Hot in 2016: New and upcoming Tucson restaurants
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The latest on Dillinger Brewing Company, Simplicit, aka Deli and more.Β
- Gerald M. Gay
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Dillinger Brewing Company is getting in just under the wire for 2016.
The brewery at 3895 N. Oracle Road, south of West Roger Road on the west side of the street, will open its doors at 2 p.m. on Friday, according to owner Eric Sipe, with plans to ring in the new year from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturday.
Sipe said four beers will be on tap for Friday, with a fifth available on Saturday, including an IPA, a wheat, and a chile wheat.
Dillinger is opening in an underserved area of town when it comes to craft beer, with no other breweries on Oracle.
- By Kim Matas Special to the Arizona Daily Star
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In what might be the fastest restaurant opening in Tucson history, chef Michael Powell started serving customers just six days after signing a lease with the Temple of Music and Art for his new eatery, Simplicit.
Temple management wanted Powellβs restaurant opening to coincide with the Arizona Theatre Company production of βFiddler on the Roof,β so the Tucson-born, award-winning chef had to make a lot of decisions quickly. The first, deciding on a menu. He grew up in a family that prided itself on its Mediterranean roots, and before returning to the Old Pueblo, he was chef at a Michelin-recommended Mediterranean restaurant in Napa Valley.
Mediterranean-style cooking βis almost second nature at this point and because I am really transitioning from chef to owner I realize how full my plate is going to be,β Powell said. βI thought I wouldnβt have to do too much training with my restaurant and my staff because the recipes were already tested.β
Why open in the Temple of Music and Art?
βI was looking for spots downtown. I felt I was ready to come home a year and a half ago and saw how downtown has grown and it had a whole new energy. I spent a lot of time walking around, days and days and checking out the scene and different places, and Tucson is definitely a budding food city. ... Once I saw the Temple, it kind of made everything else seem just so-so. It kind of called out to me in a lot of ways. In my vision and in my dreams I never thought of being part of something much bigger than myself and my restaurant.
βYou are reminded and humbled every day of the institution you are partnering with . ...I definitely think Scott street is the most beautiful street in downtown Tucson, and the property β when you are out there you feel like youβre away from everything and you are off someplace else. itβs a nice place to be a part of.β
What kind of restaurant is Simplicit?
βSimplicit is a small, intimate restaurant attached to the Temple of Music and Art. One of the plans for the hopefully not-too-distant future is to have a hydroponic grow wall where we will grow all our own produce. Hopefully state-inspired and globally-inspired (produce). Thatβs one of my passions, global flavors and using them in a way people can enjoy. Now I am using Mediterranean flavors because my grandfather was from Cyprus. He was my inspiration for wanting to be a chef when I was 7 years old.β
Was your grandfather a chef?
βHe wasnβt a chef. He died when I was 4, but all my memories of him were in the kitchen. Whenever there were family and friends around, they would always talk about him and his food. He would throw parties in the backyard and roast whole lamb. He was very passionate about food. I remember him telling me good food would make people forget about their problems for a little while. It made sense to me and when I was 7, I decided that is what I wanted to do with my life and I pursued it ever since.β
How would you describe the menu?
βLocally sourced, globally inspired as much as possible.β
Do you have any signature dishes?
βI could probably say there are tons, but at the end of the day I am passionate about everything that goes on the menu or I wouldnβt put it on there.β
Sally Kane is one busy restauranteur these days.
There's her popular buzz cafe The Coronet downtown, which she opened in the Coronado Hotel Apartments off North Fourth Avenue in early 2014. In late 2015, she joined hands with Mercado San Agustin owners Adam Weinstein and Jerry Dixon to run Agustin Kitchen.
And last weekend, the trio swung open the doors to aka Deli & Bakeshop, a grab-and-go soup, sandwich and salad restaurant next door to Agustin Kitchen at 100 S. Avenida Del Convento Suite 126.
The shop, open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, also includes drool-worthy baked goods coming from a trio of creative folks in the kitchen who are producing cookies, pastries, muffins, pies and cakes.
Kane, a self-professed foodie devotee, incubated a bakery program at Coronet that she brought with her to Agustin Kitchen. Developing a full concept around the baking was "kind of a bridge in a way" that tied together the two other restaurants, she said.
Everything at aka except the bread β which comes from Barrio Bread βΒ is made in house, including the charcuterie, Kane said. Pastries start at $1, soup is $5 and sandwiches run $9 to $10. Salads are sold by the pound and produce is locally sourced through Pivot Produce, which works with area farmers.
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Tucson's south side is about to become home to one of the area's largest Chinese restaurants and one of the largest restaurants in the city.
The 12,800-square-foot Lin's Grand Buffet, 1068 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd., is about a third smaller than U Like Oriental Buffet on North Oracle Road β that restaurant, near the Tucson Mall, is just over 17,000 square feet.
Lin's, which could open late next week, will seat 400 and will serve as many as 100 different Asian, American and Mexican dishes, from classics like General Tso's chicken and beef and broccoli, to sushi and Mongolian grill with seafood, poultry and beef; on weekends, diners can get ribeye steak. The menu also will feature kid-friendly chicken nuggets and french fries, and Mexican dishes including enchiladas.
This will be the ninth restaurant in the Texas-based Lin's chain, which opened its first restaurant in McAllen, Texas, in 2000. It's the fourth in Arizona since Lin's opened in Phoenix's west side in 2008.
Owner Frank Lam said he had scouted Tucson locations long before building in Phoenix but couldn't find anything suitable until the two-plus-acre spot next to Walmart in the Tucson Marketplace became available. Lam, who owns Lin's with his aunt and uncle and two other partners, broke ground in February on the $4.5 million project.
On Monday, the steady buzz of an electric saw matched rhythms with the thump, thump of hammers hitting wood as a crew of 25 worked on the interior. Lam stood next to buffet area, where a worker was peeling off protective film and installing fixtures in one of the four serving tables. The owner surveyed the work in progress and sounded confident that from the dust would rise a grand dining room.
"We're looking for the wow effect," he said about the restaurant's size and design. Etched glass greets diners in the entryway and is used to accent the serving area. The dining room features two raised platforms and a private dining room.
"It looks like a lot of work, but once we get the carpet, we have a cleaning crew coming in," Lam, 40, added. Once the carpet's installed, workers can set up the tables and chairs and put the finishing touches on the kitchen and serving areas, he said.
Providing the city permits are approved by early next week, Lam said he could be open by Dec. 22 or 23.
Later this week, Lam said he plans to begin interviewing as many as 100 people for 80 positions.
Lam and his family have been working in restaurants since he was a child growing up in his mother's small Philadelphia Chinese restaurant.
"I had a bed in the kitchen," the Pennsylvania native said, recalling how he used to play in the kitchen and watch his mother and others cook.
After graduating from college, Lam worked several years for IBM on the East Coast before moving to Texas and teaming up on Lin's with his aunt and uncle, who also had owned a Chinese restaurant. The trio has two other outside partners, and Lam's brother is a part-owner and operator of two Texas locations.
Lam, who is still recovering from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in Phoenix last summer, said he is confident the south Tucson location will do well. The restaurant bookends the fast-growing Tucson Marketplace at The Bridges, which includes a the area's only Walmart and Costco, and a new 14-screen Cinemark movie theater that opened in November.
"If you're driving on the I-10 east to west, you can see us from the freeway," Lam said.
- By Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
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Every week day, chef Renee Eder would go to school with her grandma who worked in the cafeteria. When her grandma took her home in the afternoon, Eder would climb onto a stool alongside her to help cook the family meal.
Eder doesnβt need the stool anymore, but sheβs still cooking. Her new venture β with her husband of 23 years, Justin β is Island Plate Lunch, which held its grand opening Saturday.
The casual eatery, at the intersection of River and Craycroft roads near Whole Foods, serves up Hawaiian and Pan-Asian specialties, the kind the Eders ate as kids.
Both grew up in Hawaii β Renee in downtown Honolulu and Justin on Kauai β and Renee studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, going on to work in different restaurants as well as Michel Richardβs Central.
The French-born chef took Renee under his wing, but when the Eders decided to open their own place it wasnβt classical French cuisine they felt drawn to, but that taste of home, the quintessential Hawaiian plate lunch.
The Eders β who relocated to Tucson two years ago to be near their kids studying at the University of Arizonaβs medical school β have created a small, casual, well-lit space that serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner. Diners can start off the day with taro pancakes or Spam with eggs and rice.
Many of the products β check out the sweet Maui onion-flavored Hawaiian kettle-style potato chips by the register β are imported from the islands, Renee said.
Of course youβll find Kalua pork and loco moco on the lunch and dinner menus, but the island plate lunch also offers a poke bowl, which β Renee said β is not to be missed, along with Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, all built around pork belly.
βI love pork belly,β Renee said.
Sheβs even got a PB and J pork belly banh mi on the menu.
βItβs kind of unusual,β she said, βbut Iβm not normal.β
One thing you must know if youβre headed to Island Plate Lunch:
Be ready to eat. The portions are mighty.
βWeβre from Hawaii,β Justin said, smiling. βWe like to eat.β
- Gerald M. Gay
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A new food trailer, offering a cuisine that is hard to come by in Southern Arizona, is slated to launch in Tucson this weekend.
On Friday, The Curry Pot will set up shop in front of Tap & Bottle, 403 N. Sixth Ave., for lunch service (noon-4 p.m.) with food offerings inspired by the island nation of Sri Lanka.
The mobile eatery will have beef, chicken and vegetable curry combination plates for $9-$10. Samosas, quesadillas, basmati rice and farata flatbread are also on the menu.
Owner Amjaad Jhan said Sri Lankaβs proximity to India means that the two countries share similar dishes.
What sets Sri Lankan food apart, Jhan said, are the different spice blends (some of Jhan's ingredients in his dishes include turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom) and the use of coconut milk in their curries instead of yogurt.
Jhan was born in raised in Sri Lanka. He lived there until he was 21, at which time he went to live with his uncle in Los Angeles to pursue an education.
He moved to Tucson with his wife, Shuhana Jhan, in 2005.
Jhan, who has worked for 15 years in management at Trader Joe's locations in Tucson and California, said the lack of Sri Lankan-themed restaurants in Arizona is part of what inspired him to take on this venture.
βA lot of people donβt even know where Sri Lanka is,β Jhan said.
He was doubly encouraged by the Tucson communityβs positive reaction to food trucks with international cuisines, such as the Twisted Tandoor, which will soon be a brick-and-mortar dining destination; and Scott Safford, his former colleague at Trader Joe's, who opened the beer tasting room Tap & Bottle with his wife, Rebecca Safford, more than three years ago.
βSeeing (Scott) venturing out kind of open up the possibilities for me,β Jhan said. βIt made me think that maybe there was something I could do.β
Jhan said he hopes to build up to 15 menu items available at any given time, but is starting simple.
The Curry Pot will also be open for lunch at Tap & Bottle on Saturday and Sunday.
Visit the food trailer'sΒ Facebook page for more information.
- Andi Berlin
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A former funeral home in downtown Tucson is transforming into a swanky cocktail bar.
When it opens next month, Owls Club will be the anchor business in a larger project headed by Patricia and Ron Schwabe of Peach Properties. Along with developerΒ Marcel Dabdoub,Β Peach has invested nearly two million dollars into the purchase and renovation of the historic Bring Funeral Home at 236 S. Scott Ave.Β
The Schwabes, who own Penca, have enlisted the restaurant's bartender, Bryan Eichhorst, who has turned the gourmet Mexican spot downtown into one of Tucson's most innovative cocktail bars.Β
The team hopes to create a destination area on the cozy side street, bringing in local retailers, offices, an Exo Roast Co. coffee shop and even an escape room. (By next year they also hope to build out a late-night takeout kitchen run by Penca's chef Drew Burk, inside one of the garages on the south side of the building.)
Owls Club will be front and center, inside the former chapel on the ground floor. The 2,500-square-foot space will feature tables made from the original church pews, as well as a bar top made with repurposed wood from the recently-closed Chicago Music Store.
The concept, according to Eichhorst,Β is based on the original Owls Club at 378 N. Main Ave. In the early 1900s, the club served well-heeled bachelors working at the Tucson outpost of the Southern Pacific Railroad.Β
The group "had grown up in big cities, were wealthy, used to going out dining, going to see ballets," EichhorstΒ said. "Kind of uppity wealthy guys, to get off the stagecoach in a tuxedo and look around and thereβs nowhere to eat, thereβs nowhere to drink, thereβs nowhere to do anything.β
To solve their problem, they had an ornate mansion built by Tucson architect Henry Trost to hold wild dinner parties catered by the best chefs. It was called Owls Club because the parties would last late into the night, EichhorstΒ said. It wasΒ βour own little nice place out in the dirty west."
The modern Owls Club will feature a concise cocktail list of "complex originals," in addition to a well-curated selection of Old World wines and 8 beer taps. Eichhorst is also compiling a 100-strong whiskey list with everything from Buffalo Trace Benchmark bourbon at $2 a shot, to a 34-year old Port Ellen single malt at $6,000 a bottle. (There will also be a $2 beer offering, possibly Dixie from New Orleans.)Β
We're doing the "New York brown-and-stirred style, rather than bright, fresh acid-driven at Penca ... Something you sit and contemplate over, something introspective," he said.Β
The bar will also feature live music on a stage built where the pulpit of the chapel used to be. An additional lounge room with a TV and bookshelves will be a nice place for small parties.Β
Patricia is hoping the bar and community space will bring more locals south of Broadway, where downtown is just beginning to expand.Β
"We do have in downtown, some areas that are dead areas," said Patricia Schwabe.Β "They used to walk here and everything would be dark. Now it will be alive, and it will have a presence."
Other tenants coming in ...
- Tucson's Exo Roast Co. will sell locally-roasted coffee from in a small kiosk at the front of the building. There will also be a patio for outside seating.Β
- The locally-owned arts collaborative Creative Tribe Workshop will move into a studio on the second floor.Β
- An escape room called Ace of Escape will be upstairs in the original living quarters of the funeral home's caretaker. (It's the second location from TucsonansΒ Kathy Gehlert and business partner Allison Vivas.)
- Several "first-time local owners" will open retail spots in the garages by the parking lot.Β
Jersey Mikeβs Subs is opening in Oro Valley on Wednesday, Dec. 7 β the fourth location for brother and sister team Bob and Rosey Gregory.
And the pair isnβt finished yet. They have three shops coming in 2017, Bob Gregory said, including one in Sierra Vista.
The Jersey Mikeβs at 10592 N. Oracle Road at North First Avenue in Oro Valley is distributing 10,000 coupons to local business for free sandwiches to raise funds for Canyon del Oro High School. Coupon holders are asked to donate $2 per sandwich, Gregory said, and some of the money could benefit the schoolβs orchestra.
The store also is mailing coupons for free sandwiches to Oro Valley residents over the next several weeks, Bob Gregory said.
The Gregorys opened their first Jersey Mikeβs franchise in Tucson in 2014, about a year after Gregory sold his 11 Dominoβs franchises in the Four Corners region. Gregory, who was based out of Colorado, had been with Dominoβs for 32 years, and his sister had been his operations manager. The plan, he said, was to sell the pizza business and retire to warmer climes in Tucson. Then along came Jersey Mikeβs.
Instead of retiring, the Gregorys are fully vested in Jersey Mikeβs, with plans to open this summer in the Houghton Town Center at 9260 S. Houghton Road in Rita Ranch, and in Sierra Vista. Late next year, Gregory said he expects to open in the Bourn Cos. outdoor shopping center set to go up on Irvington Road, west of Interstate 19. The 58-acre center, near the Tucson Spectrum shopping center, has yet to break ground, although developers said they expect the first phase of what will be 600,000 square feet of retail space to open next fall.
The complete buildout will take 3Β½ years, according to earlier reports.
The Oro Valley restaurant will open at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Regular hours will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Jersey Mikeβs, launched in its namesake New Jersey in 1956, has 1,500 locations nationwide.
Other Tucson area locations include the Gregorysβ flagship at 3400 E. Speedway; 6501 E. Grant Road, opened a few months later in late 2014; and 5940 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive in Marana, which opened in early January.
- Andi Berlin
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Benny's Restaurant looks like it could be a Sonoran joint, or an antique store, or one of those midtown dive bars with the old signs and the dirt parking lots straddling the side of the street.
The Central Mexican restaurant sits in a pretty nondescript building on Grant Road, although it's been painted a lighter color since its blood red days as Fiorito's Italian. Inside, Benny's is homey and tan with a wall-mounted flatscreen TV playing YouTube ranchera mixes and episodes of the Mexican Voice. Β Β
If you're like all the other lunchers in the little place, you might be tempted to order the chimichangas or the carne asada platters with rice and refried beans. There's plenty of the sort. But I got a tip.Β I think you should get this:Β
These are called "Enchiladas Potosinas," $8.99, not to be confused with the familiar cheese, red beef and green chicken enchiladas elsewhere on the menu. The word Potosina refers to the North Central Mexican state of San Luis PotosΓ, where owner Irma Palomo is from.Β
A midsized Mexican plateau state with a mining economy and no coastline, San Luis PotosΓ is well-known for its fermented prickly pear drink coloncheΒ as well as its folded enchiladas, made from corn masa tinged with red chiles. (For a visual guide to some of the foods of San Luis PotosΓ, check out the photographic menu at this popular San Luis PotosΓ restaurant Rincon Huasteco.)Β Β
The story goes that Enchiladas Potosinas were an accident, the result of a cross-contamination at a local tortilla mill in the small town of Soledad. This mill also processed cascabel chiles, which ended up in local woman DoΓ±a Cristina Jalomo's masa ... to everyone's delight.Β
Because they're technically dry, the Enchiladas Potosinas look and taste more like tacos, spicy cheese-stuffed tacos with a 100 percent homemade masa. (That makes all the difference.) Palomo at Benny's is dedicated to making her masa from scratch, and it is indeed some of the best in town: hearty and soft with a touch of grittiness, texture, depth. My native-Arizonan lunch partners declared it was the best restaurant masa they've ever had. Β Β
Palomo also shies away from the fryer, leaving less grease in other Central Mexican staples like sandal-shaped huarachesΒ and circular sopes, $2.49. The latter are round and deep and pinched at the ends, cupping in the ground beef and silken refried beans, like a big edible hug.Β
Benny's also does gorditas, $2.49, (which I unfortunately have to clarify, bear no resemblance to their Taco Bell brethren). They are bready and crackly at the edges, filled with your choice of topping, shredded lettuce and a healthy dollop of lush Mexican cream.Β
But Benny's is also the only place in town that serves the mighty pambazo sandwich, $6.49 (pictured up top). It looks kinda like a torta, but it's technically not. The pambazo is actually dipped in a guajillo chile sauce until the spice penetrates the eggy bread, but the edges remain firm. Pambazos are typically stuffed with chorizo, potatoes and a handful of lettuce that spills out the edges. It is messy to eat, but of course, it's definitely worth it.Β
Benny's Mexican Restaurant is at 2702 E. Grant Rd. Hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. 520-881-8841
- By Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
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GBarrio Breadβs bricks-and-mortar bakery is officially open for business.
The popular crusty-on-the-outside-soft-and-chewy-on-the-inside artisan bread formerly available only through different distribution sites around town is now in one spot: 18 S. Eastbourne Ave. in Broadway Village.
Owner-baker Don Guerra officially opened Nov. 26 β that day inventory sold out well before the 5 p.m. closing time. He and his small squad of bakers have been turning out about 500 loaves a day.
βItβs a lot of bread,β Guerra said. βItβs so crazy right now.β
Before setting up shop in the old Sugar Sweet Bakery location, Guerra maxed out at 900 loaves a week made in his home bakery, which operated under the stateβs cottage industry food law. Subscribers to Barrioβs online store would then pick up their loaves at different locations around town.
Barrio β which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or until the bread is sold out Tuesdays-Saturdays β features a sleek Italian deck oven, which is front-and-center so customers can watch production.
βTheyβre just kind of in awe because they havenβt seen this style of bakery,β Guerra said.
The bread selection changes daily, and loaves average about $6. Find a daily bread menu at barriobread.com or call 327-1292.
Spokane, Washington-based Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar is heading to Tucson in what will be its most ambitious and farthest-flung restaurant in its 15-year history.
The chain, which has a location outside Portland, Oregon, and another 15 miles outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, is heading to Tucson Mall. Twigs will take up residence in the 8,700-square-foot space that has stood empty since Brio Tuscan Grille called it quits in spring 2013.
βWeβve looked at the Arizona market for a long time, in Phoenix and Scottsdale and Gilbert, and we had an opportunity that came aboutβ at the Tucson Mall, said owner Trevor Blackwell, whose company has worked in the past with Tucson Mall owners General Growth Properties.
βWeβve got a good relationship with them, and they are a good partner of ours,β he said.
Tucson will be Twigsβ 10th location and its largest. Blackwell said most of their restaurants run between 6,500 and 8,000 square feet.
Construction barricades and a big βcoming soonβ sign went up weeks ago around the cavernous building at 150 W. Wetmore Road, directly behind The Cheesecake Factory and next to the REI outdoor store. Demolition will begin in mid-December, and Blackwell estimates it will take three months for the build-out that will include expanding the bar, installing new flooring, redesigning the dining room and creating smaller private dining spaces.
βIt will have a completely different feel,β Blackwell said.
Twigs could open by late March or early April.
Blackwell and his wife, Jayne, and father, Jeff, started Twigs in 2001 at a mall in Spokane. The family had operated a number of fast-food restaurants, but Blackwell said they jumped at the chance to create a bar/restaurant concept in the mallβs food court.
The name was inspired by a designer doodling a drawing of the bar on a cocktail napkin. The design included twigs and tree limbs shooting out of the bar. The name stuck.
Twigs serves a regional American menu that includes everything from a wasabi pea-crusted Ahi made with sashimi grade yellow fin tuna as an appetizer to pork osso bucco and crab mac and cheese on the dinner menu, alongside pastas and pizzas, including a Polynesian with mango chile sauce and shredded Kalua pork.
Twigsβ drink menu includes 36 signature martinis and a host of craft cocktails and wine.
Blackwell said Twigs restaurants are mostly established in so-called medium markets like Tucson and βwe seem to do wellβ in those areas.
Coming to Tucson is βa unique opportunity. We like the area. We like the Tucson Mall,β Blackwell said. βI think itβll be a good fit for us.β
- Andi Berlin
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You may know Linh NguyenΒ as the Broadway banh mi guy. His food truck Vina Baguette has a reputation for its tasty Vietnamese sandwiches, served in the parking lot of the Axis liquor store.Β
Now, he's got a space of his own ... VinaΒ Vietnamese Street FoodΒ opened last week at 4230 N. Oracle Rd., in the Home Depot parking lot. That space has been home to a number of concepts including Jason's Mexican Food most recently, but Nguyen has made it his own by painting the walls a bright red.
He's also expanded the menu to include Vietnamese soups like beef pho and a harder-to-find spicy beef soup Bun Bo Hue with brisket swimming in a sour orangey broth. There are also 13 types of bubble tea on the menu with interesting flavors like papaya, red bean and pomegranate. On my visit I tried a taro boba smoothie, which wasn't nearly as sweet as I gathered when I saw it was bright purple.Β
The hallmark of new menu is actually the build-your-own Vietnamese plate. You start off with either vermicelli noodles, white rice, steamed veggies or a green leaf salad. Then you add your protein:Β chicken, beef, garlic shrimp, lemongrass tofu or in my case a perfectly charred barbecue pork. Finally, you choose your toppings, like basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, etc.Β
I got mine "Classic Vietnamese style," aka a little bit of everything (pictured up top). The cold Vermicelli noodles were perfectly executed with some addicting crispy shallots on top that gave it all a salty crunch.Β
Vina is open 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 7 p.m. Sundays. Go check it out!Β
- Andi Berlin
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The buzzworthy Arizona diner Bisbee Breakfast Club is set to open its fifth location Monday morning at the historic Broadway Village shopping center. The local chain has taken over the airy art deco building at 2936 Broadway, the former home of Table Talk as well as a weekly farmers market.Β
This location β the third in Tucson βΒ will also feature a standalone coffee shop Ombre Coffee, which brews beans roasted at the Breakfast Club's Ina Road store. Ombre Coffee is part of a burgeoning wholesale operation headed up by co-ownerΒ Terry Kyte.Β
While the diner portion closes at 2 p.m., Ombre Coffee will remain open until 9 p.m. every night. Depending on the needs of the neighborhood, the shop may offer single-origin beans and pourover coffee in the future, Kyte said.Β
The diner is part of a larger project to build up Arizona's first shopping center into destination spot, to create a "community" feel with local restaurants and retailers like the vegan ice cream shop Cashew Cow. Later this year, the 1960s building will also house a bakery by Don Guerra of Barrio Bread. Co-managers Commercial Retail Investors are also looking into tenants for the building's one remaining space.Β
Bisbee Breakfast Club on Broadway will feature the same menu as the other locations, but will also have a liquor license. The diner will serve mimosas and the Signature BBC Bloody Mary topped with cheese curds, house pickled green beans and more. The Breakfast Club is the second vintage diner to open on Broadway this month, after Welcome Diner opened in the Chaffin's spot at 902 E. Broadway.Β
TIP: The diner officially opens on Monday, but starting its soft opening today. Check them out this week if you want to avoid the crowds.Β
Hours will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day.Β
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A new breakfast spot on Tucson's east side is filling the void left behind by Laniβs Luau.
The Cozy Corner CafΓ© opened last month in the Hawaiian restaurant's old home at 2530 S. Harrison Road.
The restaurant is a family affair. Zacharias Rodriquez and his fiancee Lisa Ann Sopher run the operation with help from Lisaβs mom Patricia Sopher and Rodriquezβ best friend Josh Urias working in the kitchen.
East-side diners may notice some familiar faces in the mix. Lisa worked at Joeβs Pancake House on South Kolb Road for 15 years. Patricia was a waitress at Joeβs for more than 20 years.
Rodriquez, whose background is in real estate, said he and Urias, who served as general manager at Risky Business on East Tanque Verde Road for a decade, had talked about starting a restaurant for years.
βWe were all ready for a change,β Rodriquez said. βIt was just a matter of putting the pieces together.β
Cozy Corner is a mix of traditional diner fare, breakfast and lunch dishes such as steak and eggs ($8.95), biscuits and gravy ($5.85) and a club sandwich for $8.95.
Hatch green chiles can be found in several dishes, a reflection on Rodriquezβ New Mexico upbringing.
βWe had a Hatch green chile Philly that was introduced last weekend,β he said. βWe sold out. People were interested.β
Cozy Corner Cafe is open from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. Find out more about the restaurant at facebook.com/Thecozycornercafe/
- By Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The building has some pretty old bones, but the menu and the vibe scream 2016.
Hereβs what to expect from Phoenix-based Welcome Diner, which opened Tuesday evening, Oct. 4, at 902 E. Broadway:
Retro-chic design
βDesigned in 1964 by Santa Barbara architect Ronald Bergquist, in Googie style, the geometric asymmetrical diner is an American classic,β says the website for Tucson Modernism Week (which runs through Oct. 8). Googie, popular in the 1960s, is futurist architecture influenced by the Space Age.
The building first housed a Samboβs Restaurant and was Chaffinβs Diner from 2000 to December 2015.
Welcome Dinerβs overhaul of the building was done by local firm Repp + Mclain Design and Construction, which aimed to restore the original look using the idea of βaddition by subtraction.β
The waiting room/antechamber has been completely removed to restore the building to its original shape. Wooden benches have been added to the patio out front.
The acoustic tile ceiling has been stripped out to reveal light brown βglulamβ (glued laminated timber) beams.
To play off the beams, Repp + Mclain installed the same type of wood on the bar counter and tabletops. Chaffinβs iconic red highlights have been changed to a sky-blue color scheme, but you can still see the old red tiles from Chaffinβs in a line on the back wall.
The bathrooms and back room have been spruced up, and a back patio is coming soon.
Fancy food,
fun cockt
ails
The menu features a mix of gourmet and casual, with entree prices ranging from $8 (fried chicken and cheddar on a biscuit) to $28 (steak Roquefort).
There are sandwiches and burgers; mac-and-cheese with optional add-ons including Brussels sprouts; Southwestern-Southern mashups such as grits with green chili and roasted okra, or chile rellenos with hot pimento cheese; grilled romaine and corn salad; steamed clams in lemongrass broth; bone-in pork chop; and poutine fries, including vegan poutine made with tropical jackfruit β for some examples.
If youβre adventurous, order the cured sardines and toast. The mellow fish comes dotted with radish sprouts and a light foam made from local Fiore di Capra goat cheese.
Cocktails go from whiskey sour to the fussy Frappe GΓΌey with St. George absinthe, creosote and local nut milk. An early favorite is the classic hurricane rum punch, which was simple but well-balanced and tart.
For now, Welcome Diner is open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day. The team plans to add brunch and lunch service in the future.
- Andi Berlin
- Updated
The name sounds like a coffee shop or a hip-hop dance studio. Solid Grindz ...
But this southside restaurant makes Hawaiian plate lunches, the ubiquitous island meal of barbecued meat with white rice and creamy macaroni salad. So, what??
According to co-ownerΒ Michelle Mejia,Β the name actually comes from Hawaiian slang.Β Grindz is another word for food (as in, "let's go get some grindz"). And solid is, well, good. Mejia owns the restaurant with her niece's husband Tap Gaoteote Jr., who is originally from the South Pacific islands of Samoa.
The two had been operating a food truck Solid Grindz at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base since 2014. (Tap is in the military reserves.) But when Erik DuongΒ of the Snow Peas Modern Asian Kitchen told them he was closing shop to move to New Zealand with his wife, they jumped at the chance to open up a restaurant.Β
After all, they already knew the space. It was so close to the base, they'd been using it as a commissary kitchen to cook the plate lunches and wings they sold from the food truck.Β The two signed the papers on August 30 and opened the restaurant at 1402 S. Craycroft Road on Sept. 6.Β Tap asked friends from Hawaii and Samoa to help man the kitchen.Β
The menu right now is a continuation of the goodies from the food truck, but as it gets colder, they'll add heartier fare like oxtail soup and Portuguese sausage. (And as a sendoff to them, they've also kept the pho and pad Thai recipes from Snow Peas on the menu.)
If you go, make sure to order the kalbi beef short ribs with meat butchered from El Vaquero Meat Market nearby, and also the panko breaded Bang shrimp. It's perfectly fried and smothered with a creamy sweet sauce similar to Chinese walnut shrimp. (The mac salad is also choice.)Β
Solid Gridnz' grand opening is Sept. 24. The duo also does catering orders, which would be perfect for Wildcats vs. Hawaii game this Saturday night.Β
Opening hours are 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Closed on Sundays. CallΒ 867-8040 for more info.Β
- Andi Berlin
- Updated
Brandon Katz had the idea floating around in his brain ... a gourmet restaurant that draws on "Southern values" like whole-hog cooking and sharing dishes family-style.
These are concepts the Tucson restaurateur he'd already been exploring at his downtown sushi restaurant Obon Sushi Bar and Ramen, but through a Japanese and Korean lens.
Then Daniel Thomas came around, a young Le Cordon Bleu graduate who cut his teeth with Virginia Wooters at The Abbey and more recently headed up the kitchen at 47 Scott. Katz knew he had to make a move.
His companyΒ Fukushu Restaurant ConceptsΒ will open its latest effort, Bird Southern Table and Bar, this November in the space that once held Frogs Organic Bakery,Β 7109 North Oracle Road. Thomas will head up the kitchen, putting a "cheffy spin" on Southern favorites like pot pies, cauliflower grits and of course, fried chicken.Β
"If they're gonna use a chicken, they're gonna use as much of the chicken as they can," Katz says. "We want to try to take out a garden and use the vegetables. ... We'll have an amazing salad program."
Despite being a little over a mile from Tucson's other gourmet Southern restaurant The Parish, Katz thinks they can bring something unique to the north-side restaurant game.
"We're not going to take it to the extreme like Travis is doing at the Parish, with the (obscure) game that he uses ... We'll focus onΒ polished, casual service ... We want it to be very approachable."
To switch up the French bakery vibe in the current building, Katz enlisted the help of A23 Studios as well as his business partner/designer AndrΓ© Joffroy. They plan to do a "complete overhaul" with natural reclaimed woods and an indoor-outdoor bar flanking the patio. Β
Katz has also recently brought on Obon's chef Paulo Im and bartenderΒ Matt MartinezΒ as partners in Fukushu. The two will act as corporate chef and mixologist, overseeing all the company's concepts.
In addition to Obon, Goodness and now Bird, the team also has another project in the works: In January they'll openΒ Duck and Cover, a 'music-driven, elevated dive bar' in the basement of the former Chicago Music Store,Β 130 E. Congress.
- By Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Bin An is no stranger to the restaurant biz.
By the time he was 11 years old, he was already washing dishes, busing tables, pulling host duties.
βI know the business, I know it well,β said An, 43. βI know the Tucson clientele, and they definitely know me.β
Yup, the name An is certainly familiar around here.
Anβs father is legendary local restaurateur Kwang C. An, who opened his first eatery here in 1983 after a disappointing meal at one of the cityβs few Asian places. He went on to own several restaurants.
Bin An plans to open his own Asian fusion restaurant at the corner of Broadway and Sixth Avenue in the ground-floor of Tucson Electric Powerβs nine-story downtown headquarters.
βI love whatβs happening downtown right now,β said Bin, whoβs opening the eatery with his wife, Ginny. βI wanted to be a part of that. Itβs a beautiful building, great location.β
MiAn Sushi & Asian Bistro will occupy about 4,900 square feet and feature two patios as well as a private dining area. Inside will seat 160 diners while the outside area will handle about 80 to 90 people, said Bin, who signed the paperwork two weeks ago. He also plans to offer valet parking to make downtown dining easier for customers.
The menu will feature sushi, Japanese noodles and some Chinese fusion.
βItβll have some traditional Asian fare, but a lot of it is going to be newer, different, something that doesnβt exist here in Tucson right now,β Bin said. βWeβre trying to modernize Asian cuisine a little more.β
Bin expects to submit plans to the city next week and hopes the restaurant will open in late December.
βEverybody is working full time night and day right now to get everything done,β he said.
John Foster of Katalyst Restaurant Concepts is creating MiAnβs sleek, modern look.
βItβs going to be an eye-catching restaurant as you go by Broadway,β Bin said. βYouβll definitely notice it.β
Bin is the oldest of Anβs three biological sons β maybe you remember the TV ads for Sakura restaurant featuring Mr. An and his βNo. 1 son,β former Arizona Diamondbacks player Luis Gonzalez?
He had a restaurant in Scottsdale from 2000-2004 called Sapporo. He left to come back to Tucson and the family restaurant business. Kwang An sold Sakura in 2008 and now has Mr. Anβs Teppan Steak, Sushi & Seafood on North Oracle Road.
As for the restaurantβs name, it has a double meaning. βMianβ is the Chinese word for noodles, but itβs also the nickname of Bin Anβs 2-year-old daughter Misha. βShe calls herself βMimi An,ββ he explained. βSheβs learning to talk. Itβs kinda cute.β
As darling as she is, Bin has no plans to teach her the restaurant ropes just yet.
βSheβs rather rambunctious,β he said, with a laugh. βI donβt think diners would appreciate having her around. She likes to play and sheβs loud.β
- Andi Berlin
- Updated
The sprawling Macayo's building on Oracle Road had been on and off the market for years, but this time Emma Vera was ready. When the aging property at 7360 N. Oracle Road went on sale this year, she jumped at the chance to open a second location for her flagship restaurant Guadalajara Original Grill.Β
She'll call this location Guadalajara Original Grill North. (This is to differentiate her business at 1220 E. Prince Road from those of her ex-husbandΒ Seth Holzman, who owns the Guadalajara Mexican Grill at 4901 E. Broadway and Guadalajara Fiesta Grill at 750 N. Kolb Road.)Β
Vera plans to spend several months cleaning up the space, and will hopefully open by the first of November.
"It's a really pretty building, it's just been awhile since they've touched it up," she said. "We're going to reconstruct the inside, bring the walls down, ... redo the bar. It's gonna have a really nice new feeling."
Macayo's, which is part of a Phoenix chain of restaurants with one other Tucson location, had been in that building since the early '80s, Vera said. It closed last month. At 8,000 square feet, the building is substantially bigger than even her Guadalajara Original Grill. But Vera doesn't seem to be nervous.Β
"I am so excited to be on Oracle, and being at an intersection that's busy. ... Just being there, it advertises itself."
It will be her third restaurant, in addition to the casual taqueria Calle Tepa at 6151 E. Broadway. In the future, Vera is also thinking of opening another Calle Tepa, possibly in Oro Valley.Β
Guadalajara Original Grill North will sport the same food and drink menu as her original, with tableside salsa and a sizable margarita list. There will be a hiring fair about six weeks before the opening. Vera plans to hire about 55 people.Β
For opening news and general info, follow the restaurant on Facebook at facebook.com/GuadalajaraOriginalGrill
- Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Dakota Bar & Grill in Trail Dust Town is now Rounders Grill.
But aside from some different decor and a new poker theme to the menu, the dog-friendly restaurant at 6541 E. Tanque Verde Road is virtually unchanged. The menu maintains most of Dakotaβs popular favorites while βinfusing a new take on burgers and sliders with a poker theme,β restaurant officials wrote to longtime customers.
The restaurantβs owner remains the same and Rounders will honor all Dakota certificates, gift cards and coupons, and while the popular βBirthday Clubβ is temporarily on hold, you can still get free eats on your special day by showing an ID. The birthday club picks back up in October.
Rounders is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
- Andi Berlin
- Updated
Dove Mountain's airy Mexican restaurant Lo Esencial is currently undergoing a remodel and will reopen as a brewpub in the next few months. The new Dove Mountain Brewing Co. will feature local craft brews as well as five to six private label beers.
When it opens, the building at 12130 N. Dove Mountain Blvd.Β will sport a "rustic ambiance" with a brick facade and stainless steel vats, according to an email sent out by the restaurant. The space will also serve food.Β
This is the second concept change for the restaurant in the last few years. OwnerΒ Kinney Johnson ran the space as Dove Mountain Grill for nearly five years, until he transformed it into Lo Esencial in December of 2013.Β
Follow Dove Mountain Brewing Co.'s Facebook page for more updates on the new concept.Β
A growing national trend is coming to Tucson: using boxcars as bars and restaurants.
Local developers are set to start craning shipping containers onto an empty, 12,000-square-foot lot along Fourth Avenue. The Boxyard will house four restaurants with communal dining space and two bars, said Brenndon Scott, one of the developers.
Ten containers will be arranged on the site at 238 N. Fourth Ave. The restaurantβs kitchens will be housed in 20-foot containers and the bars in double-stacked 40-foot containers. Other containers will serve as indoor seating around a courtyard. The outdoor area will be temperature-controlled and have shade structures.
βThere will be a lot of interesting colors and concepts,β Scott said, βsurrounded by great trees and shade.β
A small old building on the site will be preserved and repurposed at the request of the neighborhood, Scott said.
The inspiration for the project came from visiting other boxcar venues around the country.
βThe rise in popularity of shipping-container concepts underscores our competitive and quick-changing society,β says Trend Hunter, a website that tracks real estate trends. βThe temporary nature of these shops is a valuable aspect of the business model.
βAn element of exclusivity and time-sensitivity is the novelty aspect that attracts people.β
Scott plans to capitalize on that and sign only one-year leases with restaurants so the cuisine is always changing.
The developers are in negotiations with several restaurants, Scott said.
The liquor license is for the property as a whole and the two bars will operate independently from the restaurants. But they will be stocked to complement the food.
All restaurants will be local.
βItβs a very interesting and exciting concept, and itβll be a nice addition to a significantly underutilized lot,β said Fred Ronstadt, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.
βItβs nice to see infill projects and the public embracing the cityβs center as a destination.β
He said projects such as the Boxyard, which he hopes will draw a lot of foot traffic, feel like a reward for the merchants who toughed it out during the downturn and construction of the streetcar route.
βThe merchants along the streetcar alignment β specifically Fourth Avenue merchants β are heroes,β Ronstadt said. βThey believed in the revitalization of the cityβs center, and a lot of them sacrificed a lot during construction.β
Scott said he knew Fourth Avenue was where he wanted to open. Scott, a native of Tucson and graduate of Tucson High and the University of Arizona, spent many years in commercial real estate before going into the bar business.
He recently sold one of his bars but still owns the Bashful Bandit on Speedway.
βThis is the best entertainment walking district, linking up with downtown and the university,β he said. βItβs a unique and exciting spot for us.β
The site will only have a handful of parking spots, but a large area for bicycle parking.
The Boxyard got a variance from the city because it is in the redevelopment district. An open space will house events, such as yoga classes or concerts, and a bocce ball court.
There will be enough seating for about 150. For concerts, it will accommodate up to 200 .
Barring any hiccups, the Boxyard is expected to open by the end of the year.
βThe shipping container wins in terms of practicality,β says Trend Hunter.
βIdle shipping containers can be repurposed for tangible use and the industrial look is both mod and rad in contemporary design circles.β
- Andi Berlin / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Senae Thai Bistro isΒ bringing the vibrant cuisine of Thailand's capital Bangkok to downtown Tucson.Β
On July 7 it opened up in the former On a Roll Sushi building at 63 E. Congress, which had been vacant since last July.Β DeeΒ Buizer, who owns the restaurant with her husband Jim,Β has been in the restaurant business since 1987Β and also owns Basil Thai restaurant in San Francisco. Her family members also own the swank Soi 4 restaurants in Scottsdale and Oakland, California.Β
Senae tilts toward the gourmet side, with upscale menu items like grilled lamb chops in coconut curryΒ Kae Yang ($25), and duck breast with lemongrass-shiitake mushrooms Pbed TakaiΒ ($21). Check out Senae's website for restaurant hours and a full menu.Β
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The guys behind Choice Greens and Graze are at it again ... this time with a full-service restaurant up at Oracle and Ina Roads.Β
Truland Burgers & GreensΒ opened in early July at 7332 N. Oracle Road in the space that used to hold La Mia Toscana. OwnersΒ Paolo DeFilippis and Jeff Katz are drawing from the menus of their two existing concepts, with freshly chopped salads and premium burgers from Niman andΒ Double Check Ranch.
In addition, Truland is also making its own twice-fried Belgian French fries fromΒ Kennebec potatoes (fried in non-GMO rice bran oil). The restaurant designed by FORS Architecture + InteriorsΒ also has a bar with beer and wine on tap, as well as an outdoor patio. And milkshakes!Β
- Andi Berlin / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Buzzy brunch spot Prep & Pastry opened its second location on Grant and Wilmot roads on July 5, and judging by its Instagram photos the space is the best thing since sliced bread.Β
The team worked with a.23 Studios to construct aΒ 6,000-square footΒ building on an empty lot east of Zinburger at 6450 E. Grant Road. (The building also houses a Sauce Pizza and Wine, which opened last month.)
While the menu here's the same, the vibe is minimalist and summery chic, with an open ceiling and industrial track lights.
If you haven't made it over there yet, check out these photos and swoon:Β
ΒITS TODAY! Prep & Pastry is officially on the east side!! #prepandpastryeast #prepandpastry
A photo posted by @prepandpastry on Jul 5, 2016 at 8:57am PDT
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ΒHere we go! Are you feeling PREPared? #prepandpastryeast
A photo posted by @prepandpastry on Jun 28, 2016 at 12:55pm PDT
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ΒOnly a few more days until our grand opening! #prepandpastryeast
A photo posted by @prepandpastry on Jul 2, 2016 at 12:52pm PDT
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Hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. For more information, call the Grant location at 520-838-0809.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
You've seen them on Pinterest. But lately, these dainty little French cookies have been a faraway fantasy for most Tucsonans.
A new UA-area shop is bringing them back to town. Woops Bakeshop isΒ a national concept with more than a dozen locations around the New York area. Tucson sisters Ellie andΒ Naomi LippelΒ are bringing one to Main Gate Square, setting up in the former Finally Made clothing shop at 845 E. University Blvd., Suite 145. Β Β Β
Woops specializes in those brightly colored meringue cookies that crackle and dissolve in your mouth like sweet little rain clouds. The delicate Parisian puffs have become super trendy in bigger cities, where they've even been called "the new cupcake." (You used to be able to get them up north at the now-closed Frogs Organic Bakery, but I haven't seen them in awhile. Have you?)
Stay tuned for more info on Woops, including an opening date ...
Other changes coming to University Blvd.
- Everyone's favorite "food-in-a-cup" restaurant Cup it Up American Grill will open its second location at the recently-closed Silver Mine Subs, 760 N. Tyndall Ave. (Devoted Silver Mine fans can still go to location at 4280 N. Oracle Road.) Cup it Up should be open in the fall.Β
- The popular pizza joint No Anchovies has closed for the summer to undergo a big remodel, according to a note on its Facebook page. It should be open by the Fall semester as well.Β
Casa Valencia Seafood Bar & Grill will open a second location at the former North Campbell Avenue home of Yoshimatsu Healthy Japanese Eatery.
The south side restaurantβs owner could not be reached to comment, but employees confirmed the new restaurant will move into the 4,000-square-foot space at 2660 N. Campbell Ave. that Yoshimatsu vacated in mid-March. Yoshimatsu is expected to open in a much smaller space across the street at 2741 N. Campbell Ave.
This week, Casa Valencia, 1825 W. Valencia Road, applied for a liquor license for the second location.
Yoshimatsu officials could not be reached Monday to comment, The restaurantβs website said the opening would be in summer 2016.
The Screamery ice cream shop opened its second location on Speedway April 7 and a 3rd downtown in early June.Β
Owner Kenny SarnoskiΒ opened up shop in the former Headquarters Hookah at 2545 E. SpeedwayΒ next door to Alibaba Mediterranean Restaurant, and in the old Buffalo Exchange atΒ 250 E. Congress.Β
Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Sarnoski said he anticipates opening four or five Screamery shops in the Tucson area with wife/business partner, Linda Sarnoski.Β
βEverybody loves it,β he said of Screameryβs handcrafted ice creams that start with custom, in-house pasteurized cream. βJust being so far east is a bummer for most of Tucson and we want to be able to service as many people with our product as we can.β
The Screamery opened in summer 2014 at 50 S. Houghton Road. In September it started selling pre-packaged pints retail through Whole Foods markets in Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff.
- Andi Berlin / Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
An off-the-beaten-path sushi joint calledΒ IOU SushiΒ is slated to open near the Tucson Mall in the next few months.
The name sounds like it's a reference to "Dumb and Dumber," but it's actually a foreign wordΒ from the tiny island PohnpeiΒ in the South Pacific. (In theΒ Pohnpeian language, it's pronounced e-yo and means "delicious," according to IOU's website.)Β
IOU Sushi's owner Rocketchun Holden was raised in the South Pacific, but currently operates two of these sushi restaurants in Boise, Idaho. Menu items at the Idaho locations include a Nan Madol roll with crystal shrimp, seared tuna and crab, as well as a Snow Corn roll with baked red snapper.Β
The restaurant is going into the Home Depot parking lot at 4280 N. Oracle Road, Suite 180.Β
A former 1950s-era gas station near the University of Arizona is to become a beach-themed taco and burger restaurant this fall.
For passers-by, Jimmy Hulaβs will vaguely remind them of the two-pump service station and auto shop that has sat on the corner of North Fourth Avenue and East University Boulevard since the early 1950s, an anchor of the north end of the business district. But inside the 1,900-square-foot building at 802 N. Fourth Ave., youβll think youβre beachfront, with brightly painted walls, palm fronds draped above the bar, photos of Bob Marley and surfboards hanging on the walls.
The restaurantβs owners, David Blair of Tucson and Jim Onken of Phoenix, will keep the exterior intact, including the garage doors on the repair bays, according to plans approved on April 28 by the Tucson-Pima County Historic Commission. In an email interview, Blair said the old metal garage doors will be replaced by glass, and a sail-themed covered patio will be added.
βThe only true modifications will be aesthetic in nature,β said Blair, a longtime homebuilder in Tucson.
The idea is to maintain the integrity of the building, whose first resident was Fourth Avenue Tire & Service Station from the early 1950s through the early β70s, according to city directories from the time. The building also was home to Wendt West Auto Enterprises in the 1980s and, as late as 2009, the Fourth Avenue Service Station.
The building lies outside of the West University Historic Zone, which includes buildings built in the 1930s and earlier. The zone is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which establishes development standards and design guidelines for new construction and alterations of existing historic buildings, according to city officials.
Plans by Blair and Onken, who also is a homebuilder, call for remodeling the interior of the building and adding a bar, kitchen and dining areas.
βThe interior will be completely remodeled and look like a restaurant, not like a service station,β Blair said. βIt is a fun, casual, relaxed atmosphere; order at the counter, food delivered to your table in seven to eight minutes. Average cost probably $10 per person.β
Jimmy Hulaβs is known for its array of fish tacos topped with everything from guacamole and street corn to pineapple mango salsa and coleslaw, and towering burgers including the popular Burnt Reynolds topped with bacon, egg and Layβs potato chips. The restaurant chain also serves craft beers and cocktails at its nine Florida locations, including its Winter Park flagship that opened in 2011; a 10th Florida location is to open soon.
Tucson will have the second of the chainβs restaurants outside of the Sunshine State; an outpost opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in February.
Blair said neither he nor Onken, whose two daughters attend the University of Arizona, have extensive restaurant experience. But βin another lifeβ both worked for Intrawest Resorts, a Canadian resort management company whose properties include Coloradoβs popular Steamboat Ski Resort. Blair also spent time years ago working for a restaurant, he said.
The Fourth Avenue Merchants Association says itβs too early to tell if Jimmy Huluβs will fit in with the eclectic nature of the avenue, whose only other chain restaurant is a locally owned Dairy Queen. The avenue, known for its hipster chicness, is a mix of mostly independently owned shops and restaurants including Food Conspiracy Co-Op, The Hippie Gypsy, several of the cityβs most popular night clubs including OβMalleyβs, The Hut and Cheβs Lounge, and one of the cityβs oldest eateries, Carusoβs Italian Restaurant, which has been on North Fourth Avenue for more than 75 years.
β(I) canβt think of a better Tucson location and am confident it will fit in,β Blair said. βTucson is becoming β or arguably has been β a good food town. Tucson likes Mexican dishes, people like fish, throw in a great location and good proximity to the UA, and Jimmy Hulaβs felt Tucson was a natural fit.β
Only time will tell if Jimmy Hulaβs is a fit, says Fred Ronstadt, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.
βWe love the eclectic nature of this part of Tucson. Everything happens on Fourth Avenue,β he said. βI think over time the avenue has evolved. I donβt know if Jimmy Hulaβs will succeed or not, or if the community will embrace it.β
But he said that after years of the building being vacant, βI think anybody would be excited to see a property thatβs been underutilized, undervalued, to be utilized.β
βI certainly think revitalizing any part of Fourth Avenue thatβs vacant or empty has a benefit for the whole avenue,β added Carusoβs general manager Salvatore Zagona Jr., the grandson of founder Nicasio Zagona.
Blair said he and Onken are completing the kitchen design and will soon submit their plans to the city. They hope to get the necessary city approvals in June so they can begin work. They hope to open in mid-September, he said.
βThis time next year, I am confident (Jimmy Hulaβs) will be a very popular Fourth Avenue destination,β Blair said.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tucson is about to get its first Louisiana crab boil restaurant, a lively style of Cajun cooking where servers bring out plastic bags of seafood that you rip open at the table.
The small chain Angry Crab Shack will open its first location outside of the Phoenix area later this summer. Co-owner Daniel Sevilla says the business is moving into the building that once held Las Cazuelitas at Grant Road and the I-10 freeway. The spot should open at 1365 W Grant Road in August or early September.Β
Angry Crab Shack currently boasts six locations in Phoenix, Mesa, Peoria and more. The Tucson restaurant will feature the same ambience and menu as those up north: Patrons order their seafood items by the pound, then customize the bags with different sauces and heat levels like Angry Ghost and Scorching Scorpion. Bibs aren't required, but you're gonna want one ...
"For people that haven't been there, it brings a really fun dining experience," Sevilla said. "Everything is basically head on: You peel and eat shrimp, you crack the crab, live lobsters, Dungeness crab. It's a lot of seafood you don't normally see."
The co-owner of the three-year old company says he was inspired by his trips to New Orleans, where people hold "low-country crab boils" in their backyards. When the former restaurant consultant moved to Phoenix from Los Angeles, he realized there was a lack of casual fresh seafood restaurants there.Β
For this location, Sevilla decided to enlist the help of a local franchisee Mark Guevara. If all goes well by next year Sevilla is hoping to expand across the country in cities like Atlanta and Chicago.Β
The Tucson location will have a full bar with Southern cocktails like the famous New Orleans Hurricane, as well as local craft beers from Barrio Brewing Co. and Dragoon Brewing Co. Seafoods like crawfish, clams and blue crab will be sourced from Trident Seafoods, while the creative hot sauces will come from a Phoenix operation Sonoran Spice Company. All food waste will be sent to a program called Recycle City that turns it into compost for community gardens.Β
"Restaurants usually create all this waste," Sevilla said. "We're trying to make sure we're changing the whole mindset, and making sure we're responsible."
- Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Sauce's new location on Grant Road is officially making pizza.
And salad and pasta and sandwiches.
The fourth Tucson location for the fast, casual eatery is 6450 E. Grant Road, near Zinburger and in the same building as the second location for Prep & Pastry, also set to open this month.
Sauce hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Sauce β owned by Scott Kilpatrick and Todd Belfer, who bought the the chain from Fox Restaurant Concepts in January 2015 β has a dozen locations in Tucson and Phoenix.
The once popular Indian food truck The Twisted Tandoor has joined Tucson restaurant group Jam Culinary Concepts, parent of Vero Amore and Noble Hops, and will soon have its own brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Plans arenβt finalized, but the restaurant is expected to open in midtown in late August or early September, said Suzanne Kaiser, an owner and partner in Jam with her sons Joshua and Aric Mussman.
Kaiser said the partnership comes two years after the company started working with Twisted Tandoorβs owners Roop and Mukhi Singh, who started the food truck in 2012. The Singhs were in the process of opening a temporary restaurant in summer 2015 when Mukhi Singh died of an apparent heart attack. He was 52.
Soon after joining forces in February, Vero Amore, the Mussman brothersβ Neapolitan pizzeria, started serving Indian style pizzas based on Roop Singhβs recipes. Singh described the pizzas as being similar to serving her savory chicken tikka masala on classic Indian naan.
Singh said the restaurant, to be called The Twisted Tandoor, will feature many of the popular dishes they served on the food truck among an expanded menu of Indian dishes, all using her recipes. The menu also could have Indian pizzas and sandwiches.
She said she will not be the chef in the kitchen β that was her husbandβs job during their food truck days β but she will follow her late husbandβs food philosophy: βThe most important thing will be that people like the food,β she said.
βItβs big shoes to step into when it comes to peopleβs expectations, when it comes to the reputation of The Twisted Tandoor,β she said. β(But) it will be fun, Iβm sure.β
Other news ...
Meanwhile, the Mussman brothers are in Salt Lake City this week working on renovations of a bar they bought in late December, Kaiser said. The bar, called Tinwell, is located in Salt Lake Cityβs bustling and thriving downtown area.
Kaiser said Tinwell will serve a limited food menu, but its main focus will be to serve alcohol.
βItβs a great old building from 1945 with tall ceilings and wood floors. Itβs going to be wonderful,β said Kaiser, who said the bar is open three nights a week while they completely renovate the space. βWe bought a dive bar and we thought we were going to make it into a restaurant, as well, but at this point itβs great as bar.β
Kaiser said they bought the building in December after the brothers fell in love with Salt Lake City during a visit for a family wedding. The building came with a liquor license, which was key; Utah law makes it hard to acquire a liquor license in a process that often takes at least a year, she said.
Jam has two locations of its Neapolitan pizzeria Vero Amore: 2920 N. Swan Road and 12130 N. Dove Mountain Blvd. in Marana. It also owns Noble Hops Craft Beer + Fine Fare at 1335 W. Lambert Lane in Oro Valley.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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In Tucson, it's actually very difficult to marinate slivers of pork shoulder in a fragrant red adobo paste for two days and then slow-roast it on a rotating spit topped with a pineapple.Β
The local health department usually frowns on these sort of things, and when Leopoldo "Polo" Moreno applied for a permit to open an al pastor restaurant three years ago, he was rejected. So he took his trompoΒ down to the Tohono O'Odham Swapmeet, a weekend market near Casino del Sol where vendors sell everything from Salvadoran pupusas to pig skin boiled in copper pots.Β
Polo is from MichoacΓ‘n and Mexico City, where spit-roasted al pastor is very common. After the style developed in the early 1900s from the skewered lamb shawarma of Lebanese immigrants, it spread throughout Mexico and became sort of a national dish. You can find the spits all the way up in Sonora, spinning like lighthouses guiding your way to late-night taco trucks in Rocky Point ... drippy monoliths of meat in Nogales, smooth and fatty or small and flappy. Β
But seventy miles across the border, they're practically nonexistent. Yes lots of Tucsonans claim they serve al pastor, but unless it's cooked on the spit it's really just pork adobada, Polo says. (Although I did recently spot a miniature spinning trompo downtown at Street Taco & Beer Co.) Usually the difference between al pastor and adobada is rather subtle. But real taco lovers, they can tell.
Even though the cards were stacked against him, the former Arizona miner kept trying to get his permit to operate in Tucson ... and finally it paid off. Polo opened his brick and mortar restaurant Polo's Taqueria earlier this month in a little west-side shopping center next to a gun shop and a dry cleaner. For the grand opening, he wheeled in an old karaoke machine and blared Mexican cumbias into the empty parking lot.Β
Inside, the space is actually pretty spiffy. The kitchen has been opened up since its days as a burrito buffet joint, so you can see the stately al pastor spinning around a backdrop of stainless steel paneling. The trompo is electric powered, and features a sanitary hood to keep out stray particles.
Polo prepares the pork shoulder himself every day, slicing the hunks into thin slivers and then slathering each with a paste of pasilla chiles, vinegar, orange, garlic and other spices. The meat must marinate for two full days before it's ready for the skewer. Then Polo props it up, placing a whole onion on the bottom for fragrance and then adding meat, onion slices, meat, onion slices ... In classic style, the pineapple goes on top so that it drips its sugary juices onto the roasting pork.Β
The heat coils on the trompo actually broil the meat from the outside, so that you're only cooking one layer at a time. Polo makes a quick cut about a quarter of an inch deep, and then slaps some pineapple on top. It's not an exact science: Our first order of al pastor tacos was cut fresh from the spit and came out a little softer. The second order of the day (yeah, we went back for more) had been crisped up on the flattop so it was crunchy and crackly. Β Β
I ate my al pastor in corn tortilla tacos, in lush corn masa sopes topped with salty queso and crema, and also in a fat puck of a burrito (a true Sonoran hybrid). I loved it all. The wisps of meat are completely infused with the peppery sauce, but have a delightful springy texture that sets them apart from adobada.Β
There are two special salsas made for the al pastor, which are both quite outstanding. A hit of the smoky red morita sauce brings out the tartness of the pork's vinegar marinade, making it a heavier affair. The pork gets lightened up with a droplet of gorgeous salsa verde. An uncooked salsa, it smacks of green tomatoes and fresh cilantro, creamy and viscous with just a hint of avocado.Β
The new space features an expanded menu with Mexico City favorites like shredded chicken tinga, the mixed meat torta Cubana and housemade masa sopes. There's also the Sonoran recipes like burros and vichis courtesy of Polo's wife Marisa, who is from Hermosillo. The restaurant serves carne asada, cabeza, birria and even tripe. They're probably great, but I wouldn't know ... I have fallen hard for the al pastor. Let's just say, I'm stuck on it.Β
Polo's Taqueria is located at 918 W. Prince Road, 520-407-5569. Its hours are roughly 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Debit and credit cards accepted. You can also still visit Polo's on weekends at the Tohono O'Odham Swapmeet, where he gets to make the trompo substantially bigger.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
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It's been a couple years since Motel 6 atΒ 1025 E. Benson Highway has had a restaurant on site.
The last restaurant tenants were Irma and Mario Hinojosa, who operated their Benson-born Country Folks Restaurant on Tucson's south side for years before closing in 2014.
Yoly's Mexico Grande Restaurant officially opened Monday, although it's not open on Mondays. So its real first day in business will be Tuesday, April 26, serving up a breakfast menu of American and Mexican classics, from eggs and bacon to carne seca and eggs. Its lunch and dinner menu also crosses culinary borders, from the classic burger to Mexican combo plates featuring chile rellenos, tacos, tamales and burritos. Prices run $4.50 to $10 for breakfast; lunch/dinner starts at $7.95.
Yoly's is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
Mike Westphall received his coffee education a world away in Australia.
For about 18 months, the former Florida businessman who moved to Australia after selling his hydrogeologic firm, ran a small outdoor bistro and coffee roasting shop Down Under.
He moved back to the United States a few years ago, settling in Tucson. In February, he opened Pangean Coffee Roasters on North Wilmot Road in the small storefront space once occupied by the gourmet popcorn shop Prayerfully Popped.
Westphall specializes in fair trade, organic beans. He roasts them to order, medium to dark depending on your taste, in a 3-kilo roaster from U.S. Roasters. He can roast up to 25 pounds of beans an hour, but most of his custom roasts are small batches.
βWe had a guy come in here yesterday, and he liked the Guatemalan we had, but he wanted a much darker roast than we typically do,β Westphall said. βSo he had a cup of coffee, and I roasted it darker in about 20 minutes.β
Westphall sources his beans from a major broker who deals in large lots of beans from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico. He also gets beans from New York-based Crop to Cup Coffee Importers, which Westphall said has βrelationships with some of the smaller outlying plantations that the bigger guys donβt get toβ including in Kenya, the Congo, Tanzania and Burundi.
Pangean Coffee Roasters, 1525 N. Wilmot Road, is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Details: pangeancoffee.com
Elviraβs Restaurant in Tubac made a splash on Congress Street April 16 with its saucy moles and large tequila selection.Β
After a year of renovations, the upscale Mexican restaurant opened its second location 256 E. Congress St. in a space that once held Saint House Island Bistro and Rum Bar.Β
Elviraβs owner, RubΓ©n Monroy Jr., plans to keep all of the classic Elviraβs dishes, but will revamp about 30 percent of the menu. Heβs also tinkering around with new mole flavors like pine nut, almond and dried fruit.
βWeβre gonna play a little bit,β he said. But βyou end up giving people what they want.β
Monroy wants to give the new place an urban chic vibe for young couples. The inside has been redone with an eye toward respecting the wood floors and historic nature of the building. He has built out a new bar and installed those signature glass teardrops that brighten up ceilings in the Tubac location.
At least three nights a week, the restaurant will feature live music in a variety of styles including jazz, Cuban and acoustic pop.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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Baja CafeΒ opened its second location at 8 a.m. Saturday April 16 in the Campbell shopping center that holds Sauce and Old Chicago.
The new location,Β 2970 Campbell Ave.,Β is just down the street from the popular Prep & Pastry, which gets a sizable line on the weekends. Baja Cafe owners Gerard MeurerΒ and Kim Scanlan are fixing up what used to be a Wing Factory.Β
"We got rid of the fryers, put in griddles," Meurer said. "It's pretty well set-up, it just needed some cleaning."
Meurer is also excited about the new location's open kitchen, which is "gonna be crazy." He thinks the spot's central location and proximity to the University of Arizona will draw a student crowd, as well as visitors from up north.Β
The couple already has a provisional liquor license, so expect mimosas, Bloody Mary's, margaritas and more. The food menu will be the same as the original location, with Baja Cafe's kitschy pancakes and Southwestern huevos rancheros. The hours will be the same,Β 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. seven days a week.Β
"We could have just stayed in one spot, but we have some really key people that are showing that they want to do this for a living," Meurer said.Β "It encourages Kim and I to want to grow, so we can grow them with the business."
But right now, two locations is good enough for this Tucson couple.Β
"We're gonnna have our hands full with this one," he said.Β
The family behind Tucson's El Charro has opened its newest restaurant Charro Steak in downtown Tucson. April 6 was the first full day of business for the Mexican steakhouse, which serves high-end cuts of meat with a Sonoran flair.
Opening hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. There will also be a happy hour with food and drink specials 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Β
Charro Steak is the latest in the Flores family stable of El Charro Mexican restaurants, including the flagship El Charro Cafe on North Court Avenue that dates back to 1922. The family also is behind Sir Veza's Taco Garage, which has two Tucson locations, and Hecho en Vegas, a partnership with MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas.Β
The steakhouse is inΒ the historic Julian Drew Building at 188 E. Broadway, about a mile from the original El Charro. When the family announced the restaurant in December, they listed a lunch menu with items around $10 and dinner entrees mostly between $19 and $22.
Dishes include mesquite grilled Arizona grass-fed and grass-finished New York strip steak, ancho rubbed prime rib tortas and osso bucco estilo Sonorense. Some side dishes from El Charro will make appearances icnluding coctel de elote (corn) and nopalitos y hongos, (prickly pear pads and mushrooms).
Nine months after announcing plans to move from St. Philip's Plaza to the old Mr. K's Barbecue on River and Stone, Scordato's Pizzeria has finally opened.
The restaurant, one of two Italian eateries helmed by longtime Tucson restaurateur Daniel Scordato, opened on March 17 at 4911 N. Stone Ave. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays.
Scordato announced last July that he planned to leave St. Philip's where he had operated Italian restaurants since 2001. He moved his modest Italian restaurant Vivace to the foothills in 2014 and gave notice last summer that he was moving the pizzeria after his lease expired at year's end.
Mr. K's closed in 2013 and the building, which once housed a Chili's restaurant, had been vacant since.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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Alex Chaffin had just sold his iconic family diner to a Phoenix joint that sells gourmet soul food, when he got a call from John Abbott.Β
Abbott's family owns the 90-year old Rincon Market, a midtown grocery store that's mostly known for its outstanding fish department. The two had been friends since 2013, when a fire had forced the market to shut down for an entire year. During that time the Abbott family would eat lunch regularly at Chaffin's Diner on Broadway, and once even brought a case of plates to the restaurant as a gift.Β
So when Abbott asked Chaffin if he'd like to take over the kitchen at Rincon Market, the answer was a big fat yes. For the past month, the young chef has been giving a new face to one of Tucson's oldest markets, and bringing some classic Chaffin's dishes back from the dust bin.Β
"When you think of Rincon Market, most people think of YuriΒ (the fishmonger)," Chaffin said. "We want them to think of our breakfast."Β
For his new breakfast menu, which is scaled down to fit on a single white paper page, Chaffin is going for fresh and fast. It's a little bit diner and a little bit coffee shop, with gluten-free options and a full list of breakfast crepes from the crepe stone. The fat slabs of steamy country potatoes have been replaced with hash browns; the eclectic omelet selection is now build your own. Β
What's still there? Benedicts like the spinach-stuffed Eggs Florentine and smoked salmon Royale (now offered on weekends), French toast and Belgian waffles, the Country Breakfast with Boar's Head bacon β and miraculously β the Hawaiian Loco Moco platter. (But to give it a fancy touch, they now grind their own hamburger meat!) Β Β Β
But unlike the original Chaffin's, the new digs have a beer and wine license. So that means mimosas and Bellinis by the glass and by the carafe, poured with premium Spanish Cordorniu cava.Β
Or you can just get your food to-go, and now even by delivery. (Soon on the Tapingo phone app.) The new operation boasts a sizable hot line where dishes are made to order in under five minutes. But, that doesn't necessarily mean it's being made by Chaffin himself. This gig has him in more of a consulting position.Β
"I can't do that anymore," he said. "I've done that half my life, and now it's time for the team to take over."Β
Rincon Market,Β 2513 E. Sixth St.,Β is serving its new breakfast menu from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. Lunch and dinner times vary.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
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Miss Saigon Bar & Grill opened its fifth restaurant in March, this one replacing Chopstix Asian Dining at 8225 N. Courtney Paige Way in Marana, off Cortaro Road and Interstate 10.
It is the Tucson Vietnamese restaurant's second Marana location; it has a restaurant about a mile away at 4650 W. Ina Road at I-10 that has been open since 2007.
Meanwhile, it could be May before Miss Saigon β which also has locations at 1072 N. Campbell Ave. and 250 S. Craycroft Road β reopens downtown at 47 N. Sixth Ave. The building is in the midst of major renovations that Miss Saigon officials said have delayed its arrival by several months.
The newest Miss Saigon is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays and until 9:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. The menu is still a work in progress but will not be as extensive as the Ina Road restaurant because the new kitchen is much smaller, employees said.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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The wait is finally over! Blake's Lotaburger, the New Mexico chain known for having the "best green chile cheeseburger in the world," opened on April 1.Β
The store at 2810 East SpeedwayΒ will begin serving breakfast at 6 a.m. and remain open until 10 p.m.
Blake's is also planning to open a second store on Valencia Road near the I-19 freeway this summer. Judging by the interior of the first store, the Tucson locations will sport a more contemporary look with light earth tones.Β
βThe Tucson community has been incredibly welcoming to us and we are happy to offer employment to more than 80 local residents through the opening of this first location in the area,β said manager Kevin McCaslin in a press release.Β
The chain was recognized by National Geographic in 2006 for having the best green chile cheeseburger in the world, made with Premium Angus Beef and Hatch green chiles. The store was founded in 1952, and now has close to 80 locations in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.Β
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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Less than a year after she closed her tiny restaurant on River Road, Deborah Tenino has relocated Contigo Latin Kitchen to the grounds of the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa. Contigo is now open in the 3,000-square foot space that once held Janos Wilder's J Bar and more recently Brian Metzger's Poppy Kitchen.
Customers can expect lots of familiar faces, staffwise and on the menu, which showcases "pan-Latin" classics from countries across North and South America.Β
Popular dishes like the short rib tacos and Peruvian ceviche with aji amarillo peppers and purple potato chips will make a comeback. But with a bigger restaurant comes more storage space, so the menu has expanded to include dishes like a Cuban hamburger with ground chorizo and Manchego cheese. There's also a parrillada platter for two with a host of meats including steak with chimichurri sauce, lamb chops, blood sausage and more.Β
"The staff is full of people from Mexico, people from Peru, Brazil, Spain ..." Tenino said. So, "grandma's favorites get put on the menu."Β
In addition to the food, the wine list is also getting a major boost. Tenino's new business partner and wine expertΒ Nicholas KreutzΒ of Young's Market Company has broadened the list to around 80 bottles from selected regions of Spain, South America and California. The new space will also feature a private dining room called the "wine room," which seats 30 people.Β
The restaurant as a whole has been redone with a softer and moodier vibe than the bright Poppy Kitchen. To give the rooms a more "intimate" feel, some of the walls have been closed off to make for separate dining areas. The gorgeous scenic patio on the other hand, will look basically the same.Β
Contigo is open seven days a week from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa,Β 3800 E. Sunrise Drive.Β For more information including the new menu, check out the restaurant's Facebook page at facebook.com/contigoaz
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
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Trident Grill II officially opened on Tuesday on the northeast side.
The restaurant, a spinoff of the popular University of Arizona area Trident Grill on East Speedway, is in the 3,700-square-foot Plaza Palomino space at 2900 N. Swan Road that had been home to Red Sky Cafe and, more recently, the short-lived Jackson Tavern.
Trident II serves the same menu as its sibling: burgers, salads, sandwiches and seafood, along with sports bar snacks from wings to nachos. It's open from 11 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.Β
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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If you want carne asada you're gonna have to go down the street ... This new restaurant specializes in the cuisine of MichoacΓ‘n, a central Mexican state known for its icy treats and mind-blowing carnitas.
The often overlooked regional style, which has been called the "soul food" of Mexico, has been a little hard to findΒ in Tucson. Enter Carnitas La Yoca ... Β The southside food truck recently opened a brick and mortar in the former Maria's restaurant on South Sixth Avenue across the street from the VA Medical Center.Β
Lots of places serve carnitas, but MichoacΓ‘n natives Rosa Lucatero and husband Ruben Verduzco take it to a whole new level. The small menu at Carnitas La Yoca features obscure cuts of pork like the stomach and the skin, which get fried for four hours in giant steel cauldrons until they come out soft and stewlike. Kitchen staff arrive at 3 a.m. each night to fry the pork, so it's ready when the restaurant opens at 8 a.m.
Even if you don't eat it for breakfast, the unusual "Cuero" is perfect for adventurous eaters who like to slurp their meat. After several hours of stewing in fat, the strips of skin become gelatinous and intensely savory, bursting with salty meat juices. They're actually rather palatable in taco form compared to the only other version I've tasted in Nogales, Sonora, but definitely not for the faint of heart.
TheΒ floppy squares of pig stomach lining calledΒ "Buche"Β look a little like something you'd give to your dog as a chew toy. But they're rather good, with a springy texture and soft chunks of meat clinging onto the sides. Throw on some pico and a drip of the brilliant chile Japon oil from the silver tub on your table. The heat builds slowly into a faint zing that cuts through all that fat.Β
I was lured in by the eccentricities, but Carnitas La Yoca also has hands-down, some of the best carnitas in Tucson. Shredded into little chunks, they're soft without being too soupy and have a nice fried crunch on the outside. You can get them by the pound with a plateful of tortillas, or like I did, in slender corn tortilla tacos for $1.50 apiece.
If you mostly want the carnitas but feel like branching out in a baby way, get the mixto taco. It's got everything! Β Β
Carnitas La Yoca atΒ 3530 S. Sixth Ave. is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. CASH ONLY. More information at its Facebook page, facebook.com/carnitas-layoca
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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If you've driven down First Avenue lately, you may have noticed a massive silver submarine where El MezΓ³n del Cobre used to be. It's not a mirage: The structure is actually a new restaurant by BenjamΓn Galaz, the owner of BK Carne Asada and Hot Dogs.
The restaurant is called El Berraco, which according to Galaz is a Colombian term similar to the word "badass" in English. The newly-opened restaurant serves seafood from countries along an old Pacific Ocean submarine route that skimmed the coasts of Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico and more. Β
To develop the menu, Galaz brought up chef Claudia Lopez BurquezΒ of Girasole restaurant in Hermosillo, Sonora. She's put together a playful mishmash of casual dishes a'la BK as well as more colorful gourmet fare.
Highlights include fried octopus tacos, whole coconuts stuffed with shrimp and a "Ceviche Route" appetizer with side-by-side ceviches from Peru, Colombia and Mexico. There's plenty of oyster and shrimp and even a whole grilled octopus, but you'll also see Sonoran dishes like bacon-wrapped guero peppers stuffed with smoked marlin.Β
There is also a full bar, with 20 beers on tap and more than 40 bottled beers from Mexico and all over South America. (In case you were wondering, the legendary BK micheladaΒ gets an upgrade with fresh shrimp and seafood options.) The restaurant will stay open until 1 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and midnight the rest of the week. Β Β
El Octopus, with salad and cilantro rice at El Berraco. Photo courtesy of J. Martin Harris Travel and Leisure Photography
"I've been in the food industry for 25 years," Galaz, who is from Tucson and Sonora, said. "I started with hot dogs, then selling carne asada tacos. Now we're trying to come up with a new concept."Β
Galaz said he's spent the past year and a half working on El Berraco, and even set up his own welding workshop in the process. The skilled welder performed much of the remodeling work himself, which included making port hole windows and covering the building with stainless steel paneling. The inside of the building looks like a cross between a Mariscos Chihuahua restaurant and the submarine scene from "Titanic," with colorful benches and moody dark neon lighting.Β
The dining room also features a wall-length digital fish tank, hand-drawn submarine posters and deep sea divers' helmets on the walls. Galaz says if the concept is successful, he plans to make it into a national franchise.Β
In other BK news:Β
Don't give up hope! Plans are still on for a downtown-area BK, just not until 2017. Galaz said he's got a large property at East 19th Street and South Park Avenue, which he plans to turn into a full-scale restaurant and bar after he finishes El Berraco.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
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A new Tucson restaurant is adding its own twist to the concept of eating on the go.
Cup It Up American Grill at 1101 N. Wilmot Road near East Speedway serves its multilayered meals in a 32-ounce cup.
The restaurant, which opened Jan. 13, follows the Subway/Chipotle assembly line model where your meal is built in stages, from protein to sauce.
There are four steps starting with the entree β three types of grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, slow pulled porkΒ and short ribs β from $7.95 to $9.95. Step 2 is the "base" β choose from brown or white rice, barley or quinoa β and chilled or grilled kale, romaine or spinach.
"Most people go with the grilled greens," noted Julian Alarcon, the chef/co-owner who created Cup It Up's menu.
Step three is the toppings, including onions, peppers and other veggies, that can be grilled or chilled, as well. The final step is dubbed "superfoods" β things like avocado, pine nuts, chia seeds and other foods known for their high nutrient values. You can then choose to top it all off with sauces including the house favorite zesty signature sauce or the savory peppercorn.
Lest you think this is a healthful food restaurant, Alarcon is quick to note the popular mac and cheese ($3.95 and $6.95) that is quickly becoming a favorite for kids and their parents.
Cup It Up is the brainchild of Tucson golf buddies Christopher Smith and Jay Warren, who often asked that their food be put in a cup when they were on the course. The pair brought in Alarcon, a veteran chef who has worked with Fox Restaurant Concepts, golf courses and at area resorts, in summer 2014 to develop a menu and bring their idea to life.
In addition to its entrees, Cup It Up American Grill serves salads ($7) including its California avocado salad with roasted pistachio nuts, kale, avocados and grape tomatoes, served in a bowl. And if you're a little hesitant about getting your meal in a cup, you can ask for a box, Alarcon said, although the cup has so far proven to be pretty popular.
It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; closed Sundays. Details: facebook.com/CupItUpAmericanGrill
Alarcon said the Wilmot Road location, next door to a Trader Joe's market, is the first of several they plan to open. They are looking at locations next to Whole Foods on Ina and Oracle roads and another at Tucson Premium Outlets. The partners also are in talks to become a vendor at Arizona Stadium on the University of Arizona campus this fall, he said.
βWe really designed this whole deal to do at high-volume spaces" such as sports stadiums or malls, he said.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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The bustling Joesler Village shopping center at River and Campbell has a new date spot specializing in gourmet Italian food.
Orenccios Ristorante Terrazza opened its doors in late January, bringing in wood-fired pizzas and a substantial seafood menu including dishes like lobster ravioli and Naples-style clam chowder. The Tucson restaurant owned byΒ German CanezΒ is actually the second Orenccios location; the first being in Nogales, Arizona. Β
The colors of the intimate dining room at 1765 E. River Road have been muted since its days as Om Modern Asian Kitchen, and the team has installed a wood-fired pizza oven behind a new bartop in the center of the restaurant. In the future, there will also be a 40-person patio with misters for the summer heat.
The menu leans toward upscale, with pasta dishes averaging about $14 and heartier meats and seafoods upwards of $20. Chefs specialties include several steaks like rib eye, filet mignon as well as veal osso buco plates for $36. All entrees come with a soup or salad.Β
Orenccios has a full bar with 16 wines by the glass and a basic cocktail list of classics like the Orange Negroni with Hendrick's Gin. The team also plans to roll out a 3 to 6 p.m. happy hour with food and drink specials. There's also live music Thursday through Saturday nights.Β
The restaurant is going in next door to R & R Family Restaurant, which opened in the former Contigo space in October.Β By the summer, Canez is also opening an Orenccio's Express lunch place in the recently-closed Falafel King at 1800 E. Fort Lowell Road #160. That location will serve quicker items like salads, pizzas and paninis.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch
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A new sushi/Vietnamese restaurant has taken over the space that once housed the Filipino restaurant Pinoy Fast Food at 7159 E. Broadway.
Fresh Sushi Pho opened on Jan. 14 with a menu of classic sushi and traditional Vietnamese dishes.
The restaurant, owned by Duoc Le, has a wide-ranging menu of sushi, including rolls employing eel, crab, salmon and tuna. Its Vietnamese dishes include fried rice entrΓ©es and a wide selection of pho, the popular Vietnamese noodle soup with prices starting at $6.99. Sushi runs from $3.50 to $9.
Le, a native of Vietnam, has lived in Tucson five years after moving here from Canada. He worked for a large restaurant in Canada for several years and spent a couple years working for a Tucson Asian restaurant before launching his own eatery, he said.
Fresh Sushi Pho is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and closed Sundays.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
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A new restaurant called The Horseshoe Grill is bringing high-quality steaks to the east side. Father and son teamΒ Ken and Kevin BedientΒ set up shop in the old Table Talk building at East Broadway and North Pantano Road. They opened in mid February, serving house-smoked meats as well as locally-sourced burgers and steaks.
In the center of the restaurant, the two are installed a horseshoe-shaped mesquite grill that sits 20 people. The bar and grill also features an open kitchen as well as hand-painted murals by Tucson artist Joe Pagac. The "rustic" dining room is punctuated by metal surfaces, like light fixtures and a metal faucet that stretches around the restaurant.Β
"We looked at various spots in Tucson, and we felt like this pocket in Tucson didn't really have a steakhouse," Kevin Bedient said. "TheΒ community needed something on the east side, so it's a neat concept."
The menu designed by ChefΒ Andy RomeroΒ features various mesquite-smoked meats including pork shoulder, chicken wings and brisket. But the emphasis is on steak, which Bedient plans to source from specific Arizona ranches they develop relationships with. The initial menu has five cuts: aged porterhouse, T-bone, ribeye, filet mignon and top sirloin. Bedient says they plan to offer competitive pricing for the area.Β
There will also be a "staggered" happy hour with different lists of cocktails and appetizers for $5 at 5 p.m., $6 at 6 p.m., $7 at 7 p.m. and so on. The restaurant will open from 3 to 10 p.m. initially, but will expand its lunch service to open at 10:30 a.m. in the near future.Β
Follow The Horseshoe Grill on Facebook atΒ facebook.com/horseshoegrilltucsonΒ or at its website thehorseshoetucson.com
- By Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The original Zona 78 Italian restaurant on West River Road and North Stone Avenue closed its doors Dec. 30, and has reopened as a new concept called Stray Dogs. The new restaurant serves gourmet American fare like burgers and small pizzas, at an affordable price point in a family-friendly atmosphere, said Zonaβs co-owner Rick Fink.
βWeβve been in business for a long time here,β he said. βThe economyβs changed, the areaβs settled in a little bit, and 13 years is a long run. ... Itβs time to do a little something new in this part of town.β
Fink and his business partner Tom Firth have made a few changes to the interior of the restaurant, adding high-definition TVs and stripping down the tables to give them a rustic look.
The menu features casual dishes such as hormone-free burgers and brats. Pickles and sauerkraut will be prepared in house, along with the french fries.
The Stone Avenue retail corridor just north of the Tucson Mall has proved to be a challenging location for both small businesses and national chain restaurants including Ruby Tuesday and Chiliβs Grill & Bar, which both called it quits in the past few years.
In June, the Star reported that Tucson restaurateur Daniel Scordato is moving his Scordatoβs Pizzeria from St. Philipβs Plaza to a spot just across the street from Stray Dogs. The restaurant is expected to open at the former Mr. Kβs BBQ at 4911 N. Stone Ave. around the end of January.
Fink said that the two concepts can work together to create a more desirable neighborhood for local diners.
βWeβre happy to have Danny moving in,β Fink said. βWeβre thinking thatβs gonna be a little synergy for all of us. ... Itβs time to revamp and make some good food.β
Zona 78 will continue to honor gift cards at its other location at 7301 E. Tanque Verde Road, which is keeping its Italian concept.
A new concept called Batch Doughnuts & Whiskey opened downtown on Jan. 1, bringing together small-batch whiskies, doughnuts and high-quality drip coffee.
Restaurateur Kade Mislinski along with partner Ronnie Spece took over an intimate room at 118 E. Congress St. from Frank Lietzau, the founder of Unplugged Wine Bar, which served its final customers on New Yearβs Eve.
The 650-square-foot bar area previously served as an office space for MEB Management Services.
The unlikely pairing of doughnuts with craft whiskey to wash them down has become increasingly trendy on the national food scene, with bars and themed parties popping up in cities like Denver; Austin, Texas; and Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis Presleyβs penchant for jelly doughnuts and a few stiff drinks has been cited as one inspiration.
βThe evil and awesome combination of two of humanityβs greatest creationsβ is how organizers of some of those themed events around the country have described the concept.
Unplugged Wine Bar had been in business since September 2013, offering red, white and sparkling wines from around the world and a selection of European craft beers.
βFrank and the downtown Tucson community are wishing Batch great luck and prosperity in the new year,β reads a post on Unpluggedβs website.
Main Gate Square has a new barbecue restaurant β a first for the University of Arizona-area entertainment district that has everything from burgers to baklava.
Ramiro Scavo, chef-owner of urban farm bistro Pasco Kitchen & Lounge in University Boulevardβs Geronimo Plaza, opened Redβs Smokehouse and Tap Room in early January in the former home of Which Wich Superior Sandwiches on University, just west of North Park Avenue.
βItβs a completely new concept that weβre thrilled about,β said JaneMcCollum, general manager of the non-profit Marshall Foundation that owns the commercial property on University and is Scavoβs landlord for both restaurants.
Scavo renovated the 2,800-square-foot space at 943 E. University Blvd. that had been vacant since Which Wich closed in March 2013.
Redβs offers smoked meats such as brisket, beef and pork shoulder, and beef and pork ribs as well as dry aged steaks, house-made sausages and cold-smoked fish and cheeses.
Scavo said the name Redβs pays homage to the University of Arizona as well as an Arizona rancher named Red. It also refers to the color of the smoke ring formed on meats that are smoked in real wood, he added.
βWhen you smoke with fire wood like pecan or oak, you get that red ring,β he said.
Scavo extended the patio to wrap around the side and front of the building, and also created roll-up windows that will be part of the bar. The restaurant offers casual table service as well as takeout counter service.
βIf you want a place to hang out, we have that for you. If you want a sit-down, weβll have that,β he said, adding that the restaurant also will cater to tailgaters. βIf you want to hang out and watch games and do beer tastings, we have that, as well.β
Scavo, a former partner in Zona 78 and the Oro Valley farm-to-table restaurant Harvest, opened Pasco Kitchen & Lounge 4Β½ years ago at 820 E. University Blvd. This summer he plans to spruce up that restaurant, including rebuilding the bar and putting in a new floor.
βWe love it down here. It was a great decision to come down here,β he said of the boulevard, which is an entertainment hub for UA students and the surrounding neighborhoods. βWe love the area; we are committed.β
McCollum said the Marshall Foundation had inquiries from 20 businesses interested in renting the Which Wich space and had narrowed it down to five serious offers, all of which were turned down because they brought nothing new to the district.
On Thursday nights when he was an engineering undergrad at the University of Arizona in the early 1990s, John Aldecoa and a few buddies would close their textbooks and ask the all-important question:
βWanna hit Wildcat House?β
βWe would dig around the car for change to come up with the $3 cover. I would come in with a fistful of change. We never worried about having money for drinks. We always had friends that would buy,β he recalled recently, standing in the middle of the cavernous place where he made all those college-day memories. βThat was like a ritual for us every Thursday night.β
Aldecoa is hoping to help create new memories for generations of UA students and Tucson families with his Brother Johnβs Beer, Bourbon & BBQ inside the former Wildcat House, 1801 N. Stone Ave. (*Editor's note: The space held its grand opening New Year's Eve.)Β
Aldecoa is teaming up with his brother Davidβs New York City restaurant consulting group and Davidβs partner, Sascha Kreideweis, to completely renovate the 10,000-square-foot building that was home to the popular UA hangout for nearly 40 years. The Wildcat House, opened in 1977 by California-based The Graduate Restaurants Inc., closed in spring 2012.
Aldecoa said the partners, who also include his UA graduate school colleague, marketing director Ines Newby, will pump around $1 million into the project, which will include building a 2,400-square-foot Bavarian-style patio beer garden and dining area with a fireplace; creating a bourbon lounge that will offer bourbon flights, food pairings and weekly tastings; sectioning off 2,400 square feet for a private dining area with a separate bar and entrance for corporate events; and creating a stage area for live entertainment.
βItβs a big project. I donβt think anybody understands the scope of what weβre doing,β David Aldecoa said, examining the floor plans that call for expanding the kitchen and creating a dry storage space. The original kitchen had no place to store dry goods and when the brothers first took over the building in early May β they signed a 20-year lease with the new owners, who bought the building late last year β they found a box of tortilla chips on a shelf in the kitchen.
John Aldecoa said the bar was pretty much left as it was on its final night in business under former owner William Everett, complete with fries in a basket in the deep fry, drink glasses on the bar and records on the turntable in the concrete DJ booth.
The buildingβs owners are putting in a new roof and air conditioning; the building had been equipped only with swamp coolers. The brothers also are putting in a new parking lot. Everett cited the parking lot repair, which he estimated in 2012 to be a $500,000 project, as the reason he closed.
Inside the building, workers already have dismantled the custom-cut pine lumber, which was stacked to one side and will be repurposed throughout the redesign. The cedar planks lining the walls will be preserved and incorporated into the design.
βWe want to keep the integrity of the cedar because thatβs perfect for a barbecue joint,β noted David Aldecoa.
Seventies-era disco balls that once hung in the main room will be placed in the restrooms, and old patron photographs left behind by the previous owners will be incorporated into a βThrowback Thursdayβ themed wall. (If you think you might be in one or two of those pictures, visit facebook.com/brotherjohnsbbq and let them know. They want to share Wildcat House stories as well as the photos.)
The Aldecoas hope to largely preserve most of the heavy terra cotta wall decorations with handcrafted sculptures of everything from Wilma and Wilbur Wildcat to a trio of bobcats in UA basketball jerseys and former owner Everett as a bobcat.
Brother Johnβs reunites the brothers 17 years after they last worked together. The pair ran a successful pizzeria, DJβs Pizza Pub & Grill, from 1993 to β98. When they closed it, David Aldecoa, 45, went on to carve a successful 25-year career in the hospitality industry that included ownership of a restaurant in Massachusetts and working in Las Vegas and New York City.
John Aldecoa, 47, returned to the UA to earn his masterβs in business administration. He has spent time in various management roles and is now a national technical manager with Ascension Information Services, responsible for more than 150 employees across the country. He will be the managing partner and face of the venture, David Aldecoa said.
So why barbecue in their Mexican-restaurant-saturated hometown?
βItβs an underserved market,β Newby, 31, said, ticking off a handful of independent Tucson barbecue restaurants.
The menu was curated by executive chef Nate Eckhaus, a 15-year kitchen veteran who has cooked all over the country including in Michelin star restaurants in France, Monaco and Portugal. He also successfully managed and coordinated five food and beverage outlets as executive chef at New Yorkβs Jumeirah Essex House Hotel (now JW Marriott Essex House New York on Central Park South) and South Gate Restaurant, according to the biography provided by Newby.
Brother Johnβs menu will offer slow pit-smoked meats including Texas-style salt-and-pepper-rubbed brisket, βBam Bamβ-style short ribs, baby-back and St. Louis-style ribs and house-smoked pork belly. The flavors will fuse traditional Southern-style barbecue with quintessential Southwestern and Latin flair with the incorporation of locally sourced chiles.
Burgers and Southern fried chicken, along with a host of comfort-food sides and salads, round out the menu.
The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner, as well as offer two daily happy hours β one after work hours and another late at night.
David Aldecoa said the restaurant will use local and sustainable ingredients as much as possible and will work with Southern Arizona farmers and ranchers.
- By Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The restaurant, sports bar and video arcade chain Dave & Busterβs will open its first Tucson location inside a south-side shopping center in 2016, City Councilman Richard Fimbres confirms.
The chain has filed an application for a liquor license in the 1400 block of East Tucson Marketplace Boulevard, inside the Tucson Marketplace at the Bridges shopping center near Interstate 10 and South Kino Parkway.
Fimbres said the building will be just east of the 14-screen Cinemark Theatres, which is expected to open over the summer. The Dave & Busterβs building will be about 30,000 square feet and will employ about 50 people, Fimbres said.
The quickly developing shopping center also hosts a Starbucks in a parcel north of the Costco anchor. A Chinese buffet called Linβs Grand Buffet are also expected to open.
βItβs the continued renaissance of the south side,β Fimbres said. β(The center is) about five minutes away from downtown, so thatβs gonna be great. Itβs a hop skip and a jump.β
The Marketplace at the Bridges is a 350-acre property being developed by three entities: Scottsdale-based Genesis Tucson South, New York-based Eastbourne Investments and Boise-based Retail West Properties.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
One of Tucson's most popular food trucks Aqui con El Nene has expanded to the south side with a brick and mortar restaurant.Β
Owner Salvador Gastelum converted the building that used to hold China Bay restaurant on Valencia just west of South Sixth Avenue. He's fashioned the space into a hip taqueria with a similar vibe to the nearby BK Carne Asada and Hot Dogs. The space stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekends.
The dining room is industrial chic, with dark wood booths and stainless steel tables. There are flatscreen TV's playing music as well as iconic pictures of Gastelum's native Ciudad Obregon tacked onto exposed brick walls.Β
The menu features the same stuffed potato papanchas and mesquite-grilled carne asada tacos that you'll find at the original truck, 4415 N. Flowing Wells Road. (There's also a second location at 570 W. Grant Road.) In addition, the new restaurant also offers menudo, pozole and birria soups. In true Aqui con El Nene style, there's also a sizable salsa bar. Β
The restaurant is open now at 65 W. Valencia Road. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Β
Dillinger Brewing Company is getting in just under the wire for 2016.
The brewery at 3895 N. Oracle Road, south of West Roger Road on the west side of the street, will open its doors at 2 p.m. on Friday, according to owner Eric Sipe, with plans to ring in the new year from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturday.
Sipe said four beers will be on tap for Friday, with a fifth available on Saturday, including an IPA, a wheat, and a chile wheat.
Dillinger is opening in an underserved area of town when it comes to craft beer, with no other breweries on Oracle.
- By Kim Matas Special to the Arizona Daily Star
In what might be the fastest restaurant opening in Tucson history, chef Michael Powell started serving customers just six days after signing a lease with the Temple of Music and Art for his new eatery, Simplicit.
Temple management wanted Powellβs restaurant opening to coincide with the Arizona Theatre Company production of βFiddler on the Roof,β so the Tucson-born, award-winning chef had to make a lot of decisions quickly. The first, deciding on a menu. He grew up in a family that prided itself on its Mediterranean roots, and before returning to the Old Pueblo, he was chef at a Michelin-recommended Mediterranean restaurant in Napa Valley.
Mediterranean-style cooking βis almost second nature at this point and because I am really transitioning from chef to owner I realize how full my plate is going to be,β Powell said. βI thought I wouldnβt have to do too much training with my restaurant and my staff because the recipes were already tested.β
Why open in the Temple of Music and Art?
βI was looking for spots downtown. I felt I was ready to come home a year and a half ago and saw how downtown has grown and it had a whole new energy. I spent a lot of time walking around, days and days and checking out the scene and different places, and Tucson is definitely a budding food city. ... Once I saw the Temple, it kind of made everything else seem just so-so. It kind of called out to me in a lot of ways. In my vision and in my dreams I never thought of being part of something much bigger than myself and my restaurant.
βYou are reminded and humbled every day of the institution you are partnering with . ...I definitely think Scott street is the most beautiful street in downtown Tucson, and the property β when you are out there you feel like youβre away from everything and you are off someplace else. itβs a nice place to be a part of.β
What kind of restaurant is Simplicit?
βSimplicit is a small, intimate restaurant attached to the Temple of Music and Art. One of the plans for the hopefully not-too-distant future is to have a hydroponic grow wall where we will grow all our own produce. Hopefully state-inspired and globally-inspired (produce). Thatβs one of my passions, global flavors and using them in a way people can enjoy. Now I am using Mediterranean flavors because my grandfather was from Cyprus. He was my inspiration for wanting to be a chef when I was 7 years old.β
Was your grandfather a chef?
βHe wasnβt a chef. He died when I was 4, but all my memories of him were in the kitchen. Whenever there were family and friends around, they would always talk about him and his food. He would throw parties in the backyard and roast whole lamb. He was very passionate about food. I remember him telling me good food would make people forget about their problems for a little while. It made sense to me and when I was 7, I decided that is what I wanted to do with my life and I pursued it ever since.β
How would you describe the menu?
βLocally sourced, globally inspired as much as possible.β
Do you have any signature dishes?
βI could probably say there are tons, but at the end of the day I am passionate about everything that goes on the menu or I wouldnβt put it on there.β
Sally Kane is one busy restauranteur these days.
There's her popular buzz cafe The Coronet downtown, which she opened in the Coronado Hotel Apartments off North Fourth Avenue in early 2014. In late 2015, she joined hands with Mercado San Agustin owners Adam Weinstein and Jerry Dixon to run Agustin Kitchen.
And last weekend, the trio swung open the doors to aka Deli & Bakeshop, a grab-and-go soup, sandwich and salad restaurant next door to Agustin Kitchen at 100 S. Avenida Del Convento Suite 126.
The shop, open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, also includes drool-worthy baked goods coming from a trio of creative folks in the kitchen who are producing cookies, pastries, muffins, pies and cakes.
Kane, a self-professed foodie devotee, incubated a bakery program at Coronet that she brought with her to Agustin Kitchen. Developing a full concept around the baking was "kind of a bridge in a way" that tied together the two other restaurants, she said.
Everything at aka except the bread β which comes from Barrio Bread βΒ is made in house, including the charcuterie, Kane said. Pastries start at $1, soup is $5 and sandwiches run $9 to $10. Salads are sold by the pound and produce is locally sourced through Pivot Produce, which works with area farmers.
Tucson's south side is about to become home to one of the area's largest Chinese restaurants and one of the largest restaurants in the city.
The 12,800-square-foot Lin's Grand Buffet, 1068 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd., is about a third smaller than U Like Oriental Buffet on North Oracle Road β that restaurant, near the Tucson Mall, is just over 17,000 square feet.
Lin's, which could open late next week, will seat 400 and will serve as many as 100 different Asian, American and Mexican dishes, from classics like General Tso's chicken and beef and broccoli, to sushi and Mongolian grill with seafood, poultry and beef; on weekends, diners can get ribeye steak. The menu also will feature kid-friendly chicken nuggets and french fries, and Mexican dishes including enchiladas.
This will be the ninth restaurant in the Texas-based Lin's chain, which opened its first restaurant in McAllen, Texas, in 2000. It's the fourth in Arizona since Lin's opened in Phoenix's west side in 2008.
Owner Frank Lam said he had scouted Tucson locations long before building in Phoenix but couldn't find anything suitable until the two-plus-acre spot next to Walmart in the Tucson Marketplace became available. Lam, who owns Lin's with his aunt and uncle and two other partners, broke ground in February on the $4.5 million project.
On Monday, the steady buzz of an electric saw matched rhythms with the thump, thump of hammers hitting wood as a crew of 25 worked on the interior. Lam stood next to buffet area, where a worker was peeling off protective film and installing fixtures in one of the four serving tables. The owner surveyed the work in progress and sounded confident that from the dust would rise a grand dining room.
"We're looking for the wow effect," he said about the restaurant's size and design. Etched glass greets diners in the entryway and is used to accent the serving area. The dining room features two raised platforms and a private dining room.
"It looks like a lot of work, but once we get the carpet, we have a cleaning crew coming in," Lam, 40, added. Once the carpet's installed, workers can set up the tables and chairs and put the finishing touches on the kitchen and serving areas, he said.
Providing the city permits are approved by early next week, Lam said he could be open by Dec. 22 or 23.
Later this week, Lam said he plans to begin interviewing as many as 100 people for 80 positions.
Lam and his family have been working in restaurants since he was a child growing up in his mother's small Philadelphia Chinese restaurant.
"I had a bed in the kitchen," the Pennsylvania native said, recalling how he used to play in the kitchen and watch his mother and others cook.
After graduating from college, Lam worked several years for IBM on the East Coast before moving to Texas and teaming up on Lin's with his aunt and uncle, who also had owned a Chinese restaurant. The trio has two other outside partners, and Lam's brother is a part-owner and operator of two Texas locations.
Lam, who is still recovering from injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident in Phoenix last summer, said he is confident the south Tucson location will do well. The restaurant bookends the fast-growing Tucson Marketplace at The Bridges, which includes a the area's only Walmart and Costco, and a new 14-screen Cinemark movie theater that opened in November.
"If you're driving on the I-10 east to west, you can see us from the freeway," Lam said.
- By Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
Every week day, chef Renee Eder would go to school with her grandma who worked in the cafeteria. When her grandma took her home in the afternoon, Eder would climb onto a stool alongside her to help cook the family meal.
Eder doesnβt need the stool anymore, but sheβs still cooking. Her new venture β with her husband of 23 years, Justin β is Island Plate Lunch, which held its grand opening Saturday.
The casual eatery, at the intersection of River and Craycroft roads near Whole Foods, serves up Hawaiian and Pan-Asian specialties, the kind the Eders ate as kids.
Both grew up in Hawaii β Renee in downtown Honolulu and Justin on Kauai β and Renee studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, going on to work in different restaurants as well as Michel Richardβs Central.
The French-born chef took Renee under his wing, but when the Eders decided to open their own place it wasnβt classical French cuisine they felt drawn to, but that taste of home, the quintessential Hawaiian plate lunch.
The Eders β who relocated to Tucson two years ago to be near their kids studying at the University of Arizonaβs medical school β have created a small, casual, well-lit space that serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner. Diners can start off the day with taro pancakes or Spam with eggs and rice.
Many of the products β check out the sweet Maui onion-flavored Hawaiian kettle-style potato chips by the register β are imported from the islands, Renee said.
Of course youβll find Kalua pork and loco moco on the lunch and dinner menus, but the island plate lunch also offers a poke bowl, which β Renee said β is not to be missed, along with Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, all built around pork belly.
βI love pork belly,β Renee said.
Sheβs even got a PB and J pork belly banh mi on the menu.
βItβs kind of unusual,β she said, βbut Iβm not normal.β
One thing you must know if youβre headed to Island Plate Lunch:
Be ready to eat. The portions are mighty.
βWeβre from Hawaii,β Justin said, smiling. βWe like to eat.β
A new food trailer, offering a cuisine that is hard to come by in Southern Arizona, is slated to launch in Tucson this weekend.
On Friday, The Curry Pot will set up shop in front of Tap & Bottle, 403 N. Sixth Ave., for lunch service (noon-4 p.m.) with food offerings inspired by the island nation of Sri Lanka.
The mobile eatery will have beef, chicken and vegetable curry combination plates for $9-$10. Samosas, quesadillas, basmati rice and farata flatbread are also on the menu.
Owner Amjaad Jhan said Sri Lankaβs proximity to India means that the two countries share similar dishes.
What sets Sri Lankan food apart, Jhan said, are the different spice blends (some of Jhan's ingredients in his dishes include turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon and cardamom) and the use of coconut milk in their curries instead of yogurt.
Jhan was born in raised in Sri Lanka. He lived there until he was 21, at which time he went to live with his uncle in Los Angeles to pursue an education.
He moved to Tucson with his wife, Shuhana Jhan, in 2005.
Jhan, who has worked for 15 years in management at Trader Joe's locations in Tucson and California, said the lack of Sri Lankan-themed restaurants in Arizona is part of what inspired him to take on this venture.
βA lot of people donβt even know where Sri Lanka is,β Jhan said.
He was doubly encouraged by the Tucson communityβs positive reaction to food trucks with international cuisines, such as the Twisted Tandoor, which will soon be a brick-and-mortar dining destination; and Scott Safford, his former colleague at Trader Joe's, who opened the beer tasting room Tap & Bottle with his wife, Rebecca Safford, more than three years ago.
βSeeing (Scott) venturing out kind of open up the possibilities for me,β Jhan said. βIt made me think that maybe there was something I could do.β
Jhan said he hopes to build up to 15 menu items available at any given time, but is starting simple.
The Curry Pot will also be open for lunch at Tap & Bottle on Saturday and Sunday.
Visit the food trailer'sΒ Facebook page for more information.
A former funeral home in downtown Tucson is transforming into a swanky cocktail bar.
When it opens next month, Owls Club will be the anchor business in a larger project headed by Patricia and Ron Schwabe of Peach Properties. Along with developerΒ Marcel Dabdoub,Β Peach has invested nearly two million dollars into the purchase and renovation of the historic Bring Funeral Home at 236 S. Scott Ave.Β
The Schwabes, who own Penca, have enlisted the restaurant's bartender, Bryan Eichhorst, who has turned the gourmet Mexican spot downtown into one of Tucson's most innovative cocktail bars.Β
The team hopes to create a destination area on the cozy side street, bringing in local retailers, offices, an Exo Roast Co. coffee shop and even an escape room. (By next year they also hope to build out a late-night takeout kitchen run by Penca's chef Drew Burk, inside one of the garages on the south side of the building.)
Owls Club will be front and center, inside the former chapel on the ground floor. The 2,500-square-foot space will feature tables made from the original church pews, as well as a bar top made with repurposed wood from the recently-closed Chicago Music Store.
The concept, according to Eichhorst,Β is based on the original Owls Club at 378 N. Main Ave. In the early 1900s, the club served well-heeled bachelors working at the Tucson outpost of the Southern Pacific Railroad.Β
The group "had grown up in big cities, were wealthy, used to going out dining, going to see ballets," EichhorstΒ said. "Kind of uppity wealthy guys, to get off the stagecoach in a tuxedo and look around and thereβs nowhere to eat, thereβs nowhere to drink, thereβs nowhere to do anything.β
To solve their problem, they had an ornate mansion built by Tucson architect Henry Trost to hold wild dinner parties catered by the best chefs. It was called Owls Club because the parties would last late into the night, EichhorstΒ said. It wasΒ βour own little nice place out in the dirty west."
The modern Owls Club will feature a concise cocktail list of "complex originals," in addition to a well-curated selection of Old World wines and 8 beer taps. Eichhorst is also compiling a 100-strong whiskey list with everything from Buffalo Trace Benchmark bourbon at $2 a shot, to a 34-year old Port Ellen single malt at $6,000 a bottle. (There will also be a $2 beer offering, possibly Dixie from New Orleans.)Β
We're doing the "New York brown-and-stirred style, rather than bright, fresh acid-driven at Penca ... Something you sit and contemplate over, something introspective," he said.Β
The bar will also feature live music on a stage built where the pulpit of the chapel used to be. An additional lounge room with a TV and bookshelves will be a nice place for small parties.Β
Patricia is hoping the bar and community space will bring more locals south of Broadway, where downtown is just beginning to expand.Β
"We do have in downtown, some areas that are dead areas," said Patricia Schwabe.Β "They used to walk here and everything would be dark. Now it will be alive, and it will have a presence."
Other tenants coming in ...
- Tucson's Exo Roast Co. will sell locally-roasted coffee from in a small kiosk at the front of the building. There will also be a patio for outside seating.Β
- The locally-owned arts collaborative Creative Tribe Workshop will move into a studio on the second floor.Β
- An escape room called Ace of Escape will be upstairs in the original living quarters of the funeral home's caretaker. (It's the second location from TucsonansΒ Kathy Gehlert and business partner Allison Vivas.)
- Several "first-time local owners" will open retail spots in the garages by the parking lot.Β
Jersey Mikeβs Subs is opening in Oro Valley on Wednesday, Dec. 7 β the fourth location for brother and sister team Bob and Rosey Gregory.
And the pair isnβt finished yet. They have three shops coming in 2017, Bob Gregory said, including one in Sierra Vista.
The Jersey Mikeβs at 10592 N. Oracle Road at North First Avenue in Oro Valley is distributing 10,000 coupons to local business for free sandwiches to raise funds for Canyon del Oro High School. Coupon holders are asked to donate $2 per sandwich, Gregory said, and some of the money could benefit the schoolβs orchestra.
The store also is mailing coupons for free sandwiches to Oro Valley residents over the next several weeks, Bob Gregory said.
The Gregorys opened their first Jersey Mikeβs franchise in Tucson in 2014, about a year after Gregory sold his 11 Dominoβs franchises in the Four Corners region. Gregory, who was based out of Colorado, had been with Dominoβs for 32 years, and his sister had been his operations manager. The plan, he said, was to sell the pizza business and retire to warmer climes in Tucson. Then along came Jersey Mikeβs.
Instead of retiring, the Gregorys are fully vested in Jersey Mikeβs, with plans to open this summer in the Houghton Town Center at 9260 S. Houghton Road in Rita Ranch, and in Sierra Vista. Late next year, Gregory said he expects to open in the Bourn Cos. outdoor shopping center set to go up on Irvington Road, west of Interstate 19. The 58-acre center, near the Tucson Spectrum shopping center, has yet to break ground, although developers said they expect the first phase of what will be 600,000 square feet of retail space to open next fall.
The complete buildout will take 3Β½ years, according to earlier reports.
The Oro Valley restaurant will open at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Regular hours will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Jersey Mikeβs, launched in its namesake New Jersey in 1956, has 1,500 locations nationwide.
Other Tucson area locations include the Gregorysβ flagship at 3400 E. Speedway; 6501 E. Grant Road, opened a few months later in late 2014; and 5940 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive in Marana, which opened in early January.
Benny's Restaurant looks like it could be a Sonoran joint, or an antique store, or one of those midtown dive bars with the old signs and the dirt parking lots straddling the side of the street.
The Central Mexican restaurant sits in a pretty nondescript building on Grant Road, although it's been painted a lighter color since its blood red days as Fiorito's Italian. Inside, Benny's is homey and tan with a wall-mounted flatscreen TV playing YouTube ranchera mixes and episodes of the Mexican Voice. Β Β
If you're like all the other lunchers in the little place, you might be tempted to order the chimichangas or the carne asada platters with rice and refried beans. There's plenty of the sort. But I got a tip.Β I think you should get this:Β
These are called "Enchiladas Potosinas," $8.99, not to be confused with the familiar cheese, red beef and green chicken enchiladas elsewhere on the menu. The word Potosina refers to the North Central Mexican state of San Luis PotosΓ, where owner Irma Palomo is from.Β
A midsized Mexican plateau state with a mining economy and no coastline, San Luis PotosΓ is well-known for its fermented prickly pear drink coloncheΒ as well as its folded enchiladas, made from corn masa tinged with red chiles. (For a visual guide to some of the foods of San Luis PotosΓ, check out the photographic menu at this popular San Luis PotosΓ restaurant Rincon Huasteco.)Β Β
The story goes that Enchiladas Potosinas were an accident, the result of a cross-contamination at a local tortilla mill in the small town of Soledad. This mill also processed cascabel chiles, which ended up in local woman DoΓ±a Cristina Jalomo's masa ... to everyone's delight.Β
Because they're technically dry, the Enchiladas Potosinas look and taste more like tacos, spicy cheese-stuffed tacos with a 100 percent homemade masa. (That makes all the difference.) Palomo at Benny's is dedicated to making her masa from scratch, and it is indeed some of the best in town: hearty and soft with a touch of grittiness, texture, depth. My native-Arizonan lunch partners declared it was the best restaurant masa they've ever had. Β Β
Palomo also shies away from the fryer, leaving less grease in other Central Mexican staples like sandal-shaped huarachesΒ and circular sopes, $2.49. The latter are round and deep and pinched at the ends, cupping in the ground beef and silken refried beans, like a big edible hug.Β
Benny's also does gorditas, $2.49, (which I unfortunately have to clarify, bear no resemblance to their Taco Bell brethren). They are bready and crackly at the edges, filled with your choice of topping, shredded lettuce and a healthy dollop of lush Mexican cream.Β
But Benny's is also the only place in town that serves the mighty pambazo sandwich, $6.49 (pictured up top). It looks kinda like a torta, but it's technically not. The pambazo is actually dipped in a guajillo chile sauce until the spice penetrates the eggy bread, but the edges remain firm. Pambazos are typically stuffed with chorizo, potatoes and a handful of lettuce that spills out the edges. It is messy to eat, but of course, it's definitely worth it.Β
Benny's Mexican Restaurant is at 2702 E. Grant Rd. Hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. 520-881-8841
- By Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
GBarrio Breadβs bricks-and-mortar bakery is officially open for business.
The popular crusty-on-the-outside-soft-and-chewy-on-the-inside artisan bread formerly available only through different distribution sites around town is now in one spot: 18 S. Eastbourne Ave. in Broadway Village.
Owner-baker Don Guerra officially opened Nov. 26 β that day inventory sold out well before the 5 p.m. closing time. He and his small squad of bakers have been turning out about 500 loaves a day.
βItβs a lot of bread,β Guerra said. βItβs so crazy right now.β
Before setting up shop in the old Sugar Sweet Bakery location, Guerra maxed out at 900 loaves a week made in his home bakery, which operated under the stateβs cottage industry food law. Subscribers to Barrioβs online store would then pick up their loaves at different locations around town.
Barrio β which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or until the bread is sold out Tuesdays-Saturdays β features a sleek Italian deck oven, which is front-and-center so customers can watch production.
βTheyβre just kind of in awe because they havenβt seen this style of bakery,β Guerra said.
The bread selection changes daily, and loaves average about $6. Find a daily bread menu at barriobread.com or call 327-1292.
Spokane, Washington-based Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar is heading to Tucson in what will be its most ambitious and farthest-flung restaurant in its 15-year history.
The chain, which has a location outside Portland, Oregon, and another 15 miles outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, is heading to Tucson Mall. Twigs will take up residence in the 8,700-square-foot space that has stood empty since Brio Tuscan Grille called it quits in spring 2013.
βWeβve looked at the Arizona market for a long time, in Phoenix and Scottsdale and Gilbert, and we had an opportunity that came aboutβ at the Tucson Mall, said owner Trevor Blackwell, whose company has worked in the past with Tucson Mall owners General Growth Properties.
βWeβve got a good relationship with them, and they are a good partner of ours,β he said.
Tucson will be Twigsβ 10th location and its largest. Blackwell said most of their restaurants run between 6,500 and 8,000 square feet.
Construction barricades and a big βcoming soonβ sign went up weeks ago around the cavernous building at 150 W. Wetmore Road, directly behind The Cheesecake Factory and next to the REI outdoor store. Demolition will begin in mid-December, and Blackwell estimates it will take three months for the build-out that will include expanding the bar, installing new flooring, redesigning the dining room and creating smaller private dining spaces.
βIt will have a completely different feel,β Blackwell said.
Twigs could open by late March or early April.
Blackwell and his wife, Jayne, and father, Jeff, started Twigs in 2001 at a mall in Spokane. The family had operated a number of fast-food restaurants, but Blackwell said they jumped at the chance to create a bar/restaurant concept in the mallβs food court.
The name was inspired by a designer doodling a drawing of the bar on a cocktail napkin. The design included twigs and tree limbs shooting out of the bar. The name stuck.
Twigs serves a regional American menu that includes everything from a wasabi pea-crusted Ahi made with sashimi grade yellow fin tuna as an appetizer to pork osso bucco and crab mac and cheese on the dinner menu, alongside pastas and pizzas, including a Polynesian with mango chile sauce and shredded Kalua pork.
Twigsβ drink menu includes 36 signature martinis and a host of craft cocktails and wine.
Blackwell said Twigs restaurants are mostly established in so-called medium markets like Tucson and βwe seem to do wellβ in those areas.
Coming to Tucson is βa unique opportunity. We like the area. We like the Tucson Mall,β Blackwell said. βI think itβll be a good fit for us.β
You may know Linh NguyenΒ as the Broadway banh mi guy. His food truck Vina Baguette has a reputation for its tasty Vietnamese sandwiches, served in the parking lot of the Axis liquor store.Β
Now, he's got a space of his own ... VinaΒ Vietnamese Street FoodΒ opened last week at 4230 N. Oracle Rd., in the Home Depot parking lot. That space has been home to a number of concepts including Jason's Mexican Food most recently, but Nguyen has made it his own by painting the walls a bright red.
He's also expanded the menu to include Vietnamese soups like beef pho and a harder-to-find spicy beef soup Bun Bo Hue with brisket swimming in a sour orangey broth. There are also 13 types of bubble tea on the menu with interesting flavors like papaya, red bean and pomegranate. On my visit I tried a taro boba smoothie, which wasn't nearly as sweet as I gathered when I saw it was bright purple.Β
The hallmark of new menu is actually the build-your-own Vietnamese plate. You start off with either vermicelli noodles, white rice, steamed veggies or a green leaf salad. Then you add your protein:Β chicken, beef, garlic shrimp, lemongrass tofu or in my case a perfectly charred barbecue pork. Finally, you choose your toppings, like basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, etc.Β
I got mine "Classic Vietnamese style," aka a little bit of everything (pictured up top). The cold Vermicelli noodles were perfectly executed with some addicting crispy shallots on top that gave it all a salty crunch.Β
Vina is open 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 7 p.m. Sundays. Go check it out!Β
The buzzworthy Arizona diner Bisbee Breakfast Club is set to open its fifth location Monday morning at the historic Broadway Village shopping center. The local chain has taken over the airy art deco building at 2936 Broadway, the former home of Table Talk as well as a weekly farmers market.Β
This location β the third in Tucson βΒ will also feature a standalone coffee shop Ombre Coffee, which brews beans roasted at the Breakfast Club's Ina Road store. Ombre Coffee is part of a burgeoning wholesale operation headed up by co-ownerΒ Terry Kyte.Β
While the diner portion closes at 2 p.m., Ombre Coffee will remain open until 9 p.m. every night. Depending on the needs of the neighborhood, the shop may offer single-origin beans and pourover coffee in the future, Kyte said.Β
The diner is part of a larger project to build up Arizona's first shopping center into destination spot, to create a "community" feel with local restaurants and retailers like the vegan ice cream shop Cashew Cow. Later this year, the 1960s building will also house a bakery by Don Guerra of Barrio Bread. Co-managers Commercial Retail Investors are also looking into tenants for the building's one remaining space.Β
Bisbee Breakfast Club on Broadway will feature the same menu as the other locations, but will also have a liquor license. The diner will serve mimosas and the Signature BBC Bloody Mary topped with cheese curds, house pickled green beans and more. The Breakfast Club is the second vintage diner to open on Broadway this month, after Welcome Diner opened in the Chaffin's spot at 902 E. Broadway.Β
TIP: The diner officially opens on Monday, but starting its soft opening today. Check them out this week if you want to avoid the crowds.Β
Hours will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day.Β
A new breakfast spot on Tucson's east side is filling the void left behind by Laniβs Luau.
The Cozy Corner CafΓ© opened last month in the Hawaiian restaurant's old home at 2530 S. Harrison Road.
The restaurant is a family affair. Zacharias Rodriquez and his fiancee Lisa Ann Sopher run the operation with help from Lisaβs mom Patricia Sopher and Rodriquezβ best friend Josh Urias working in the kitchen.
East-side diners may notice some familiar faces in the mix. Lisa worked at Joeβs Pancake House on South Kolb Road for 15 years. Patricia was a waitress at Joeβs for more than 20 years.
Rodriquez, whose background is in real estate, said he and Urias, who served as general manager at Risky Business on East Tanque Verde Road for a decade, had talked about starting a restaurant for years.
βWe were all ready for a change,β Rodriquez said. βIt was just a matter of putting the pieces together.β
Cozy Corner is a mix of traditional diner fare, breakfast and lunch dishes such as steak and eggs ($8.95), biscuits and gravy ($5.85) and a club sandwich for $8.95.
Hatch green chiles can be found in several dishes, a reflection on Rodriquezβ New Mexico upbringing.
βWe had a Hatch green chile Philly that was introduced last weekend,β he said. βWe sold out. People were interested.β
Cozy Corner Cafe is open from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. Find out more about the restaurant at facebook.com/Thecozycornercafe/
- By Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
The building has some pretty old bones, but the menu and the vibe scream 2016.
Hereβs what to expect from Phoenix-based Welcome Diner, which opened Tuesday evening, Oct. 4, at 902 E. Broadway:
Retro-chic design
βDesigned in 1964 by Santa Barbara architect Ronald Bergquist, in Googie style, the geometric asymmetrical diner is an American classic,β says the website for Tucson Modernism Week (which runs through Oct. 8). Googie, popular in the 1960s, is futurist architecture influenced by the Space Age.
The building first housed a Samboβs Restaurant and was Chaffinβs Diner from 2000 to December 2015.
Welcome Dinerβs overhaul of the building was done by local firm Repp + Mclain Design and Construction, which aimed to restore the original look using the idea of βaddition by subtraction.β
The waiting room/antechamber has been completely removed to restore the building to its original shape. Wooden benches have been added to the patio out front.
The acoustic tile ceiling has been stripped out to reveal light brown βglulamβ (glued laminated timber) beams.
To play off the beams, Repp + Mclain installed the same type of wood on the bar counter and tabletops. Chaffinβs iconic red highlights have been changed to a sky-blue color scheme, but you can still see the old red tiles from Chaffinβs in a line on the back wall.
The bathrooms and back room have been spruced up, and a back patio is coming soon.
Fancy food,
fun cockt
ails
The menu features a mix of gourmet and casual, with entree prices ranging from $8 (fried chicken and cheddar on a biscuit) to $28 (steak Roquefort).
There are sandwiches and burgers; mac-and-cheese with optional add-ons including Brussels sprouts; Southwestern-Southern mashups such as grits with green chili and roasted okra, or chile rellenos with hot pimento cheese; grilled romaine and corn salad; steamed clams in lemongrass broth; bone-in pork chop; and poutine fries, including vegan poutine made with tropical jackfruit β for some examples.
If youβre adventurous, order the cured sardines and toast. The mellow fish comes dotted with radish sprouts and a light foam made from local Fiore di Capra goat cheese.
Cocktails go from whiskey sour to the fussy Frappe GΓΌey with St. George absinthe, creosote and local nut milk. An early favorite is the classic hurricane rum punch, which was simple but well-balanced and tart.
For now, Welcome Diner is open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day. The team plans to add brunch and lunch service in the future.
The name sounds like a coffee shop or a hip-hop dance studio. Solid Grindz ...
But this southside restaurant makes Hawaiian plate lunches, the ubiquitous island meal of barbecued meat with white rice and creamy macaroni salad. So, what??
According to co-ownerΒ Michelle Mejia,Β the name actually comes from Hawaiian slang.Β Grindz is another word for food (as in, "let's go get some grindz"). And solid is, well, good. Mejia owns the restaurant with her niece's husband Tap Gaoteote Jr., who is originally from the South Pacific islands of Samoa.
The two had been operating a food truck Solid Grindz at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base since 2014. (Tap is in the military reserves.) But when Erik DuongΒ of the Snow Peas Modern Asian Kitchen told them he was closing shop to move to New Zealand with his wife, they jumped at the chance to open up a restaurant.Β
After all, they already knew the space. It was so close to the base, they'd been using it as a commissary kitchen to cook the plate lunches and wings they sold from the food truck.Β The two signed the papers on August 30 and opened the restaurant at 1402 S. Craycroft Road on Sept. 6.Β Tap asked friends from Hawaii and Samoa to help man the kitchen.Β
The menu right now is a continuation of the goodies from the food truck, but as it gets colder, they'll add heartier fare like oxtail soup and Portuguese sausage. (And as a sendoff to them, they've also kept the pho and pad Thai recipes from Snow Peas on the menu.)
If you go, make sure to order the kalbi beef short ribs with meat butchered from El Vaquero Meat Market nearby, and also the panko breaded Bang shrimp. It's perfectly fried and smothered with a creamy sweet sauce similar to Chinese walnut shrimp. (The mac salad is also choice.)Β
Solid Gridnz' grand opening is Sept. 24. The duo also does catering orders, which would be perfect for Wildcats vs. Hawaii game this Saturday night.Β
Opening hours are 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Closed on Sundays. CallΒ 867-8040 for more info.Β
Brandon Katz had the idea floating around in his brain ... a gourmet restaurant that draws on "Southern values" like whole-hog cooking and sharing dishes family-style.
These are concepts the Tucson restaurateur he'd already been exploring at his downtown sushi restaurant Obon Sushi Bar and Ramen, but through a Japanese and Korean lens.
Then Daniel Thomas came around, a young Le Cordon Bleu graduate who cut his teeth with Virginia Wooters at The Abbey and more recently headed up the kitchen at 47 Scott. Katz knew he had to make a move.
His companyΒ Fukushu Restaurant ConceptsΒ will open its latest effort, Bird Southern Table and Bar, this November in the space that once held Frogs Organic Bakery,Β 7109 North Oracle Road. Thomas will head up the kitchen, putting a "cheffy spin" on Southern favorites like pot pies, cauliflower grits and of course, fried chicken.Β
"If they're gonna use a chicken, they're gonna use as much of the chicken as they can," Katz says. "We want to try to take out a garden and use the vegetables. ... We'll have an amazing salad program."
Despite being a little over a mile from Tucson's other gourmet Southern restaurant The Parish, Katz thinks they can bring something unique to the north-side restaurant game.
"We're not going to take it to the extreme like Travis is doing at the Parish, with the (obscure) game that he uses ... We'll focus onΒ polished, casual service ... We want it to be very approachable."
To switch up the French bakery vibe in the current building, Katz enlisted the help of A23 Studios as well as his business partner/designer AndrΓ© Joffroy. They plan to do a "complete overhaul" with natural reclaimed woods and an indoor-outdoor bar flanking the patio. Β
Katz has also recently brought on Obon's chef Paulo Im and bartenderΒ Matt MartinezΒ as partners in Fukushu. The two will act as corporate chef and mixologist, overseeing all the company's concepts.
In addition to Obon, Goodness and now Bird, the team also has another project in the works: In January they'll openΒ Duck and Cover, a 'music-driven, elevated dive bar' in the basement of the former Chicago Music Store,Β 130 E. Congress.
- By Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
Bin An is no stranger to the restaurant biz.
By the time he was 11 years old, he was already washing dishes, busing tables, pulling host duties.
βI know the business, I know it well,β said An, 43. βI know the Tucson clientele, and they definitely know me.β
Yup, the name An is certainly familiar around here.
Anβs father is legendary local restaurateur Kwang C. An, who opened his first eatery here in 1983 after a disappointing meal at one of the cityβs few Asian places. He went on to own several restaurants.
Bin An plans to open his own Asian fusion restaurant at the corner of Broadway and Sixth Avenue in the ground-floor of Tucson Electric Powerβs nine-story downtown headquarters.
βI love whatβs happening downtown right now,β said Bin, whoβs opening the eatery with his wife, Ginny. βI wanted to be a part of that. Itβs a beautiful building, great location.β
MiAn Sushi & Asian Bistro will occupy about 4,900 square feet and feature two patios as well as a private dining area. Inside will seat 160 diners while the outside area will handle about 80 to 90 people, said Bin, who signed the paperwork two weeks ago. He also plans to offer valet parking to make downtown dining easier for customers.
The menu will feature sushi, Japanese noodles and some Chinese fusion.
βItβll have some traditional Asian fare, but a lot of it is going to be newer, different, something that doesnβt exist here in Tucson right now,β Bin said. βWeβre trying to modernize Asian cuisine a little more.β
Bin expects to submit plans to the city next week and hopes the restaurant will open in late December.
βEverybody is working full time night and day right now to get everything done,β he said.
John Foster of Katalyst Restaurant Concepts is creating MiAnβs sleek, modern look.
βItβs going to be an eye-catching restaurant as you go by Broadway,β Bin said. βYouβll definitely notice it.β
Bin is the oldest of Anβs three biological sons β maybe you remember the TV ads for Sakura restaurant featuring Mr. An and his βNo. 1 son,β former Arizona Diamondbacks player Luis Gonzalez?
He had a restaurant in Scottsdale from 2000-2004 called Sapporo. He left to come back to Tucson and the family restaurant business. Kwang An sold Sakura in 2008 and now has Mr. Anβs Teppan Steak, Sushi & Seafood on North Oracle Road.
As for the restaurantβs name, it has a double meaning. βMianβ is the Chinese word for noodles, but itβs also the nickname of Bin Anβs 2-year-old daughter Misha. βShe calls herself βMimi An,ββ he explained. βSheβs learning to talk. Itβs kinda cute.β
As darling as she is, Bin has no plans to teach her the restaurant ropes just yet.
βSheβs rather rambunctious,β he said, with a laugh. βI donβt think diners would appreciate having her around. She likes to play and sheβs loud.β
The sprawling Macayo's building on Oracle Road had been on and off the market for years, but this time Emma Vera was ready. When the aging property at 7360 N. Oracle Road went on sale this year, she jumped at the chance to open a second location for her flagship restaurant Guadalajara Original Grill.Β
She'll call this location Guadalajara Original Grill North. (This is to differentiate her business at 1220 E. Prince Road from those of her ex-husbandΒ Seth Holzman, who owns the Guadalajara Mexican Grill at 4901 E. Broadway and Guadalajara Fiesta Grill at 750 N. Kolb Road.)Β
Vera plans to spend several months cleaning up the space, and will hopefully open by the first of November.
"It's a really pretty building, it's just been awhile since they've touched it up," she said. "We're going to reconstruct the inside, bring the walls down, ... redo the bar. It's gonna have a really nice new feeling."
Macayo's, which is part of a Phoenix chain of restaurants with one other Tucson location, had been in that building since the early '80s, Vera said. It closed last month. At 8,000 square feet, the building is substantially bigger than even her Guadalajara Original Grill. But Vera doesn't seem to be nervous.Β
"I am so excited to be on Oracle, and being at an intersection that's busy. ... Just being there, it advertises itself."
It will be her third restaurant, in addition to the casual taqueria Calle Tepa at 6151 E. Broadway. In the future, Vera is also thinking of opening another Calle Tepa, possibly in Oro Valley.Β
Guadalajara Original Grill North will sport the same food and drink menu as her original, with tableside salsa and a sizable margarita list. There will be a hiring fair about six weeks before the opening. Vera plans to hire about 55 people.Β
For opening news and general info, follow the restaurant on Facebook at facebook.com/GuadalajaraOriginalGrill
Dakota Bar & Grill in Trail Dust Town is now Rounders Grill.
But aside from some different decor and a new poker theme to the menu, the dog-friendly restaurant at 6541 E. Tanque Verde Road is virtually unchanged. The menu maintains most of Dakotaβs popular favorites while βinfusing a new take on burgers and sliders with a poker theme,β restaurant officials wrote to longtime customers.
The restaurantβs owner remains the same and Rounders will honor all Dakota certificates, gift cards and coupons, and while the popular βBirthday Clubβ is temporarily on hold, you can still get free eats on your special day by showing an ID. The birthday club picks back up in October.
Rounders is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Dove Mountain's airy Mexican restaurant Lo Esencial is currently undergoing a remodel and will reopen as a brewpub in the next few months. The new Dove Mountain Brewing Co. will feature local craft brews as well as five to six private label beers.
When it opens, the building at 12130 N. Dove Mountain Blvd.Β will sport a "rustic ambiance" with a brick facade and stainless steel vats, according to an email sent out by the restaurant. The space will also serve food.Β
This is the second concept change for the restaurant in the last few years. OwnerΒ Kinney Johnson ran the space as Dove Mountain Grill for nearly five years, until he transformed it into Lo Esencial in December of 2013.Β
Follow Dove Mountain Brewing Co.'s Facebook page for more updates on the new concept.Β
A growing national trend is coming to Tucson: using boxcars as bars and restaurants.
Local developers are set to start craning shipping containers onto an empty, 12,000-square-foot lot along Fourth Avenue. The Boxyard will house four restaurants with communal dining space and two bars, said Brenndon Scott, one of the developers.
Ten containers will be arranged on the site at 238 N. Fourth Ave. The restaurantβs kitchens will be housed in 20-foot containers and the bars in double-stacked 40-foot containers. Other containers will serve as indoor seating around a courtyard. The outdoor area will be temperature-controlled and have shade structures.
βThere will be a lot of interesting colors and concepts,β Scott said, βsurrounded by great trees and shade.β
A small old building on the site will be preserved and repurposed at the request of the neighborhood, Scott said.
The inspiration for the project came from visiting other boxcar venues around the country.
βThe rise in popularity of shipping-container concepts underscores our competitive and quick-changing society,β says Trend Hunter, a website that tracks real estate trends. βThe temporary nature of these shops is a valuable aspect of the business model.
βAn element of exclusivity and time-sensitivity is the novelty aspect that attracts people.β
Scott plans to capitalize on that and sign only one-year leases with restaurants so the cuisine is always changing.
The developers are in negotiations with several restaurants, Scott said.
The liquor license is for the property as a whole and the two bars will operate independently from the restaurants. But they will be stocked to complement the food.
All restaurants will be local.
βItβs a very interesting and exciting concept, and itβll be a nice addition to a significantly underutilized lot,β said Fred Ronstadt, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.
βItβs nice to see infill projects and the public embracing the cityβs center as a destination.β
He said projects such as the Boxyard, which he hopes will draw a lot of foot traffic, feel like a reward for the merchants who toughed it out during the downturn and construction of the streetcar route.
βThe merchants along the streetcar alignment β specifically Fourth Avenue merchants β are heroes,β Ronstadt said. βThey believed in the revitalization of the cityβs center, and a lot of them sacrificed a lot during construction.β
Scott said he knew Fourth Avenue was where he wanted to open. Scott, a native of Tucson and graduate of Tucson High and the University of Arizona, spent many years in commercial real estate before going into the bar business.
He recently sold one of his bars but still owns the Bashful Bandit on Speedway.
βThis is the best entertainment walking district, linking up with downtown and the university,β he said. βItβs a unique and exciting spot for us.β
The site will only have a handful of parking spots, but a large area for bicycle parking.
The Boxyard got a variance from the city because it is in the redevelopment district. An open space will house events, such as yoga classes or concerts, and a bocce ball court.
There will be enough seating for about 150. For concerts, it will accommodate up to 200 .
Barring any hiccups, the Boxyard is expected to open by the end of the year.
βThe shipping container wins in terms of practicality,β says Trend Hunter.
βIdle shipping containers can be repurposed for tangible use and the industrial look is both mod and rad in contemporary design circles.β
Senae Thai Bistro isΒ bringing the vibrant cuisine of Thailand's capital Bangkok to downtown Tucson.Β
On July 7 it opened up in the former On a Roll Sushi building at 63 E. Congress, which had been vacant since last July.Β DeeΒ Buizer, who owns the restaurant with her husband Jim,Β has been in the restaurant business since 1987Β and also owns Basil Thai restaurant in San Francisco. Her family members also own the swank Soi 4 restaurants in Scottsdale and Oakland, California.Β
Senae tilts toward the gourmet side, with upscale menu items like grilled lamb chops in coconut curryΒ Kae Yang ($25), and duck breast with lemongrass-shiitake mushrooms Pbed TakaiΒ ($21). Check out Senae's website for restaurant hours and a full menu.Β
The guys behind Choice Greens and Graze are at it again ... this time with a full-service restaurant up at Oracle and Ina Roads.Β
Truland Burgers & GreensΒ opened in early July at 7332 N. Oracle Road in the space that used to hold La Mia Toscana. OwnersΒ Paolo DeFilippis and Jeff Katz are drawing from the menus of their two existing concepts, with freshly chopped salads and premium burgers from Niman andΒ Double Check Ranch.
In addition, Truland is also making its own twice-fried Belgian French fries fromΒ Kennebec potatoes (fried in non-GMO rice bran oil). The restaurant designed by FORS Architecture + InteriorsΒ also has a bar with beer and wine on tap, as well as an outdoor patio. And milkshakes!Β
Buzzy brunch spot Prep & Pastry opened its second location on Grant and Wilmot roads on July 5, and judging by its Instagram photos the space is the best thing since sliced bread.Β
The team worked with a.23 Studios to construct aΒ 6,000-square footΒ building on an empty lot east of Zinburger at 6450 E. Grant Road. (The building also houses a Sauce Pizza and Wine, which opened last month.)
While the menu here's the same, the vibe is minimalist and summery chic, with an open ceiling and industrial track lights.
If you haven't made it over there yet, check out these photos and swoon:Β
ΒITS TODAY! Prep & Pastry is officially on the east side!! #prepandpastryeast #prepandpastry
A photo posted by @prepandpastry on Jul 5, 2016 at 8:57am PDT
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ΒHere we go! Are you feeling PREPared? #prepandpastryeast
A photo posted by @prepandpastry on Jun 28, 2016 at 12:55pm PDT
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ΒOnly a few more days until our grand opening! #prepandpastryeast
A photo posted by @prepandpastry on Jul 2, 2016 at 12:52pm PDT
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Hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. For more information, call the Grant location at 520-838-0809.
You've seen them on Pinterest. But lately, these dainty little French cookies have been a faraway fantasy for most Tucsonans.
A new UA-area shop is bringing them back to town. Woops Bakeshop isΒ a national concept with more than a dozen locations around the New York area. Tucson sisters Ellie andΒ Naomi LippelΒ are bringing one to Main Gate Square, setting up in the former Finally Made clothing shop at 845 E. University Blvd., Suite 145. Β Β Β
Woops specializes in those brightly colored meringue cookies that crackle and dissolve in your mouth like sweet little rain clouds. The delicate Parisian puffs have become super trendy in bigger cities, where they've even been called "the new cupcake." (You used to be able to get them up north at the now-closed Frogs Organic Bakery, but I haven't seen them in awhile. Have you?)
Stay tuned for more info on Woops, including an opening date ...
Other changes coming to University Blvd.
- Everyone's favorite "food-in-a-cup" restaurant Cup it Up American Grill will open its second location at the recently-closed Silver Mine Subs, 760 N. Tyndall Ave. (Devoted Silver Mine fans can still go to location at 4280 N. Oracle Road.) Cup it Up should be open in the fall.Β
- The popular pizza joint No Anchovies has closed for the summer to undergo a big remodel, according to a note on its Facebook page. It should be open by the Fall semester as well.Β
Casa Valencia Seafood Bar & Grill will open a second location at the former North Campbell Avenue home of Yoshimatsu Healthy Japanese Eatery.
The south side restaurantβs owner could not be reached to comment, but employees confirmed the new restaurant will move into the 4,000-square-foot space at 2660 N. Campbell Ave. that Yoshimatsu vacated in mid-March. Yoshimatsu is expected to open in a much smaller space across the street at 2741 N. Campbell Ave.
This week, Casa Valencia, 1825 W. Valencia Road, applied for a liquor license for the second location.
Yoshimatsu officials could not be reached Monday to comment, The restaurantβs website said the opening would be in summer 2016.
The Screamery ice cream shop opened its second location on Speedway April 7 and a 3rd downtown in early June.Β
Owner Kenny SarnoskiΒ opened up shop in the former Headquarters Hookah at 2545 E. SpeedwayΒ next door to Alibaba Mediterranean Restaurant, and in the old Buffalo Exchange atΒ 250 E. Congress.Β
Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Sarnoski said he anticipates opening four or five Screamery shops in the Tucson area with wife/business partner, Linda Sarnoski.Β
βEverybody loves it,β he said of Screameryβs handcrafted ice creams that start with custom, in-house pasteurized cream. βJust being so far east is a bummer for most of Tucson and we want to be able to service as many people with our product as we can.β
The Screamery opened in summer 2014 at 50 S. Houghton Road. In September it started selling pre-packaged pints retail through Whole Foods markets in Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff.
An off-the-beaten-path sushi joint calledΒ IOU SushiΒ is slated to open near the Tucson Mall in the next few months.
The name sounds like it's a reference to "Dumb and Dumber," but it's actually a foreign wordΒ from the tiny island PohnpeiΒ in the South Pacific. (In theΒ Pohnpeian language, it's pronounced e-yo and means "delicious," according to IOU's website.)Β
IOU Sushi's owner Rocketchun Holden was raised in the South Pacific, but currently operates two of these sushi restaurants in Boise, Idaho. Menu items at the Idaho locations include a Nan Madol roll with crystal shrimp, seared tuna and crab, as well as a Snow Corn roll with baked red snapper.Β
The restaurant is going into the Home Depot parking lot at 4280 N. Oracle Road, Suite 180.Β
A former 1950s-era gas station near the University of Arizona is to become a beach-themed taco and burger restaurant this fall.
For passers-by, Jimmy Hulaβs will vaguely remind them of the two-pump service station and auto shop that has sat on the corner of North Fourth Avenue and East University Boulevard since the early 1950s, an anchor of the north end of the business district. But inside the 1,900-square-foot building at 802 N. Fourth Ave., youβll think youβre beachfront, with brightly painted walls, palm fronds draped above the bar, photos of Bob Marley and surfboards hanging on the walls.
The restaurantβs owners, David Blair of Tucson and Jim Onken of Phoenix, will keep the exterior intact, including the garage doors on the repair bays, according to plans approved on April 28 by the Tucson-Pima County Historic Commission. In an email interview, Blair said the old metal garage doors will be replaced by glass, and a sail-themed covered patio will be added.
βThe only true modifications will be aesthetic in nature,β said Blair, a longtime homebuilder in Tucson.
The idea is to maintain the integrity of the building, whose first resident was Fourth Avenue Tire & Service Station from the early 1950s through the early β70s, according to city directories from the time. The building also was home to Wendt West Auto Enterprises in the 1980s and, as late as 2009, the Fourth Avenue Service Station.
The building lies outside of the West University Historic Zone, which includes buildings built in the 1930s and earlier. The zone is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which establishes development standards and design guidelines for new construction and alterations of existing historic buildings, according to city officials.
Plans by Blair and Onken, who also is a homebuilder, call for remodeling the interior of the building and adding a bar, kitchen and dining areas.
βThe interior will be completely remodeled and look like a restaurant, not like a service station,β Blair said. βIt is a fun, casual, relaxed atmosphere; order at the counter, food delivered to your table in seven to eight minutes. Average cost probably $10 per person.β
Jimmy Hulaβs is known for its array of fish tacos topped with everything from guacamole and street corn to pineapple mango salsa and coleslaw, and towering burgers including the popular Burnt Reynolds topped with bacon, egg and Layβs potato chips. The restaurant chain also serves craft beers and cocktails at its nine Florida locations, including its Winter Park flagship that opened in 2011; a 10th Florida location is to open soon.
Tucson will have the second of the chainβs restaurants outside of the Sunshine State; an outpost opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in February.
Blair said neither he nor Onken, whose two daughters attend the University of Arizona, have extensive restaurant experience. But βin another lifeβ both worked for Intrawest Resorts, a Canadian resort management company whose properties include Coloradoβs popular Steamboat Ski Resort. Blair also spent time years ago working for a restaurant, he said.
The Fourth Avenue Merchants Association says itβs too early to tell if Jimmy Huluβs will fit in with the eclectic nature of the avenue, whose only other chain restaurant is a locally owned Dairy Queen. The avenue, known for its hipster chicness, is a mix of mostly independently owned shops and restaurants including Food Conspiracy Co-Op, The Hippie Gypsy, several of the cityβs most popular night clubs including OβMalleyβs, The Hut and Cheβs Lounge, and one of the cityβs oldest eateries, Carusoβs Italian Restaurant, which has been on North Fourth Avenue for more than 75 years.
β(I) canβt think of a better Tucson location and am confident it will fit in,β Blair said. βTucson is becoming β or arguably has been β a good food town. Tucson likes Mexican dishes, people like fish, throw in a great location and good proximity to the UA, and Jimmy Hulaβs felt Tucson was a natural fit.β
Only time will tell if Jimmy Hulaβs is a fit, says Fred Ronstadt, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.
βWe love the eclectic nature of this part of Tucson. Everything happens on Fourth Avenue,β he said. βI think over time the avenue has evolved. I donβt know if Jimmy Hulaβs will succeed or not, or if the community will embrace it.β
But he said that after years of the building being vacant, βI think anybody would be excited to see a property thatβs been underutilized, undervalued, to be utilized.β
βI certainly think revitalizing any part of Fourth Avenue thatβs vacant or empty has a benefit for the whole avenue,β added Carusoβs general manager Salvatore Zagona Jr., the grandson of founder Nicasio Zagona.
Blair said he and Onken are completing the kitchen design and will soon submit their plans to the city. They hope to get the necessary city approvals in June so they can begin work. They hope to open in mid-September, he said.
βThis time next year, I am confident (Jimmy Hulaβs) will be a very popular Fourth Avenue destination,β Blair said.
Tucson is about to get its first Louisiana crab boil restaurant, a lively style of Cajun cooking where servers bring out plastic bags of seafood that you rip open at the table.
The small chain Angry Crab Shack will open its first location outside of the Phoenix area later this summer. Co-owner Daniel Sevilla says the business is moving into the building that once held Las Cazuelitas at Grant Road and the I-10 freeway. The spot should open at 1365 W Grant Road in August or early September.Β
Angry Crab Shack currently boasts six locations in Phoenix, Mesa, Peoria and more. The Tucson restaurant will feature the same ambience and menu as those up north: Patrons order their seafood items by the pound, then customize the bags with different sauces and heat levels like Angry Ghost and Scorching Scorpion. Bibs aren't required, but you're gonna want one ...
"For people that haven't been there, it brings a really fun dining experience," Sevilla said. "Everything is basically head on: You peel and eat shrimp, you crack the crab, live lobsters, Dungeness crab. It's a lot of seafood you don't normally see."
The co-owner of the three-year old company says he was inspired by his trips to New Orleans, where people hold "low-country crab boils" in their backyards. When the former restaurant consultant moved to Phoenix from Los Angeles, he realized there was a lack of casual fresh seafood restaurants there.Β
For this location, Sevilla decided to enlist the help of a local franchisee Mark Guevara. If all goes well by next year Sevilla is hoping to expand across the country in cities like Atlanta and Chicago.Β
The Tucson location will have a full bar with Southern cocktails like the famous New Orleans Hurricane, as well as local craft beers from Barrio Brewing Co. and Dragoon Brewing Co. Seafoods like crawfish, clams and blue crab will be sourced from Trident Seafoods, while the creative hot sauces will come from a Phoenix operation Sonoran Spice Company. All food waste will be sent to a program called Recycle City that turns it into compost for community gardens.Β
"Restaurants usually create all this waste," Sevilla said. "We're trying to make sure we're changing the whole mindset, and making sure we're responsible."
- Kristen Cook Arizona Daily Star
Sauce's new location on Grant Road is officially making pizza.
And salad and pasta and sandwiches.
The fourth Tucson location for the fast, casual eatery is 6450 E. Grant Road, near Zinburger and in the same building as the second location for Prep & Pastry, also set to open this month.
Sauce hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Sauce β owned by Scott Kilpatrick and Todd Belfer, who bought the the chain from Fox Restaurant Concepts in January 2015 β has a dozen locations in Tucson and Phoenix.
The once popular Indian food truck The Twisted Tandoor has joined Tucson restaurant group Jam Culinary Concepts, parent of Vero Amore and Noble Hops, and will soon have its own brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Plans arenβt finalized, but the restaurant is expected to open in midtown in late August or early September, said Suzanne Kaiser, an owner and partner in Jam with her sons Joshua and Aric Mussman.
Kaiser said the partnership comes two years after the company started working with Twisted Tandoorβs owners Roop and Mukhi Singh, who started the food truck in 2012. The Singhs were in the process of opening a temporary restaurant in summer 2015 when Mukhi Singh died of an apparent heart attack. He was 52.
Soon after joining forces in February, Vero Amore, the Mussman brothersβ Neapolitan pizzeria, started serving Indian style pizzas based on Roop Singhβs recipes. Singh described the pizzas as being similar to serving her savory chicken tikka masala on classic Indian naan.
Singh said the restaurant, to be called The Twisted Tandoor, will feature many of the popular dishes they served on the food truck among an expanded menu of Indian dishes, all using her recipes. The menu also could have Indian pizzas and sandwiches.
She said she will not be the chef in the kitchen β that was her husbandβs job during their food truck days β but she will follow her late husbandβs food philosophy: βThe most important thing will be that people like the food,β she said.
βItβs big shoes to step into when it comes to peopleβs expectations, when it comes to the reputation of The Twisted Tandoor,β she said. β(But) it will be fun, Iβm sure.β
Other news ...
Meanwhile, the Mussman brothers are in Salt Lake City this week working on renovations of a bar they bought in late December, Kaiser said. The bar, called Tinwell, is located in Salt Lake Cityβs bustling and thriving downtown area.
Kaiser said Tinwell will serve a limited food menu, but its main focus will be to serve alcohol.
βItβs a great old building from 1945 with tall ceilings and wood floors. Itβs going to be wonderful,β said Kaiser, who said the bar is open three nights a week while they completely renovate the space. βWe bought a dive bar and we thought we were going to make it into a restaurant, as well, but at this point itβs great as bar.β
Kaiser said they bought the building in December after the brothers fell in love with Salt Lake City during a visit for a family wedding. The building came with a liquor license, which was key; Utah law makes it hard to acquire a liquor license in a process that often takes at least a year, she said.
Jam has two locations of its Neapolitan pizzeria Vero Amore: 2920 N. Swan Road and 12130 N. Dove Mountain Blvd. in Marana. It also owns Noble Hops Craft Beer + Fine Fare at 1335 W. Lambert Lane in Oro Valley.
In Tucson, it's actually very difficult to marinate slivers of pork shoulder in a fragrant red adobo paste for two days and then slow-roast it on a rotating spit topped with a pineapple.Β
The local health department usually frowns on these sort of things, and when Leopoldo "Polo" Moreno applied for a permit to open an al pastor restaurant three years ago, he was rejected. So he took his trompoΒ down to the Tohono O'Odham Swapmeet, a weekend market near Casino del Sol where vendors sell everything from Salvadoran pupusas to pig skin boiled in copper pots.Β
Polo is from MichoacΓ‘n and Mexico City, where spit-roasted al pastor is very common. After the style developed in the early 1900s from the skewered lamb shawarma of Lebanese immigrants, it spread throughout Mexico and became sort of a national dish. You can find the spits all the way up in Sonora, spinning like lighthouses guiding your way to late-night taco trucks in Rocky Point ... drippy monoliths of meat in Nogales, smooth and fatty or small and flappy. Β
But seventy miles across the border, they're practically nonexistent. Yes lots of Tucsonans claim they serve al pastor, but unless it's cooked on the spit it's really just pork adobada, Polo says. (Although I did recently spot a miniature spinning trompo downtown at Street Taco & Beer Co.) Usually the difference between al pastor and adobada is rather subtle. But real taco lovers, they can tell.
Even though the cards were stacked against him, the former Arizona miner kept trying to get his permit to operate in Tucson ... and finally it paid off. Polo opened his brick and mortar restaurant Polo's Taqueria earlier this month in a little west-side shopping center next to a gun shop and a dry cleaner. For the grand opening, he wheeled in an old karaoke machine and blared Mexican cumbias into the empty parking lot.Β
Inside, the space is actually pretty spiffy. The kitchen has been opened up since its days as a burrito buffet joint, so you can see the stately al pastor spinning around a backdrop of stainless steel paneling. The trompo is electric powered, and features a sanitary hood to keep out stray particles.
Polo prepares the pork shoulder himself every day, slicing the hunks into thin slivers and then slathering each with a paste of pasilla chiles, vinegar, orange, garlic and other spices. The meat must marinate for two full days before it's ready for the skewer. Then Polo props it up, placing a whole onion on the bottom for fragrance and then adding meat, onion slices, meat, onion slices ... In classic style, the pineapple goes on top so that it drips its sugary juices onto the roasting pork.Β
The heat coils on the trompo actually broil the meat from the outside, so that you're only cooking one layer at a time. Polo makes a quick cut about a quarter of an inch deep, and then slaps some pineapple on top. It's not an exact science: Our first order of al pastor tacos was cut fresh from the spit and came out a little softer. The second order of the day (yeah, we went back for more) had been crisped up on the flattop so it was crunchy and crackly. Β Β
I ate my al pastor in corn tortilla tacos, in lush corn masa sopes topped with salty queso and crema, and also in a fat puck of a burrito (a true Sonoran hybrid). I loved it all. The wisps of meat are completely infused with the peppery sauce, but have a delightful springy texture that sets them apart from adobada.Β
There are two special salsas made for the al pastor, which are both quite outstanding. A hit of the smoky red morita sauce brings out the tartness of the pork's vinegar marinade, making it a heavier affair. The pork gets lightened up with a droplet of gorgeous salsa verde. An uncooked salsa, it smacks of green tomatoes and fresh cilantro, creamy and viscous with just a hint of avocado.Β
The new space features an expanded menu with Mexico City favorites like shredded chicken tinga, the mixed meat torta Cubana and housemade masa sopes. There's also the Sonoran recipes like burros and vichis courtesy of Polo's wife Marisa, who is from Hermosillo. The restaurant serves carne asada, cabeza, birria and even tripe. They're probably great, but I wouldn't know ... I have fallen hard for the al pastor. Let's just say, I'm stuck on it.Β
Polo's Taqueria is located at 918 W. Prince Road, 520-407-5569. Its hours are roughly 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Debit and credit cards accepted. You can also still visit Polo's on weekends at the Tohono O'Odham Swapmeet, where he gets to make the trompo substantially bigger.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
It's been a couple years since Motel 6 atΒ 1025 E. Benson Highway has had a restaurant on site.
The last restaurant tenants were Irma and Mario Hinojosa, who operated their Benson-born Country Folks Restaurant on Tucson's south side for years before closing in 2014.
Yoly's Mexico Grande Restaurant officially opened Monday, although it's not open on Mondays. So its real first day in business will be Tuesday, April 26, serving up a breakfast menu of American and Mexican classics, from eggs and bacon to carne seca and eggs. Its lunch and dinner menu also crosses culinary borders, from the classic burger to Mexican combo plates featuring chile rellenos, tacos, tamales and burritos. Prices run $4.50 to $10 for breakfast; lunch/dinner starts at $7.95.
Yoly's is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
Mike Westphall received his coffee education a world away in Australia.
For about 18 months, the former Florida businessman who moved to Australia after selling his hydrogeologic firm, ran a small outdoor bistro and coffee roasting shop Down Under.
He moved back to the United States a few years ago, settling in Tucson. In February, he opened Pangean Coffee Roasters on North Wilmot Road in the small storefront space once occupied by the gourmet popcorn shop Prayerfully Popped.
Westphall specializes in fair trade, organic beans. He roasts them to order, medium to dark depending on your taste, in a 3-kilo roaster from U.S. Roasters. He can roast up to 25 pounds of beans an hour, but most of his custom roasts are small batches.
βWe had a guy come in here yesterday, and he liked the Guatemalan we had, but he wanted a much darker roast than we typically do,β Westphall said. βSo he had a cup of coffee, and I roasted it darker in about 20 minutes.β
Westphall sources his beans from a major broker who deals in large lots of beans from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico. He also gets beans from New York-based Crop to Cup Coffee Importers, which Westphall said has βrelationships with some of the smaller outlying plantations that the bigger guys donβt get toβ including in Kenya, the Congo, Tanzania and Burundi.
Pangean Coffee Roasters, 1525 N. Wilmot Road, is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Details: pangeancoffee.com
Elviraβs Restaurant in Tubac made a splash on Congress Street April 16 with its saucy moles and large tequila selection.Β
After a year of renovations, the upscale Mexican restaurant opened its second location 256 E. Congress St. in a space that once held Saint House Island Bistro and Rum Bar.Β
Elviraβs owner, RubΓ©n Monroy Jr., plans to keep all of the classic Elviraβs dishes, but will revamp about 30 percent of the menu. Heβs also tinkering around with new mole flavors like pine nut, almond and dried fruit.
βWeβre gonna play a little bit,β he said. But βyou end up giving people what they want.β
Monroy wants to give the new place an urban chic vibe for young couples. The inside has been redone with an eye toward respecting the wood floors and historic nature of the building. He has built out a new bar and installed those signature glass teardrops that brighten up ceilings in the Tubac location.
At least three nights a week, the restaurant will feature live music in a variety of styles including jazz, Cuban and acoustic pop.
Baja CafeΒ opened its second location at 8 a.m. Saturday April 16 in the Campbell shopping center that holds Sauce and Old Chicago.
The new location,Β 2970 Campbell Ave.,Β is just down the street from the popular Prep & Pastry, which gets a sizable line on the weekends. Baja Cafe owners Gerard MeurerΒ and Kim Scanlan are fixing up what used to be a Wing Factory.Β
"We got rid of the fryers, put in griddles," Meurer said. "It's pretty well set-up, it just needed some cleaning."
Meurer is also excited about the new location's open kitchen, which is "gonna be crazy." He thinks the spot's central location and proximity to the University of Arizona will draw a student crowd, as well as visitors from up north.Β
The couple already has a provisional liquor license, so expect mimosas, Bloody Mary's, margaritas and more. The food menu will be the same as the original location, with Baja Cafe's kitschy pancakes and Southwestern huevos rancheros. The hours will be the same,Β 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. seven days a week.Β
"We could have just stayed in one spot, but we have some really key people that are showing that they want to do this for a living," Meurer said.Β "It encourages Kim and I to want to grow, so we can grow them with the business."
But right now, two locations is good enough for this Tucson couple.Β
"We're gonnna have our hands full with this one," he said.Β
The family behind Tucson's El Charro has opened its newest restaurant Charro Steak in downtown Tucson. April 6 was the first full day of business for the Mexican steakhouse, which serves high-end cuts of meat with a Sonoran flair.
Opening hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. There will also be a happy hour with food and drink specials 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Β
Charro Steak is the latest in the Flores family stable of El Charro Mexican restaurants, including the flagship El Charro Cafe on North Court Avenue that dates back to 1922. The family also is behind Sir Veza's Taco Garage, which has two Tucson locations, and Hecho en Vegas, a partnership with MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas.Β
The steakhouse is inΒ the historic Julian Drew Building at 188 E. Broadway, about a mile from the original El Charro. When the family announced the restaurant in December, they listed a lunch menu with items around $10 and dinner entrees mostly between $19 and $22.
Dishes include mesquite grilled Arizona grass-fed and grass-finished New York strip steak, ancho rubbed prime rib tortas and osso bucco estilo Sonorense. Some side dishes from El Charro will make appearances icnluding coctel de elote (corn) and nopalitos y hongos, (prickly pear pads and mushrooms).
Nine months after announcing plans to move from St. Philip's Plaza to the old Mr. K's Barbecue on River and Stone, Scordato's Pizzeria has finally opened.
The restaurant, one of two Italian eateries helmed by longtime Tucson restaurateur Daniel Scordato, opened on March 17 at 4911 N. Stone Ave. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays.
Scordato announced last July that he planned to leave St. Philip's where he had operated Italian restaurants since 2001. He moved his modest Italian restaurant Vivace to the foothills in 2014 and gave notice last summer that he was moving the pizzeria after his lease expired at year's end.
Mr. K's closed in 2013 and the building, which once housed a Chili's restaurant, had been vacant since.
Alex Chaffin had just sold his iconic family diner to a Phoenix joint that sells gourmet soul food, when he got a call from John Abbott.Β
Abbott's family owns the 90-year old Rincon Market, a midtown grocery store that's mostly known for its outstanding fish department. The two had been friends since 2013, when a fire had forced the market to shut down for an entire year. During that time the Abbott family would eat lunch regularly at Chaffin's Diner on Broadway, and once even brought a case of plates to the restaurant as a gift.Β
So when Abbott asked Chaffin if he'd like to take over the kitchen at Rincon Market, the answer was a big fat yes. For the past month, the young chef has been giving a new face to one of Tucson's oldest markets, and bringing some classic Chaffin's dishes back from the dust bin.Β
"When you think of Rincon Market, most people think of YuriΒ (the fishmonger)," Chaffin said. "We want them to think of our breakfast."Β
For his new breakfast menu, which is scaled down to fit on a single white paper page, Chaffin is going for fresh and fast. It's a little bit diner and a little bit coffee shop, with gluten-free options and a full list of breakfast crepes from the crepe stone. The fat slabs of steamy country potatoes have been replaced with hash browns; the eclectic omelet selection is now build your own. Β
What's still there? Benedicts like the spinach-stuffed Eggs Florentine and smoked salmon Royale (now offered on weekends), French toast and Belgian waffles, the Country Breakfast with Boar's Head bacon β and miraculously β the Hawaiian Loco Moco platter. (But to give it a fancy touch, they now grind their own hamburger meat!) Β Β Β
But unlike the original Chaffin's, the new digs have a beer and wine license. So that means mimosas and Bellinis by the glass and by the carafe, poured with premium Spanish Cordorniu cava.Β
Or you can just get your food to-go, and now even by delivery. (Soon on the Tapingo phone app.) The new operation boasts a sizable hot line where dishes are made to order in under five minutes. But, that doesn't necessarily mean it's being made by Chaffin himself. This gig has him in more of a consulting position.Β
"I can't do that anymore," he said. "I've done that half my life, and now it's time for the team to take over."Β
Rincon Market,Β 2513 E. Sixth St.,Β is serving its new breakfast menu from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Mondays through Fridays, 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. Lunch and dinner times vary.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
Miss Saigon Bar & Grill opened its fifth restaurant in March, this one replacing Chopstix Asian Dining at 8225 N. Courtney Paige Way in Marana, off Cortaro Road and Interstate 10.
It is the Tucson Vietnamese restaurant's second Marana location; it has a restaurant about a mile away at 4650 W. Ina Road at I-10 that has been open since 2007.
Meanwhile, it could be May before Miss Saigon β which also has locations at 1072 N. Campbell Ave. and 250 S. Craycroft Road β reopens downtown at 47 N. Sixth Ave. The building is in the midst of major renovations that Miss Saigon officials said have delayed its arrival by several months.
The newest Miss Saigon is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays and until 9:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. The menu is still a work in progress but will not be as extensive as the Ina Road restaurant because the new kitchen is much smaller, employees said.
The wait is finally over! Blake's Lotaburger, the New Mexico chain known for having the "best green chile cheeseburger in the world," opened on April 1.Β
The store at 2810 East SpeedwayΒ will begin serving breakfast at 6 a.m. and remain open until 10 p.m.
Blake's is also planning to open a second store on Valencia Road near the I-19 freeway this summer. Judging by the interior of the first store, the Tucson locations will sport a more contemporary look with light earth tones.Β
βThe Tucson community has been incredibly welcoming to us and we are happy to offer employment to more than 80 local residents through the opening of this first location in the area,β said manager Kevin McCaslin in a press release.Β
The chain was recognized by National Geographic in 2006 for having the best green chile cheeseburger in the world, made with Premium Angus Beef and Hatch green chiles. The store was founded in 1952, and now has close to 80 locations in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.Β
Less than a year after she closed her tiny restaurant on River Road, Deborah Tenino has relocated Contigo Latin Kitchen to the grounds of the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa. Contigo is now open in the 3,000-square foot space that once held Janos Wilder's J Bar and more recently Brian Metzger's Poppy Kitchen.
Customers can expect lots of familiar faces, staffwise and on the menu, which showcases "pan-Latin" classics from countries across North and South America.Β
Popular dishes like the short rib tacos and Peruvian ceviche with aji amarillo peppers and purple potato chips will make a comeback. But with a bigger restaurant comes more storage space, so the menu has expanded to include dishes like a Cuban hamburger with ground chorizo and Manchego cheese. There's also a parrillada platter for two with a host of meats including steak with chimichurri sauce, lamb chops, blood sausage and more.Β
"The staff is full of people from Mexico, people from Peru, Brazil, Spain ..." Tenino said. So, "grandma's favorites get put on the menu."Β
In addition to the food, the wine list is also getting a major boost. Tenino's new business partner and wine expertΒ Nicholas KreutzΒ of Young's Market Company has broadened the list to around 80 bottles from selected regions of Spain, South America and California. The new space will also feature a private dining room called the "wine room," which seats 30 people.Β
The restaurant as a whole has been redone with a softer and moodier vibe than the bright Poppy Kitchen. To give the rooms a more "intimate" feel, some of the walls have been closed off to make for separate dining areas. The gorgeous scenic patio on the other hand, will look basically the same.Β
Contigo is open seven days a week from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa,Β 3800 E. Sunrise Drive.Β For more information including the new menu, check out the restaurant's Facebook page at facebook.com/contigoaz
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
Trident Grill II officially opened on Tuesday on the northeast side.
The restaurant, a spinoff of the popular University of Arizona area Trident Grill on East Speedway, is in the 3,700-square-foot Plaza Palomino space at 2900 N. Swan Road that had been home to Red Sky Cafe and, more recently, the short-lived Jackson Tavern.
Trident II serves the same menu as its sibling: burgers, salads, sandwiches and seafood, along with sports bar snacks from wings to nachos. It's open from 11 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays and until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.Β
If you want carne asada you're gonna have to go down the street ... This new restaurant specializes in the cuisine of MichoacΓ‘n, a central Mexican state known for its icy treats and mind-blowing carnitas.
The often overlooked regional style, which has been called the "soul food" of Mexico, has been a little hard to findΒ in Tucson. Enter Carnitas La Yoca ... Β The southside food truck recently opened a brick and mortar in the former Maria's restaurant on South Sixth Avenue across the street from the VA Medical Center.Β
Lots of places serve carnitas, but MichoacΓ‘n natives Rosa Lucatero and husband Ruben Verduzco take it to a whole new level. The small menu at Carnitas La Yoca features obscure cuts of pork like the stomach and the skin, which get fried for four hours in giant steel cauldrons until they come out soft and stewlike. Kitchen staff arrive at 3 a.m. each night to fry the pork, so it's ready when the restaurant opens at 8 a.m.
Even if you don't eat it for breakfast, the unusual "Cuero" is perfect for adventurous eaters who like to slurp their meat. After several hours of stewing in fat, the strips of skin become gelatinous and intensely savory, bursting with salty meat juices. They're actually rather palatable in taco form compared to the only other version I've tasted in Nogales, Sonora, but definitely not for the faint of heart.
TheΒ floppy squares of pig stomach lining calledΒ "Buche"Β look a little like something you'd give to your dog as a chew toy. But they're rather good, with a springy texture and soft chunks of meat clinging onto the sides. Throw on some pico and a drip of the brilliant chile Japon oil from the silver tub on your table. The heat builds slowly into a faint zing that cuts through all that fat.Β
I was lured in by the eccentricities, but Carnitas La Yoca also has hands-down, some of the best carnitas in Tucson. Shredded into little chunks, they're soft without being too soupy and have a nice fried crunch on the outside. You can get them by the pound with a plateful of tortillas, or like I did, in slender corn tortilla tacos for $1.50 apiece.
If you mostly want the carnitas but feel like branching out in a baby way, get the mixto taco. It's got everything! Β Β
Carnitas La Yoca atΒ 3530 S. Sixth Ave. is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. CASH ONLY. More information at its Facebook page, facebook.com/carnitas-layoca
If you've driven down First Avenue lately, you may have noticed a massive silver submarine where El MezΓ³n del Cobre used to be. It's not a mirage: The structure is actually a new restaurant by BenjamΓn Galaz, the owner of BK Carne Asada and Hot Dogs.
The restaurant is called El Berraco, which according to Galaz is a Colombian term similar to the word "badass" in English. The newly-opened restaurant serves seafood from countries along an old Pacific Ocean submarine route that skimmed the coasts of Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico and more. Β
To develop the menu, Galaz brought up chef Claudia Lopez BurquezΒ of Girasole restaurant in Hermosillo, Sonora. She's put together a playful mishmash of casual dishes a'la BK as well as more colorful gourmet fare.
Highlights include fried octopus tacos, whole coconuts stuffed with shrimp and a "Ceviche Route" appetizer with side-by-side ceviches from Peru, Colombia and Mexico. There's plenty of oyster and shrimp and even a whole grilled octopus, but you'll also see Sonoran dishes like bacon-wrapped guero peppers stuffed with smoked marlin.Β
There is also a full bar, with 20 beers on tap and more than 40 bottled beers from Mexico and all over South America. (In case you were wondering, the legendary BK micheladaΒ gets an upgrade with fresh shrimp and seafood options.) The restaurant will stay open until 1 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and midnight the rest of the week. Β Β
El Octopus, with salad and cilantro rice at El Berraco. Photo courtesy of J. Martin Harris Travel and Leisure Photography
"I've been in the food industry for 25 years," Galaz, who is from Tucson and Sonora, said. "I started with hot dogs, then selling carne asada tacos. Now we're trying to come up with a new concept."Β
Galaz said he's spent the past year and a half working on El Berraco, and even set up his own welding workshop in the process. The skilled welder performed much of the remodeling work himself, which included making port hole windows and covering the building with stainless steel paneling. The inside of the building looks like a cross between a Mariscos Chihuahua restaurant and the submarine scene from "Titanic," with colorful benches and moody dark neon lighting.Β
The dining room also features a wall-length digital fish tank, hand-drawn submarine posters and deep sea divers' helmets on the walls. Galaz says if the concept is successful, he plans to make it into a national franchise.Β
In other BK news:Β
Don't give up hope! Plans are still on for a downtown-area BK, just not until 2017. Galaz said he's got a large property at East 19th Street and South Park Avenue, which he plans to turn into a full-scale restaurant and bar after he finishes El Berraco.Β
- Cathalena E. Burch Arizona Daily Star
A new Tucson restaurant is adding its own twist to the concept of eating on the go.
Cup It Up American Grill at 1101 N. Wilmot Road near East Speedway serves its multilayered meals in a 32-ounce cup.
The restaurant, which opened Jan. 13, follows the Subway/Chipotle assembly line model where your meal is built in stages, from protein to sauce.
There are four steps starting with the entree β three types of grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, slow pulled porkΒ and short ribs β from $7.95 to $9.95. Step 2 is the "base" β choose from brown or white rice, barley or quinoa β and chilled or grilled kale, romaine or spinach.
"Most people go with the grilled greens," noted Julian Alarcon, the chef/co-owner who created Cup It Up's menu.
Step three is the toppings, including onions, peppers and other veggies, that can be grilled or chilled, as well. The final step is dubbed "superfoods" β things like avocado, pine nuts, chia seeds and other foods known for their high nutrient values. You can then choose to top it all off with sauces including the house favorite zesty signature sauce or the savory peppercorn.
Lest you think this is a healthful food restaurant, Alarcon is quick to note the popular mac and cheese ($3.95 and $6.95) that is quickly becoming a favorite for kids and their parents.
Cup It Up is the brainchild of Tucson golf buddies Christopher Smith and Jay Warren, who often asked that their food be put in a cup when they were on the course. The pair brought in Alarcon, a veteran chef who has worked with Fox Restaurant Concepts, golf courses and at area resorts, in summer 2014 to develop a menu and bring their idea to life.
In addition to its entrees, Cup It Up American Grill serves salads ($7) including its California avocado salad with roasted pistachio nuts, kale, avocados and grape tomatoes, served in a bowl. And if you're a little hesitant about getting your meal in a cup, you can ask for a box, Alarcon said, although the cup has so far proven to be pretty popular.
It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; closed Sundays. Details: facebook.com/CupItUpAmericanGrill
Alarcon said the Wilmot Road location, next door to a Trader Joe's market, is the first of several they plan to open. They are looking at locations next to Whole Foods on Ina and Oracle roads and another at Tucson Premium Outlets. The partners also are in talks to become a vendor at Arizona Stadium on the University of Arizona campus this fall, he said.
βWe really designed this whole deal to do at high-volume spaces" such as sports stadiums or malls, he said.
The bustling Joesler Village shopping center at River and Campbell has a new date spot specializing in gourmet Italian food.
Orenccios Ristorante Terrazza opened its doors in late January, bringing in wood-fired pizzas and a substantial seafood menu including dishes like lobster ravioli and Naples-style clam chowder. The Tucson restaurant owned byΒ German CanezΒ is actually the second Orenccios location; the first being in Nogales, Arizona. Β
The colors of the intimate dining room at 1765 E. River Road have been muted since its days as Om Modern Asian Kitchen, and the team has installed a wood-fired pizza oven behind a new bartop in the center of the restaurant. In the future, there will also be a 40-person patio with misters for the summer heat.
The menu leans toward upscale, with pasta dishes averaging about $14 and heartier meats and seafoods upwards of $20. Chefs specialties include several steaks like rib eye, filet mignon as well as veal osso buco plates for $36. All entrees come with a soup or salad.Β
Orenccios has a full bar with 16 wines by the glass and a basic cocktail list of classics like the Orange Negroni with Hendrick's Gin. The team also plans to roll out a 3 to 6 p.m. happy hour with food and drink specials. There's also live music Thursday through Saturday nights.Β
The restaurant is going in next door to R & R Family Restaurant, which opened in the former Contigo space in October.Β By the summer, Canez is also opening an Orenccio's Express lunch place in the recently-closed Falafel King at 1800 E. Fort Lowell Road #160. That location will serve quicker items like salads, pizzas and paninis.Β
A new sushi/Vietnamese restaurant has taken over the space that once housed the Filipino restaurant Pinoy Fast Food at 7159 E. Broadway.
Fresh Sushi Pho opened on Jan. 14 with a menu of classic sushi and traditional Vietnamese dishes.
The restaurant, owned by Duoc Le, has a wide-ranging menu of sushi, including rolls employing eel, crab, salmon and tuna. Its Vietnamese dishes include fried rice entrΓ©es and a wide selection of pho, the popular Vietnamese noodle soup with prices starting at $6.99. Sushi runs from $3.50 to $9.
Le, a native of Vietnam, has lived in Tucson five years after moving here from Canada. He worked for a large restaurant in Canada for several years and spent a couple years working for a Tucson Asian restaurant before launching his own eatery, he said.
Fresh Sushi Pho is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and closed Sundays.
A new restaurant called The Horseshoe Grill is bringing high-quality steaks to the east side. Father and son teamΒ Ken and Kevin BedientΒ set up shop in the old Table Talk building at East Broadway and North Pantano Road. They opened in mid February, serving house-smoked meats as well as locally-sourced burgers and steaks.
In the center of the restaurant, the two are installed a horseshoe-shaped mesquite grill that sits 20 people. The bar and grill also features an open kitchen as well as hand-painted murals by Tucson artist Joe Pagac. The "rustic" dining room is punctuated by metal surfaces, like light fixtures and a metal faucet that stretches around the restaurant.Β
"We looked at various spots in Tucson, and we felt like this pocket in Tucson didn't really have a steakhouse," Kevin Bedient said. "TheΒ community needed something on the east side, so it's a neat concept."
The menu designed by ChefΒ Andy RomeroΒ features various mesquite-smoked meats including pork shoulder, chicken wings and brisket. But the emphasis is on steak, which Bedient plans to source from specific Arizona ranches they develop relationships with. The initial menu has five cuts: aged porterhouse, T-bone, ribeye, filet mignon and top sirloin. Bedient says they plan to offer competitive pricing for the area.Β
There will also be a "staggered" happy hour with different lists of cocktails and appetizers for $5 at 5 p.m., $6 at 6 p.m., $7 at 7 p.m. and so on. The restaurant will open from 3 to 10 p.m. initially, but will expand its lunch service to open at 10:30 a.m. in the near future.Β
Follow The Horseshoe Grill on Facebook atΒ facebook.com/horseshoegrilltucsonΒ or at its website thehorseshoetucson.com
- By Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
The original Zona 78 Italian restaurant on West River Road and North Stone Avenue closed its doors Dec. 30, and has reopened as a new concept called Stray Dogs. The new restaurant serves gourmet American fare like burgers and small pizzas, at an affordable price point in a family-friendly atmosphere, said Zonaβs co-owner Rick Fink.
βWeβve been in business for a long time here,β he said. βThe economyβs changed, the areaβs settled in a little bit, and 13 years is a long run. ... Itβs time to do a little something new in this part of town.β
Fink and his business partner Tom Firth have made a few changes to the interior of the restaurant, adding high-definition TVs and stripping down the tables to give them a rustic look.
The menu features casual dishes such as hormone-free burgers and brats. Pickles and sauerkraut will be prepared in house, along with the french fries.
The Stone Avenue retail corridor just north of the Tucson Mall has proved to be a challenging location for both small businesses and national chain restaurants including Ruby Tuesday and Chiliβs Grill & Bar, which both called it quits in the past few years.
In June, the Star reported that Tucson restaurateur Daniel Scordato is moving his Scordatoβs Pizzeria from St. Philipβs Plaza to a spot just across the street from Stray Dogs. The restaurant is expected to open at the former Mr. Kβs BBQ at 4911 N. Stone Ave. around the end of January.
Fink said that the two concepts can work together to create a more desirable neighborhood for local diners.
βWeβre happy to have Danny moving in,β Fink said. βWeβre thinking thatβs gonna be a little synergy for all of us. ... Itβs time to revamp and make some good food.β
Zona 78 will continue to honor gift cards at its other location at 7301 E. Tanque Verde Road, which is keeping its Italian concept.
A new concept called Batch Doughnuts & Whiskey opened downtown on Jan. 1, bringing together small-batch whiskies, doughnuts and high-quality drip coffee.
Restaurateur Kade Mislinski along with partner Ronnie Spece took over an intimate room at 118 E. Congress St. from Frank Lietzau, the founder of Unplugged Wine Bar, which served its final customers on New Yearβs Eve.
The 650-square-foot bar area previously served as an office space for MEB Management Services.
The unlikely pairing of doughnuts with craft whiskey to wash them down has become increasingly trendy on the national food scene, with bars and themed parties popping up in cities like Denver; Austin, Texas; and Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis Presleyβs penchant for jelly doughnuts and a few stiff drinks has been cited as one inspiration.
βThe evil and awesome combination of two of humanityβs greatest creationsβ is how organizers of some of those themed events around the country have described the concept.
Unplugged Wine Bar had been in business since September 2013, offering red, white and sparkling wines from around the world and a selection of European craft beers.
βFrank and the downtown Tucson community are wishing Batch great luck and prosperity in the new year,β reads a post on Unpluggedβs website.
Main Gate Square has a new barbecue restaurant β a first for the University of Arizona-area entertainment district that has everything from burgers to baklava.
Ramiro Scavo, chef-owner of urban farm bistro Pasco Kitchen & Lounge in University Boulevardβs Geronimo Plaza, opened Redβs Smokehouse and Tap Room in early January in the former home of Which Wich Superior Sandwiches on University, just west of North Park Avenue.
βItβs a completely new concept that weβre thrilled about,β said JaneMcCollum, general manager of the non-profit Marshall Foundation that owns the commercial property on University and is Scavoβs landlord for both restaurants.
Scavo renovated the 2,800-square-foot space at 943 E. University Blvd. that had been vacant since Which Wich closed in March 2013.
Redβs offers smoked meats such as brisket, beef and pork shoulder, and beef and pork ribs as well as dry aged steaks, house-made sausages and cold-smoked fish and cheeses.
Scavo said the name Redβs pays homage to the University of Arizona as well as an Arizona rancher named Red. It also refers to the color of the smoke ring formed on meats that are smoked in real wood, he added.
βWhen you smoke with fire wood like pecan or oak, you get that red ring,β he said.
Scavo extended the patio to wrap around the side and front of the building, and also created roll-up windows that will be part of the bar. The restaurant offers casual table service as well as takeout counter service.
βIf you want a place to hang out, we have that for you. If you want a sit-down, weβll have that,β he said, adding that the restaurant also will cater to tailgaters. βIf you want to hang out and watch games and do beer tastings, we have that, as well.β
Scavo, a former partner in Zona 78 and the Oro Valley farm-to-table restaurant Harvest, opened Pasco Kitchen & Lounge 4Β½ years ago at 820 E. University Blvd. This summer he plans to spruce up that restaurant, including rebuilding the bar and putting in a new floor.
βWe love it down here. It was a great decision to come down here,β he said of the boulevard, which is an entertainment hub for UA students and the surrounding neighborhoods. βWe love the area; we are committed.β
McCollum said the Marshall Foundation had inquiries from 20 businesses interested in renting the Which Wich space and had narrowed it down to five serious offers, all of which were turned down because they brought nothing new to the district.
On Thursday nights when he was an engineering undergrad at the University of Arizona in the early 1990s, John Aldecoa and a few buddies would close their textbooks and ask the all-important question:
βWanna hit Wildcat House?β
βWe would dig around the car for change to come up with the $3 cover. I would come in with a fistful of change. We never worried about having money for drinks. We always had friends that would buy,β he recalled recently, standing in the middle of the cavernous place where he made all those college-day memories. βThat was like a ritual for us every Thursday night.β
Aldecoa is hoping to help create new memories for generations of UA students and Tucson families with his Brother Johnβs Beer, Bourbon & BBQ inside the former Wildcat House, 1801 N. Stone Ave. (*Editor's note: The space held its grand opening New Year's Eve.)Β
Aldecoa is teaming up with his brother Davidβs New York City restaurant consulting group and Davidβs partner, Sascha Kreideweis, to completely renovate the 10,000-square-foot building that was home to the popular UA hangout for nearly 40 years. The Wildcat House, opened in 1977 by California-based The Graduate Restaurants Inc., closed in spring 2012.
Aldecoa said the partners, who also include his UA graduate school colleague, marketing director Ines Newby, will pump around $1 million into the project, which will include building a 2,400-square-foot Bavarian-style patio beer garden and dining area with a fireplace; creating a bourbon lounge that will offer bourbon flights, food pairings and weekly tastings; sectioning off 2,400 square feet for a private dining area with a separate bar and entrance for corporate events; and creating a stage area for live entertainment.
βItβs a big project. I donβt think anybody understands the scope of what weβre doing,β David Aldecoa said, examining the floor plans that call for expanding the kitchen and creating a dry storage space. The original kitchen had no place to store dry goods and when the brothers first took over the building in early May β they signed a 20-year lease with the new owners, who bought the building late last year β they found a box of tortilla chips on a shelf in the kitchen.
John Aldecoa said the bar was pretty much left as it was on its final night in business under former owner William Everett, complete with fries in a basket in the deep fry, drink glasses on the bar and records on the turntable in the concrete DJ booth.
The buildingβs owners are putting in a new roof and air conditioning; the building had been equipped only with swamp coolers. The brothers also are putting in a new parking lot. Everett cited the parking lot repair, which he estimated in 2012 to be a $500,000 project, as the reason he closed.
Inside the building, workers already have dismantled the custom-cut pine lumber, which was stacked to one side and will be repurposed throughout the redesign. The cedar planks lining the walls will be preserved and incorporated into the design.
βWe want to keep the integrity of the cedar because thatβs perfect for a barbecue joint,β noted David Aldecoa.
Seventies-era disco balls that once hung in the main room will be placed in the restrooms, and old patron photographs left behind by the previous owners will be incorporated into a βThrowback Thursdayβ themed wall. (If you think you might be in one or two of those pictures, visit facebook.com/brotherjohnsbbq and let them know. They want to share Wildcat House stories as well as the photos.)
The Aldecoas hope to largely preserve most of the heavy terra cotta wall decorations with handcrafted sculptures of everything from Wilma and Wilbur Wildcat to a trio of bobcats in UA basketball jerseys and former owner Everett as a bobcat.
Brother Johnβs reunites the brothers 17 years after they last worked together. The pair ran a successful pizzeria, DJβs Pizza Pub & Grill, from 1993 to β98. When they closed it, David Aldecoa, 45, went on to carve a successful 25-year career in the hospitality industry that included ownership of a restaurant in Massachusetts and working in Las Vegas and New York City.
John Aldecoa, 47, returned to the UA to earn his masterβs in business administration. He has spent time in various management roles and is now a national technical manager with Ascension Information Services, responsible for more than 150 employees across the country. He will be the managing partner and face of the venture, David Aldecoa said.
So why barbecue in their Mexican-restaurant-saturated hometown?
βItβs an underserved market,β Newby, 31, said, ticking off a handful of independent Tucson barbecue restaurants.
The menu was curated by executive chef Nate Eckhaus, a 15-year kitchen veteran who has cooked all over the country including in Michelin star restaurants in France, Monaco and Portugal. He also successfully managed and coordinated five food and beverage outlets as executive chef at New Yorkβs Jumeirah Essex House Hotel (now JW Marriott Essex House New York on Central Park South) and South Gate Restaurant, according to the biography provided by Newby.
Brother Johnβs menu will offer slow pit-smoked meats including Texas-style salt-and-pepper-rubbed brisket, βBam Bamβ-style short ribs, baby-back and St. Louis-style ribs and house-smoked pork belly. The flavors will fuse traditional Southern-style barbecue with quintessential Southwestern and Latin flair with the incorporation of locally sourced chiles.
Burgers and Southern fried chicken, along with a host of comfort-food sides and salads, round out the menu.
The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner, as well as offer two daily happy hours β one after work hours and another late at night.
David Aldecoa said the restaurant will use local and sustainable ingredients as much as possible and will work with Southern Arizona farmers and ranchers.
- By Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
The restaurant, sports bar and video arcade chain Dave & Busterβs will open its first Tucson location inside a south-side shopping center in 2016, City Councilman Richard Fimbres confirms.
The chain has filed an application for a liquor license in the 1400 block of East Tucson Marketplace Boulevard, inside the Tucson Marketplace at the Bridges shopping center near Interstate 10 and South Kino Parkway.
Fimbres said the building will be just east of the 14-screen Cinemark Theatres, which is expected to open over the summer. The Dave & Busterβs building will be about 30,000 square feet and will employ about 50 people, Fimbres said.
The quickly developing shopping center also hosts a Starbucks in a parcel north of the Costco anchor. A Chinese buffet called Linβs Grand Buffet are also expected to open.
βItβs the continued renaissance of the south side,β Fimbres said. β(The center is) about five minutes away from downtown, so thatβs gonna be great. Itβs a hop skip and a jump.β
The Marketplace at the Bridges is a 350-acre property being developed by three entities: Scottsdale-based Genesis Tucson South, New York-based Eastbourne Investments and Boise-based Retail West Properties.
One of Tucson's most popular food trucks Aqui con El Nene has expanded to the south side with a brick and mortar restaurant.Β
Owner Salvador Gastelum converted the building that used to hold China Bay restaurant on Valencia just west of South Sixth Avenue. He's fashioned the space into a hip taqueria with a similar vibe to the nearby BK Carne Asada and Hot Dogs. The space stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekends.
The dining room is industrial chic, with dark wood booths and stainless steel tables. There are flatscreen TV's playing music as well as iconic pictures of Gastelum's native Ciudad Obregon tacked onto exposed brick walls.Β
The menu features the same stuffed potato papanchas and mesquite-grilled carne asada tacos that you'll find at the original truck, 4415 N. Flowing Wells Road. (There's also a second location at 570 W. Grant Road.) In addition, the new restaurant also offers menudo, pozole and birria soups. In true Aqui con El Nene style, there's also a sizable salsa bar. Β
The restaurant is open now at 65 W. Valencia Road. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Β
Tags
- Bk Carne Asada
- Tucson Dining
- Horseshoe Grill
- Dave & Busters Tucson
- Zona 78
- Stray Dogs Tucson
- Scordato's
- Contigo
- Batch Whiskey And Doughnuts
- Charro Steak
- Trident Grill
- Prep & Pastry
- Red's Smokehouse
- Brother John's Barbecue
- Elvira's
- Blake's Lotaburger
- Orenccios
- Carnitas La Yoca
- Senae Thai
- Jimmy Hula's
- Mian Sushi & Asian Bistro
As featured on
Food & Wine Magazine thinks Kevin Fink is a rising star. Was it because of Zona 78?Β
A lock box has been placed on the door of the Tucson restaurant.Β
The owners of the downtown Tucson restaurant were locked out.
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