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Downtown Tucson delights: New places to eat, drink, be merry in 2022

  • Updated
  • 7 min to read

Miguel Lopez, with Two Brothers Handy Man, works on what will be the new 27-foot granite top bar in the former Independent Distillery, part of the remodeling and expansion of HighWire Lounge.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

The folks at the Tucson Convention Center spent the COVID-19 pandemic renovating and upgrading its venues, from installing new seats and sound improvements at Tucson Music Hall to expanding and improving the meeting rooms and parking garages at the Convention Center.

Downtown at Hotel Congress, the old Copper Room is being renovated to create the jazz club and agave/wine tasting room, the Century Club, which will debut in January when it hosts several events for the HSL Properties Tucson Jazz Festival.

A block west, the owners of HighWire Lounge are in the process of expanding their downtown footprint on a grand scale, taking over the shuttered Independent Distillery next door and the adjoining old Drawing Studio space in a move that will elevate its status as an entertainment destination for food and drink.

As we welcome 2022, we’ve circled back to some of the folks downtown who made sweet lemonade out of the pandemic’s sour lemons to see what the new year will bring.

Ethan Grauberger of the Big Top Seating Co. installs end caps on the new seating at the Tucson Music Hall.

Tucson Convention Center

260 S. Church Ave., tucsonconventioncenter.com

Workers spent the better part of the pandemic making $65 million worth of upgrades to the TCC campus, which includes the convention center, Tucson Music Hall and Leo Rich Theater. The work included much-needed upgrades to the Music Hall, from new bathroom fixtures to new seats and carpet. They even cleaned the brick interior.

The historic fountain in the Eckbo Plaza outside the Music Hall also got some love; for the first time in years, the water was flowing.

The project also included adding as much as 20,000 square feet of meeting space near the ballroom and south exhibit hall in the TCC and renovating the restrooms at the smaller Leo Rich Theater, home to the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and its popular Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival held each March.

TCC General Manager Glenn Grabski said there’s still work to be done including finishing the meeting rooms, which he anticipates will be done in February, in time for the 2022 Tucson Gem & Mineral Show Feb. 10-13.

“We’re not finished, yet,” he said last week, but “I would say the heavy lifting is past us.”

Grabski said the TCC is still working on the Lot C parking garage, which could be ready by April. In November 2020, it opened the 380-space parking garage in front of the Tucson Arena, next to the six-story, 170-room DoubleTree by Hilton Tucson Downtown Convention Center hotel, 280 S. Church Ave., that opened in May.

Grabski said with the improvements, he is seeing more interest from artists wanting to book Tucson Music Hall. Several acts already have been booked into the 2,289-seat venue for 2022, including the Marshall Tucker Band, which is bringing its 50th anniversary tour with Dave Mason on March 19.

Coming in 2022: Jazz great Dianne Reeves, Jan. 23; Ballet Tucson’s “reFresh Winter Concert,” Jan. 28-30; Arizona Opera presents “Carmen,” Feb. 5-6; comedian Jo Koy “Funny is Funny World Tour,” Feb. 25; Chicago, March 1; country singer Justin Moore and Friends, March 12; comedian Tom Segura, March 24; Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona “Blanco y Negro Tour 2022” (Black and White), March 27; Latin and reggaeton star J Balvin’s “José Tour 2022,” April 22; Celtic Woman’s “Postcards from Ireland,” May 3; “Happy Together,” July 14; and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Dec. 3.

HighWire Lounge

14 S. Arizona Ave., highwiretucson.com

If all goes according to plan, owners of HighWire Lounge, Tucson’s downtown destination for drinks made from spherified tequila droplets, cotton candy and other forms of molecular mixology, will be taking things to the next level just in time for Valentine’s Day.

The bar’s owners, Nicholas Eggman and John Hardin, have taken over the Independent Distillery next door, expanding HighWire’s size from 1,200 square feet to a whopping 7,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor space.

The plan is to turn the new building into their main bar and restaurant area. It comes with a huge kitchen which HighWire will share with its neighbor, Johnny Gibson’s Downtown Market.

A full menu will be available until 10 p.m. before the late-night munchies menu comes out. The focus will be on shareable plates.

“Instead of burgers, we’ll have sliders,” Hardin said. “Mini-pancakes, mini-doughnuts. Stuff that will fill you up, but if you and your friends each ordered a different plate, you could have a little of this, a little of that.”

Eggman said HighWire had long outgrown its original space, located around the corner from Hub Restaurant & Ice Creamery on East Congress. They were already toying with the idea of relocating before the pandemic hit.

Once Independent Distillery announced its closure, HighWire made its move.

“It wasn’t the best time, but we knew we had to figure out a way to lock this in,” Eggman said. “When things got back into normal, we were going to need the space.”

In addition to the restaurant aspect, the expanded HighWire will have a 27-foot-long, granite top bar, with five stations; three of them for your standard cocktails and the other two for craft beer, molecular mixology and tap cocktails.

Hardin said the bar will be set up so that bartenders won’t have to take more than two steps to reach any of the ingredients they need.

“People want craft cocktails, but they don’t want to wait for craft cocktails,” Hardin said. “We are hoping to be one of the fastest bars downtown.”

Once the restaurant is up and running. HighWire will be working with Johnny Gibson’s to turn what was once the old Drawing Studio space, facing South Sixth Avenue into an all-singing, all-dancing event center for weddings and other special occasions.

“Johnny Gibson’s will be the retail, HighWire the nightlife and entertainment, and the event center will be more about community,” Eggman said.

Eggman and Hardin plan to have the expanded HighWire open by the first week in February. The original space and courtyard continue to operate, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 2 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays, 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m.-midnight Sundays.

Clayton Lull of Aztec Flooring lays out flooring in the new Century Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street.

Hotel Congress

311 E. Congress St., hotelcongress.com

The historic downtown hotel, home to the hip Club Congress and its Club Congress Plaza outdoor stage, completed the first phase of an ambitious $750,000 renovation project last summer. That work included expanding the usable space on its outdoor plaza, where concerts have been held since October 2020.

Hotel Congress expanded the plaza stage and installed misters and a retractable canopy for shading that allows it to take full advantage of the plaza even in the high heat of summertime.

“We’ve just really enhanced our plaza venue in several ways, and we’ll continue in 2022 with an upgraded sound system,” said David Slutes, Hotel Congress’s entertainment director.

Javier Gonzalez, left, and Aaron Candlish, of Arizona Cabinet Innovations, work on the new Century Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street. The Century Room is replacing Copper Hall and will become a jazz club and a mescal tasting lounge.

With COVID transmissions on the rise nationwide, Slutes said more artists are opting to hold their concerts outside.

“We just feel most people and the people who come here feel more comfortable on the outside plaza,” he said.

A centerpiece of the renovation project is building out the 2,200-square-foot Copper Hall near the lobby and creating the Century Room, which will have a jazz club on one end and an agave/wine tasting room on the other. The space will no longer have an entrance off the lobby. Instead, patrons will enter off Congress Street.

Slutes said they are working feverishly to finish the work in time for the 2022 HSL Properties Tucson Jazz Festival, which will include several after-party events at Congress. The first event booked into the Century Room is Arthur Vint & Associates on Jan. 19.

Coming in 2022: Tucson singer-songwriter Gabrielle Pietrangelo joins Howe Gelb and Bekah Rolland for her first solo performance in Tucson since the pandemic, Jan. 2; Dillinger Days, Jan. 15-16; Downtown Jazz Fiesta with Kendrick Scott, Jan. 17; English post-punkers Shame, Feb. 15; Tucson rock duo Birds and Arrows, Feb. 25; legendary Brit rockers Modern English, March 26; and singer-songwriter Chris Smither, March 29.

Monica Flinn, right, at the family's El Charro Cafe in Tucson, circa 1960s.

El Charro’s Centennial

Several locations including the downtown flagship at 311 N. Court Ave., elcharrocafe.com

Tucson’s El Charro Café kicks off its yearlong 100th anniversary celebration with the opening early next year of The Monica, an homage to El Charro founder Monica Flin. The 4,500-square-foot restaurant with a sprawling 2,500-square-foot patio on the first floor of the Hexagon building at City Park will feature culinary creations from some of Tucson’s notable chefs and food personalities including baker Don Guerra.

It will be the second venture with Guerra and El Charro’s parent company Si Charro. In early January 2021, Si Charro and Guerra opened Barrio Charro at 3699 N. Campbell Ave.

The Monica is a nod to the classic American pantry and buffet-style dining halls whose menus change depending on what’s in the pantry.

New light fixtures and wallpaper are in place as work continues to get the new restaurant, The Monica, ready to open.

Si Charro President Ray Flores said The Monica, at 40 E. Congress St., has been in the works for several years but came together during the pandemic as a way to highlight not only the Flores family’s place in Tucson’s culinary landscape, but the efforts of other local chefs and restaurant operators.

Coming in 2022: The opening kicks off a year of events leading up to the September anniversary of Monica Flin opening the original El Charro Mexican restaurant in 1922. Some highlights include teaming up with Dragoon Brewing Co. on an El Charro cerveza of the century brew, creating a commemorative century salsa and collaborating with Mexican tequila maker Codigo for a special 100-year-old tequila.

El Teatro Carmen

380 S. Meyer Ave., facebook.com/TeatroCarmen

Over the summer, Stratford Artworks, a local nonprofit run by Herb Stratford, purchased El Teatro Carmen downtown in the hopes of bringing the historic theater back to its former glory.

That dream is still a few years from completion, but Stratford, the man who spearheaded efforts to bring the Fox Tucson back to life, said at least part of the property might be accessible for live music and film within the next six months.

The empty lot just south of the two buildings that make up the theater, at the corner of West Simpson Street and South Meyer Avenue, is part of Phase 1 of the renovation process and will be easier to complete, Stratford said. His goal is to hold live concerts and film screenings on the site.

“We are not talking a massive amount of infrastructure,” Stratford said.

Startford said the entire project received a boost earlier this month, when the Pima County Board of Supervisors agreed to purchase Teatro Carmen from Stratford Artworks and invest more than $1 million into its restoration.

Herb Stratford, president of Stratford Artworks, at Teatro Carmen, 380 S. Meyer Ave. Stratford Artworks bought Teatro Carmen with plans to return it to a performing arts space.

Stratford Artworks will stay on to see the theater through the process, then run the operation once the Carmen is complete.

“The county understands that we have a certain set of skills to get the job done,” Stratford said. “We aren’t being displaced. Because they are investing public dollars, they have to own the asset.

“There is some funding that we were unable to go after because the property had to be held publicly. The purchase has actually opened some doors for us.”

Beyond the fundraising and completion of Phase 1, Stratford said his nonprofit will continue to seek out first-hand accounts and photos from people who spent time there, particularly during the decades that it served as an Elks Lodge for African American members.

“We want to make sure we have the opportunity to celebrate the unique cultural heritage of this building,” he said.

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Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch.

Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at ggay@tucson.com