Historic downtown Tucson building to become English pasty restaurant, bar

A centuries-old delicacy will soon be dished out in a historic downtown Tucson location.

Cornish Pasty Co. has leased the former Indian Village Trading Post building at 72 E. Congress.

The venue will have a restaurant with an open kitchen on the ground floor and one bar in the basement with a second bar on the top floor that will include pool tables and darts.

The bars will be stocked with local brewery blends.

Owner Dean Thomas grew up in Cornwall, England, where the pasty originates and opened his first Cornish Pasty Co. in Tempe in 2005.

He now has eight restaurants throughout Arizona and two in Nevada and had an eye out for an opportunity to open in Tucson.

“We’ve always had a lot of customers from Tucson come up and see us in the Valley,” Thomas said. “We’ve always been interested in getting down there.”

When he saw the building, he knew it was a fit because of the similarities to the three-story restaurant in downtown Phoenix.

“It will be very similar to Phoenix, with the speakeasy vibe,” Thomas said.

The pasty, which he describes as a “hand-held pot pie,” originated as a meal that wives and mothers would prepare for miners who worked in the tin mines in Southwest England, dating back to the 1200s.

The pasties were made with a thick, crimped edge along one side for the miners to use as a handle while eating because their hands would be covered in chemicals.

When the mining industry in England began to decline in the 1880s, Cornish miners emigrated to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for copper mining opportunities, introducing pasties to the U.S.

Thomas said his restaurants serve more than 40 varieties of pasties with different meats and vegetarian options.

Cooks are trained specifically on how to crimp the pasty.

“They’re homemade and made the right way,” Thomas said. “You can taste when someone cares.”

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‘Blend of old and new’

Vacant for more than 20 years, the historic downtown building where Cornish Pastry Co. will open was built in 1897 and has housed everything from banks to drug stores.

Tucson investors bought the site with the hopes of opening a restaurant and entertainment venue.

Zach Fenton and his partners were originally going to open an eatery with restaurateur Daniel Scordato, but those plans fell through.

“I’m going to say it was fate,” Fenton said of connecting with Thomas. “I’ve gone up there and tried it a few times, and they have a pretty loyal following.

“This is a big win for downtown.”

At first, Thomas had a modest proposal to use part of the 10,500-square-foot building.

“When I saw the downtown Phoenix restaurant, with a similar old building with a basement and second-floor bar, it didn’t take to much convincing for them to come around and take the whole building,” Fenton said.

Remodeling work on the interior began this past week and work should take about a year because of the historic preservation requirements of the exterior.

“This is unique because of the structural deficiencies of the building, so the interior demolition will require a new steel substructure, new columns and beams,” Fenton said. “We’ll be keeping the brick shell and wood joints in the floor for a nice blend of old and new.”

At the corner of Congress Street and Scott Avenue, the building is the last on the block, once known as the Thrifty Block, to be redeveloped.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.