Visit Tucson on Tuesday, March 5, rolled out its inaugural Mexican Food Field Guide, an app that leads users to a trail of Tucson’s celebrated Mexican restaurants, taquerias and food trucks.
It is the tourism office’s second experience-centric mobile app targeted to visitors and residents since it launched its Outdoor Adventure Field Guide a few months ago.
The Mexican Food Field Guide builds on the city’s UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation and its unofficial “23 Miles of Mexican Food” food trail that crisscrosses every corner of the greater Tucson area. The app was a natural follow up to the “23 Miles” campaign, which Visit Tucson and the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance kicked off in 2016, a year after Tucson was named the country’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
The app, available through americasbestmexicanfood.com, lists 15 randomly selected Mexican restaurants out of the 170-plus that Visit Tucson has identified throughout the city. The list will regularly rotate with some of the restaurants offering discounts and freebies with purchase to entice customers.
When you visit a restaurant on the app, you can get the restaurant’s unique four-digit pin number and check in, which is worth points that can be redeemed for Visit Tucson T-shirts, coffee mugs, stickers and other prizes.
Seis Kitchen has three locations including one at the Mercado San Agustin, 130 S. Avenida del Convento.
“We want to create excitement,” said Visit Tucson President and CEO Felipe Garcia. “We know that consumers, especially visitors, like listings. When you put the Top 10, the Top 5 or 15 things to do, or guides to do this or that, these guided experiences are sought after by consumers. They want someone to curate an experience.”
Restaurants don’t pay to be included in the app, Garcia said, and restaurant selection is random, limited to 15 so as not to overwhelm users. The inaugural list on Tuesday included the iconic El Charro Cafe downtown, El Minuto Cafe on South Main Avenue, Rollie’s Mexican Patio on the south side and Seis Kitchen in the Mercado and on South Sixth Avenue.
“We are trying to inspire local residents and visitors to go and try something different or something you’ve never heard of before,” Garcia said. “We have amazing Mexican food.”
The City of South Tucson restaurant Mi Nidito is on the inaugural Mexican Food Field Guide app from Visit Tucson.
This Sonoran gut buster is the calling card from Percheron Mexican Grill on the south side, but their Sonoran hot dogs topped with avocado are also big draws.
