Sir Veza’s Taco Garage on East Speedway closed on Saturday, ending a seven-year run that gave birth to three other locations including two in the Phoenix area.
Owner Ray Flores said the lease at his Sir Veza’s flagship, 4699 E. Speedway, was up at the end of summer so he decided to close before the traditional seasonal slowdown kicked in. The Speedway location, which he converted in 2009 from an old El Charro Cafe owned by his family, was converted to look like a garage with car-themed posters on the walls, a menu that divided items into car-themed categories (“Sweet Rides,” “Igniters and Starters,” “Backseat Drivers”) and actual garage doors that opened up and looked out onto Speedway, which was once the city’s main drag for weekend cruising.
But the design quickly became outdated when he opened his second Sir Veza’s in a shuttered Marie Callender’s restaurant at Tucson Mall in 2011. He expanded on his original garage theme, knocking down walls and creating exposed brick and the concrete floor to give the restaurant more of an authentic auto shop feel. The counter on the bar, where he serves 31 draft beers on tap including several local craft brews, looks like an asphalt road.
“We had a nice run (on Speedway). ... We’re proud of where Speedway led us to,” Flores said Monday. “We just couldn’t see investing in (the Speedway) location to fit our model. It just didn’t fit our needs anymore.”
Flores followed the Tucson Mall template when he opened Sir Veza’s in Sky Harbor International Airport in 2011 and when he brought it to Chandler Fashion Center in 2014. But he said the investment to update the Speedway restaurant to match the others was not worth it given that the location in a plaza on Speedway and North Swan Road catered mostly to a daytime clientele; Sir Veza’s relies on more customers at night.
Most of the Speedway Sir Veza’s 15 mostly part-time employees were notified of the closing Saturday. Many of them will go to work for his other restaurants.
Flores said he is looking into possible locations for Sir Veza’s downtown or on the city’s southwest side, near the bustling Interstate 19 and West Irvington Road or West Valencia Road corridors. He hopes to have a location pinpointed by summer’s end.
Flores’ family owns El Charro Cafe downtown on North Court Avenue — the oldest continually run family Mexican food restaurant in the country. The family opened Charro Steak at 188 E. Broadway downtown in April.
In addition to its downtown location, El Charro Cafe has two other Tucson area locations: 6910 E. Sunrise Drive in the foothills and 7725 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley.
