American Eat Co. has been crazy town ever since it opened at the beginning of this month. Tucsonans of all stripes are hitting up the trendy grub hub, which may lead to more changes on South Fourth Avenue.
You probably won't have to stand in line, but if you visit the industrial chic hall during the lunch rush you might need to be savvy about getting a table. Despite having a few opening month hiccups, the concept looks like it's running pretty smoothly. Order at one of the 10 counters and have the employee text you when everything's ready. All of our purchases came out within five minutes.
The options at American Eat Co. feel like a mixture of crowd pleasers and highbrow bar foods, with an eye toward what's hip. Rather than burgers, they have fancy sliders ... You're not going to find a salad or a quinoa bowl here, but if you're dedicated you can find a "taco" at almost every stall: hot dog taco, poke bowl taco, ice cream taco?
We spent two days eating around the place to bring you these food recommendations. Our technique was to get smaller items at each stall and share them, so we had room to try everything. But all of these dishes are good enough to stand alone. Read this, and then ... go forth and eat!
Poke tacos at Dumb Fish
The ahi poke tacos, $9.50 for an order of three, taste like a lively sushi roll that's business on the bottom, party on the top!
Dumb Fish is one of American Eat's original concepts, and although it's been described as a poke bowl place, the menu is actually pretty loose. In addition to salmon and a seared tuna tataki poke bowl, the joint was pumping out crispy lobster wontons, tofu bowls and a kimchi fried rice with Spam on top.
Our favorite was the order of three poke tacos, which sounds like the ultimate trendy mashup but actually just tastes like sushi. (Even better.) There's no tortilla here; it's just seaweed with a generous scoop of ahi tuna and spicy chipotle mayo with a little masago on top for a salt punch. This may be the healthiest thing here, because everyone else is eating ...
Weenie flautas at Avenues
Avenues will serve you two Weenie Flautas, $7, which are basically deep-fried hot dogs in corn tortillas.
Avenues is definitely the most exciting concept to come out of the food hall. The small menu of "Chicano Hood Eats" showcases dishes that Tucson kids were brought up on, but rarely make it onto restaurant menus. That means fried ground beef tacos or the simple "Cholo Cheese" nachos that are basically just chips, cheese and cabbage (in the best way).
The quintessential dish here is the Weenie Flautas. Until now I was completely ignorant that people did this in their kitchen, but it makes so much sense! Take a hot dog and wrap it in a corn tortilla, then fry that stuff like a Mexican corn dog! Avenues kicks it up a notch by using flavored tortillas from Che West, who makes the colorful disks in American Eat's prep kitchen. Festive!
Chamoy michelada at the Market Bar
The Chamoy Michelada, $5.44, at the Market Bar had a spicy kick to it.
We had to include this baby because, duh ... American Eat Co. is actually just a giant bar with 9 food stands in it. (Or at least that's the way I see it. There's shiny lights and lotsa people!) We didn't see any cocktails on the Market Bar menu, but our bartender Arlene made us up a killer michelada with a spicy sweet kick from the Chamoy syrup. At only $5.44, it was a steal. She even asked us if we wanted extra Dos Equis in it, but we had work to do ...
Slice of 'za Upper Crust Pizza
A slice of Combo pizza from Upper Crust is as big as a plate and will run you $6.50.
And that work involved "pizza research," which is what I say when I want someone to think I'm official. Upper Crust Pizza already has a spot on Grant and Campbell across from the deceased Bookman's, but I hadn't much experienced their slice game. Gotta say, it's pretty solid.
During our visit they were pumping out new pies quickly to deal with the constant demand. So I suggest just looking back at those beautiful ovens and asking what's fresh. In our case, it was a slice of the Combo pizza with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and more. I know it's in the name, but they really do have great crust. 😍
Shroom, onion and American cheese slider at The Bite
The grilled shroom, onion and American cheese slider from The Bite, $8, with steak fries on the side.
You can't leave without trying the sliders. (That's in the official handbook.) The Bite has half a dozen options including a veggie slider with a cheese-stuffed poblano pepper. But we went the Americana route with the grilled shroom, onion and American cheese slider.
Sometimes the meat in these mini burgers can be overdone, but they did a bangup job here. Overall it was a well-balanced burger, even if it could have used a little secret sauce or something. The steak fries on the side, $4, were also choice. The handsome potato slabs were drizzled with a little bit of truffle oil and finished with parmesan cheese.
Ice cream taco at Isabella's
We got an ice cream taco with wild blueberry and unicorn swirl ice cream, $5.
This refurbished ice cream wagon has been getting around the block these days. Not only do they have a location here and on Fourth Avenue, but they're also going into the MSA Annex in May. Isabella's has some of the finest scoops in town, but they taste even better when they're tucked into a hot waffle cone with a nummy sweet crunch. Kristel even topped ours with whipped cream and these cute little edible pearls. So fancy! The others were easy to share, but this took effort ...
American Eat Co. is at 1439 S. Fourth Ave. Phone: 520-867-8700. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays
