The corner of South Wilmot Road and East Broadway is about to become even more sandwich centric.
Construction has begun on Corner Bakery Cafe, right next door to the months-old Kneaders Bakery & Cafe on the Wilmot side of the corner that was once home to El Mercado shopping center. Jim Gore of El Paso, Texas-based Bakery Ventures, the company building the Tucson restaurant, said he hopes to be open by the end of May.
βWe like our brand and we think we will do well in Tucson," said Gore, whose company owns several Applebees and Village Inn restaurants in west Texas and southern New Mexico; the Tucson restaurant will be the company's sixth Corner Bakery location.
βWe looked at Tucson and we really like it," he said, adding that he and his partners would like to open two or three restaurants in the Tucson area. "It is a competitive market. We just feel like we will be embraced well and we will be a good fit"
A driveway will separate Corner Bakery from its competitor Kneaders, which opened last July, nine months after both national chains announced plans to build on the lot that was once the El Mercado shopping center. El Mercado was demolished in spring 2013 to make way for a CVS store that anchors the Wilmot/Broadway corner.
When they announced their plans in November 2014, neither apparently knew of the other's plans, officials from both said at the time. A driveway separates both restaurants, which are located in an area with several other sandwich shops including Tucson's own Beyond Bread, located up the road at North Wilmot Road and East Speedway.
Gore said Corner Bakery is known for its handcrafted sandwiches on house-made bread and freshmade soups and salads. But its grilled panini sandwiches are its calling card, he said. They are made with fresh ingredients including arugala, pestos, basil, artichokes and other vegetables, as well as a wide selection of cheeses and meats.
βWeβre fast casual, but the quality of our food is really a notch up,β Gore said.
Corner Bakery will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its breakfast menu includes its popular pancakes, a selection of scramblers and steel-cut oatmeal topped with fruit. His favorite breakfast item, though, actually comes from the sweets menu: Corner Bakery's signature cinnamon creme cake, which Gore said he eats nearly daily.
"It's like a coffee cake. It's fantastic,β he said.
