Tucson’s infatuation with burgers is about to get some love when Little Love Burger opens next month in the downtown space that had been home to Diablo Burger.
The restaurant, which will open Oct. 20 at 312 E. Congress St., is the latest venture for the partners behind AC Hotel Tucson Downtown, Hub Restaurant & Ice Creamery, Hub Ice Cream and the Playground Bar & Lounge.
“It gives us a chance to connect with downtown and with the community and with burgers that are made by hand in a space that’s as cool a location as there is — next to Rialto, across from Hotel Congress,” said Scott Stiteler, a principal in Loveblock Partners development company.
Loveblock bought Diablo Burger and its sister Good Oak Bar at 316 E. Congress in August as part of the company’s overall mission to continue revitalizing downtown. The company also is developing a second boutique hotel on the so-called Depot Plaza Block, one of four blocks Stiteler’s company owns.
Good Oak Bar, which has been shuttered throughout the pandemic, will reopen Oct. 20 as well.
Little Love Burger, helmed by executive chef Griffin Armstrong, will feature handcrafted burgers with love-themed names including the BarBQutie, with Swiss and cheddar cheeses, smoked bacon, pickled red onion and barbecue sauce; and the Hot and Heavy that pairs Hub pastrami with aged Swiss, a spicy slaw and Gulden’s mustard.
The menu also will feature breakfast sandwiches and burritos, chicken sandwiches, a children’s menu and hot dogs including a Sonoran dog with charred jalapeño aioli and an I Heart NY dog with caramelized onions, spicy brown mustard and kraut.
In addition to the food menu, Little Love Burger will offer a rotating list of local craft beers and wines on tap as well as milkshakes made with Hub ice cream.
Patio dining will be a key feature at Love Burger, Seventh Street and Fifth Avenue.
Little Love Burger will serve as the prequel to Love Burger, a 4,000-square-foot restaurant with 12,000 square feet of mostly covered outdoor dining being built on the corner of East Seventh Street and North Fifth Avenue in the Corbett Block, which Loveblock Partners owns.
“Love Burger is an ambitious project to anchor that block,” Stiteler said. “With most urban revitalization stories, they typically lead with restaurants and then comes all the other things. Restaurants is where it all starts, and it’s important to get it right.”
The developers broke ground six weeks ago and Stiteler said he anticipates Love Burger will open in summer 2022 — the 22nd anniversary of when he first began investing in downtown Tucson.
The 1,500-square-foot Little Love Burger, whose name was inspired by Café Poca Cosa’s sister restaurant Little Poca Cosa, will be the incubator for Love Burger. It will give chef Armstrong, who had served as the sous chef at Hub, and his staff a year to tinker with the menu and create destination-worthy burgers to bring people not only to Congress Street but to the Corbett Block on the other side of the railroad tracks.
Stiteler said that once Love Burger opens, he envisions it and Little Love Burger “will hold hands across the train tracks,” serving as an arc to the downtown revitalization that has taken place over the past decade along East Congress and Broadway and the improvements being made just north of downtown.
“We are here to stay and grow,” Stiteler said. “We will continue to roll out new businesses. We will pace ourselves because we are growing alongside downtown Tucson.”
“Not everyone gets a chance to make a difference like this and to have this much property, much of it old buildings, and not tear them down and (to) bring them back to life,” he added.
Little Love Burger, 312 E. Congress St., takes the place of Diablo Burger in the Rialto block.