business.
Tucson's upscale Asian-fusion restaurant MiAn's quietly closed in the beginning of June, but its owner said he plans to return in the fall with a new concept.
Bin An shuttered his MiAn Sushi & Modern Asian Cuisine, on the ground floor of the nine-story Tucson Electric Power building. The Asian-fusion restaurant that borrowed from Japanese, Chinese and other Asian cuisines had been open just over two years.
Read more here.
Shot in the Dark Cafe — 121 E. Broadway
Updated
Shot in the Dark Cafe, at 121 E. Broadway, closed after serving the downtown area for 14 years.
Shot in the Dark Cafe closed in January after more than 14 years in business.
Pam Lopez, one of the restaurant’s 10 employee owners, said they were notified on Jan. 1 that they had until the end of the month to leave the space, despite renewing their lease in September 2018. The letter from Pam Keiser, who represents the trust that owns the building, said the lease was canceled.
Lopez said the group renewed the lease in September and agreed to rent hikes that took their rate from $1,100 a month to $4,400.
Keiser said the group of employees that owns and operates the restaurant has never really had a lease. The decision to evict came following a visit in fall of 2018, soon after the cafe failed a Pima County health inspection.
In a Facebook posting, the restaurant’s owners said they were being squeezed out as part of the gentrification of downtown that has forced several neighboring businesses to close.
Read more here.
Three Wells Distilling Company — 3780 E. 44th St.
UpdatedThree Wells Distilling Company closed after five years in business.
"We are so humbled by the amazing support Tucson, and AZ has given us over the years," the company said in a Facebook posting announcing the closure. "The relationships we have gained, and the awesome people we have gotten to know make the whole thing worth it!"
Back in 1947, John Jacob stood with Budweiser Clydesdales in front of his family’s Club 21 Mexican Food Restaurant.
