Borderlands Brewing Co. is opening its second location near the University of Arizona in a collaboration with Tucson celebrity chef Maria Mazon of Fourth Avenue’s Boca Tacos y Tequila.
Borderlands Brewing will move into the former gas station that had been home most recently to PJ’s Subs T6 Filling Station at 2500 E. Sixth St. Borderlands will operate the beer end of the venture while Mazon will run the kitchen.
Borderlands owner/CEO Es Teran said the goal is to create a neighborhood bar/restaurant that will appeal to the residents of the area.
Teran and Mazon started flirting with the idea of a collaboration late last year, he said. When the historic former gas station where PJ’s Subs had been for seven years came up for lease early this year, the pair went from talking to planning.
Teran, a longtime Tucson businessman who took over Borderlands in 2018, said the idea was to expand on the culinary baby steps Borderlands had taken with its original brewery downtown at 119 E. Toole Ave. The brewery in 2018 launched its own food truck after years of inviting local food trucks to park at the brewery.
“Just getting the consistent food trucks at the brewery was a challenge,” Teran said. “We knew the importance of having food, not just beer.”
That’s where Mazon, a James Beard Award-nominated chef with a national profile, comes in.
Mazon is creating a new Mexican-influenced menu for Borderlands on Sixth that will not borrow from her popular Boca Tacos y Tequila on North Fourth Avenue.
“It’s going to be an eat-all-day situation, with a short menu and flexible in the sense that it won’t have Boca tacos,” Mazon said, calling the menu a work in progress, although “I know 90% what it will be.”
Chef Maria Mazon mixes up a new batch of one of her unique salsas at Boca Tacos & Tequila.
“I’m very excited. I haven’t seen anything like this in Tucson,” she said. “I haven’t seen this type of menu or what I’m cooking yet because when you go to Boca you have tacos, you go to Borderlands it’s beer. At Anello (on East Sixth Street), it’s pizza. This is going to have a base menu ... but you can MacGyver it.”
Teran said work will begin soon on completely renovating the space including relocating the bar.
“It has kind of a funky setup so we are completely remodeling the inside to make sure it has more of a loungey vibe,” he said. “We want to make sure we have a nice neighborhood bar/restaurant.”
Teran said he hopes to open in August.
In addition to its East Toole Avenue brewery, Borderlands is partnering with Firetruck Brewing in the brewing co-op Voltron Brewing Company on West Toole Avenue, where both companies brew their beer and operate a small joint taproom.
