Gentle Ben’s Brewing Co. has expanded its footprint on East University Boulevard after buying the 2½-year-old Bacio Italiano restaurant in March.
Last week, that footprint grew even bigger when the owners signed a lease for the corner space at 943 E. University Blvd. that had been home for nearly five years to The Dutch Eatery & Refuge. They plan to open a sit-down Mexican restaurant there called Casa Agave sometime in July, said Richard Fifer, one of three owners of Gentle Ben’s at 865 E. University Blvd.
The Dutch is moving closer to Tucson's east side.
Joshua Rhoads, waiter and bartender, brings a customer their order of margarita pizza at Bacio Italiano. Gentle Ben's Brewing Co. bought the restaurant this month and plans to add "some more exciting entrees" to Bacio's menu and use more local, fresh ingredients.
The Mexican restaurant is one of three new restaurants opening on Main Gate in the coming months, and one more is in the works for the long-closed Auld Dubliner space on the corner of University and North Euclid Avenue, said Jane McCollum, the general manager for the Marshall Foundation which owns and manages the Main Gate properties.
McCollum said the lease on the Auld Dubliner space is not finalized so she could not comment on the plans, but said it involves a longtime Arizona restaurant operator.
Fifer and his partners, Russ Moore and Jennifer Treusch, realize they are taking a huge leap of faith by tripling their presence on University, but Fifer said opportunities along the busy University of Arizona entertainment district don’t come along often.
“There’s been a lot of growth in the area and I see it as a lot of opportunity,” Fifer said. “It’s a lot to bite off in one time, but the opportunity won’t come around again.”
It will likely be mid-July before they open Casa Agave, which will feature an extended patio created by taking about 20 feet from the existing windows to allow for an inside-outside bar and patio. Fifer said the work could begin this week and would take several months.
McCollum said Main Gate sorely needs a sit-down Mexican restaurant.
“We feel like with 400 hotel rooms, we are missing that piece that everybody comes to Tucson for,” she said, referring to the Tucson Marriott University Park and adjacent Graduate Hotel, which were packed two weekends ago for the NCAA women’s March Madness tournament.
Tome Leppert, cook, pulls out a customers pizza order at Bacio Italiano, 943 E. University Blvd., in Tucson, Ariz. on March 24, 2022.
Fifer said he and his partners began talks with Bacio’s owner Andrew Avella in February and took over the restaurant in March with Justin Fitzsimmons, who has worked in his uncle Daniel Scordato’s restaurants, to helm the kitchen. Fifer said they have plans to add “some more exciting entrees” to Bacio’s menu and use more local, fresh ingredients.
Avella on Tuesday said the time was right to exit the restaurant business, which has been challenging lately with perennial staff shortages and the pandemic. He said he plans to return to more technology-driven ventures that could involve food.
“It (restaurant) is a hard business,” Avella said as staff members and Fitzsimmons got the restaurant ready to open for the lunch service. “These guys are awesome and I am here to support them.”
Kat Monreal, manager of Berry Greens, and Andres Marmion, owner, stand for a portrait on the corner of University Boulevard and Park Avenue in Tucson, Ariz. on March 24, 2022. Berry Greens Acai and Juice Bar is opening a second location in the former Jamba Juice on Park Avenue and University Boulevard.
More in the works
Also coming to Main Gate:
The downtown smoothie/acai bowl restaurant Berry Greens is opening its second location in the former Jamba Juice space at 943 E. University Blvd. The restaurant has been open at 245 E. Congress St. since early 2020, around the time the pandemic began, said manager Kat Monreal.
Berry Greens, owned by Monreal’s best friend Andres Marmion, spent six months at American Eat Co. on South Fourth Avenue before making the move downtown.
Monreal said the University Boulevard location was perfect since it formerly housed a smoothie shop. In addition to fresh fruit and vegetable smoothies and acai bowls topped with everything from fresh strawberries and berries to mango and tropical dragon fruit, Berry Greens serves fresh cold-pressed juice from the so-called “Greenie” — with spinach, celery, kale, lemon, cucumber, green apple and ginger — to the popular juju beet juice with beet, apple, celery and ginger.
Work has begun on the buildout, which includes updating the space and kitchen area.
“There’s a lot more work to do than we first thought,” Monreal said, adding that they hoped to open in mid-July before students return for the fall semester.
A pedestrian walks past Berry Greens Acai and Juice Bar on East Congress Street. The bar is opening a second location in the formerly owned Jamba Juice on North Park Avenue and East University Boulevard.
Brothers-in-law Scott Harrison and Jim Roberts are opening Peace, Love & Pops, a handcrafted popsicle shop, in the space that was home to Sonoran Cycles at 845 E. University Blvd.
The venture is modeled after a similar popsicle shop in Birmingham, Alabama, where Harrison, a former radio sports announcer, spent several years doing marketing and public relations for Taco Mama. The Birmingham-based chain of fast-casual Mexican restaurants has nearly two dozen locations throughout Alabama.
Harrison said he and Roberts first toyed with the idea a few years ago, after he and his wife took Roberts and his wife to the local shop. When Harrison and his wife moved to Tucson in January 2021, the two men revisited the idea and took the plunge.
A new popsicle shop — Peace, Love & Pops — will be going in at 845 E. University Blvd. The restaurant, which will feature fresh fruit popsicles as well as more inventive flavors, from regional prickly pear to cream-based popsicles with cereal, is expected to open in late April or early May.
Peace, Love & Pops will feature fresh-fruit popsicles as well as more inventive flavors, from regional prickly pear to cream-based popsicles with cereal. Some of the treats also will feature fresh fruit along with the fresh juice.
“Where we want to take some leaps of faith and experimentation is some smaller batch opportunities with some flavors maybe you wouldn’t think about,” Harrison said. “We just want to make some popsicles and have some fun.”
If all goes well with city and county permits and furnishing the shop, it could open in early April.
The restaurants will join another relative Main Gate newcomer, Fullylove’s at 944 E. University Blvd., a family-owned classic American diner in the former Pelio Grill Greek Taverna. Fullylove’s has been open since early this year.
