Wait...That Place Closed Down?

It happens.

A decent restaurant opens up, you go there now and then, it gets better with time, you get to know some of the staff or even the owner, you have that go to dish after a rough day so you call up to place an order but....nobody answers.

Huh.

That's strange. You were just there the other day...or was it a week ago? Maybe two? I mean, they always answer the phone. Maybe their phones are down. Better just drive over there to order in person. I'll have a drink while I wait.

Then you get there and...it's closed. The place is dark, the doors are shut, no cars in the parking lot. But, its Friday at 6pm. This is prime time. What gives?

You go online only to find their website is down. That's weird. Better check Facebook.

But when you search social media you find a discomforting message strewn across their feed:

Thank you everybody! It's been a good run but we had to shut down for good.

We appreciate your business. 

Sorry for any inconveniences. 

Whoa. They closed down. That sucks. I mean, they didn't say anything or...

Huh.

When you like and give business to a restaurant for a good amount of time only to have them shut their doors, you kind of feel cheated a bit. Right? Unfortunately this is a common occurrence in the restaurant world; sales falter, costs go up, rent doubles, you gotta shut the doors before it gets any worse. But you were really craving that seafood dish. Ugh! Why didn't they say anything?

Driving across Tucson we came across a good amount of abandoned shells of once busy restaurants. This got us to thinking about why they closed and how we feel about them closing. Some we will miss and some we will...uh... Meh. 

So here are just six of the one's we wanted to address. And, believe us, there are a lot more just sitting there kind of rotting in the Tucson sun, but we will get to those later. 

Here we go.

Cali Grill

1800 E Ft. Lowell Rd

We totally saw this one coming.

When Cali Grill first opened its doors a few years back, we were excited to find that it was a casual Vietnamese restaurant and not a trying-too-hard "California cuisine" place. The food was good and after being in business for a while it actually got better. We loved their pho and their spring rolls were really tasty.

But it was usually empty. Like on a Saturday night there would be, maybe, a couple seated in the back and, maybe, one dude at the bar. Not good. This went on for quite some time and the last time we were there it did not go well.

It was a Saturday night and, as per usual, the place was empty except for these piles of dirty plates and used bowls just sitting on table tops. It appeared that they might have had some business earlier but whoever was on the floor that night just didn't get around to bussing them. Thing is, there was only one guy on the floor.

And, apparently, he was the cook that night too.

Yeah. This weird kid that looks like he plays way too much Skyrim not only was the server but was also the 'chef' as well. We placed a small order, he took it then went in the back and started to make it. And it took forever. To make the experience all the more odd one TV was on playing some bad sci-fi movie, no music was on, a light was flickering in almost strobe-like eeriness, the air was off, it was stifling (this was like in mid-July) and some of the un-bussed dishes were starting to attract flies. Gross.

Unfortunately the food was actually pretty good but when the place went dark a few days later we were not shocked in the least.

Thing is they re-opened in the Tucson Mall under the new name Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant. And they deliver! Maybe that spotty kid who took our order and then cooked our food is the new driver. Maybe he answers the phone, then cooks it then drives it over. Wow. That kid is amazing!

There are far better Vietnamese restaurants in Tucson anyway so...whatever. Not a huge loss. But good luck to them with their new location. We might have to check it out.

Orenccio's

Campbell and Ft. Lowell

Here's the thing: We totally thought this place would make it.

When a fairly successful Italian restaurant decides to open a "fast casual" concept in mid-town serving paired down versions of their upscale dishes with prices to match, you'd think it would do well.

If you remember we did a feature on Orenccio's a while back when they first opened up, and we liked what we ate. The sandwiches were decent, the pastas were tasty and the caprese salad was up there with some of the best in town. Really fresh and fairly delightful.

Then one day....boom. Closed. Like, um...okay.

But why?

Upon closer inspection we saw that the property management had seized, seized!, any and all equipment on premises and warned that if they return they will be trespassing.

Trespassing!

Dude, Orenccio's was only open for like a month. What kind of sick damage did they do in that short time to warrant a seizure of equipment and threaten with a trespassing citation?

No clue. Investigating online has us turning up zilch. So, bye Orenccio's. That was...fun?

Weird.

Ted's Country Store

2760 N. Tucson Blvd.

We love delis. We love delis so much that we often go back to ones that really don't do it for us but are compelled by the trance of cured sliced meats, soft bread and strong cheeses.

Ted's Country Store was kind of like that.

It was...okay, it had its moments but there are way way better delis and specialty markets in this town.

One thing though...was their bisque. Oh man, we will definitely miss their lobster bisque, a special they ran on just Fridays or something. It was one of the best cream based soups we have ever enjoyed. Rich, flavorful, tangy, bright, supple and oh so good. That is the one thing we will mourn about Ted's.

Thing is, kind of like Cali Grill, it just sort of went downhill.

The last time we were in there they had a decent meat selection but there were no signs and no prices in front of them indicating anything. So we had to guess.

"Is that pastrami?"

"No. Corned beef."

"How much for a pound?"

*thinking* "Um...let's say seven bucks."

Yeah.

Plus their inventory of specialty items such as imported oils, canned olives, sauces and such were all but gone. Their once stocked beer fridge was empty. No customers sitting and enjoying a sandwich on their patio. So I had to ask how things were going.

"Really good," said the guy behind the counter. "In fact we're clearing out a bunch of stuff to make room for new inventory. Keep checking in to see what we got."

We did. Closed two weeks later.

In its stead is the Drawing Studio and their parking lot is pretty full most days. So that's kinda cool. But we're not an art blog, its all about the food here so not being able to get their lobster bisque on Fridays kind of stinks. And we did enjoy a sandwich from them; always fresh and always on point.

So boo to that.

But yay to cool art classes at affordable prices.

Anyway...moving on.

Tokyo Rice Bowl

2807 N. Campbell Blvd.

This is a sad tale of when the little guy gets pushed out by the bigger boys.

Tokyo Rice Bowl was killer. They had a great selection of Chinese and Japanese dishes for fairly cheap. Not to mention the portions were pretty big and they prided themselves on serving up super fresh and super tasty food...which they did.

Then one day corporate American came knocking at the door.

A Panda Express moved in right across the street and you could slowly watch the deterioration of both the building and its business. Not wanting to bow down to pre-fab big business cuisine we still gave business to Tokyo Rice Bowl. The food was good, as always, it was just that...well...

Kinda of like Cali Grill (okay totally like Cali Grill) one guy took the orders then he went in the back and cooked them. And, again, food took a long long time to get to you. The last time we were there a few customers were in front of us and they looked pissed.

"How long is this going to take?" someone asked their friend.

"No clue. So sorry. I hope the food is worth it."

It was but...jeeze! At what cost? So we ordered our fried rice and yakatori chicken and, yep, we waited and waited and waited. And its not like they have a bar or some kind of entertainment (not even a TV), so we just stared at our phones and let out a sigh now and then.

The guy was nice, always was; big smiles, lots of "Thank you, thank you!" as he handed you the food, but it became really apparent that folks were lining up at the bigger hitters on Campbell Avenue.

So the day when we drove by and saw that his sign was taken down and a lock on the front door was applied we let out a disappointed "Aww man" and wished the little man who ran the place best of luck.

So we hope you are doing well Tokyo Rice Bowl guy. You were always cool and your food was always awesome.

Cheers for that!

Luke's Italian Beef

101 E. Ft. Lowell

Now you can still get Luke's sandwiches at their other three locations, but this one was close to the house so there you go.

This, to us, was hangover food. It was big, greasy, meaty and served up by big meaty and greasy dudes. The fries were amazing; think crinkle cut potatoes that were always crispy and hot. The sandwiches reflected on the employees and customers. Generous portions of beef on soft rolls served up with hot peppers and the like, when you were hurting from a long night of booze guzzlin', Luke's was the place to go.

Then after 23 years of being in business at the Ft. Lowell location, they just shut their doors and moved on. We suppose the other sites were doing far better seeing as this one was kind of in the middle of nothing so you had to make a point of traveling there to get the goods.

It was a fun little stand, no pretension, just an honest hot dog, burger or sandwich for an honest price. Mind you, it was never our super favorite place. We like a lot of other sandwich shops over Luke's. It could sometimes be a bit heavy, drippy and kind of fatty, which is what you want when you are hanging over, but for a normal lunch we would pass it by knowing we would be sandwich baby'd by the late afternoon. And if you got things to do, you know, like work and stuff, having a shovel load of beef and spicy toppings sitting in your belly doesn't make for mega conductive productivity.

All you want to do is food nap.

But the other locations are doing fine so...there's that.

La Fuente

1749 N. Oracle Rd.

Okay. Here is where we can get a bit snippy, nasty if you will.

As you know we always like to stay positive on this blog. Even the places we make fun of for being so crappy, we never say their name or get too hostile.

But we will say this about La Fuente closing:

"Bye Felicia!"

 We've only been there twice, but both times? Yeah, not so much.

Our first experience involved buying a Groupon for the place, like $10 gets us $20 off of our next visit or something. Sure, fine. We have discovered a bunch of decent places by using services such as Groupon. Some good some the opposite of good. We were hoping that a restaurant that has been open for 55 years did so by the merit of their cuisine. So we popped in for lunch and ordered up a good supply of stuff.

All of it...not good.

Bland, flavorless, over cooked beef, dry chicken; none of the items we ordered we enjoyed.

The place was pretty packed though. And it was huge! Room after room of tables and chairs with a bustling service staff delivering heaping plates of...crap.

Sorry.

Years go by and we were in the neighborhood of La Fuente running errands. They have (had) a lunch buffet so we thought let's give it another try with the buffet seeing as we were really hungry.

Bad decision.

The beans were crusty, the lettuce wilted, the taco shells chewy and to make matters worse the lunch buffet was not cheap. We ate enough so we weren't cranky anymore and then left only to get food about an hour later somewhere else. That was two strikes and we didn't want to go back for thirds.

Then in 2014 it closed. They re-opened in Sierra Vista and we sincerely hope that location has stepped it up as far as the food is concerned. But we highly doubt that we will make the trek out there to find out. Plenty of amazing Mexican restaurants in our vicinity and just on the outskirts of.



Hey, at least these places tried. And we tried them all. Liked most, and some we wont miss, but operating a successful restaurant in Tucson is not an easy undertaking.

Go ahead, give it a shot. We'll stop by to see what's up.

Good luck. 





Camera, Typing and Occasional Sadness
"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Almost Halloween, 2016

Metal Influence:

CONVERGE

"You Fail Me"

The Tucson Homeskillet pays tribue to Mukhi Singh

Photo courtesy of Tucson.com

(First off, just to note, all of the images in this tribute are from various sources and did not come from my camera. My interview and feature on Mukhi and his new restaurant was cut short upon his sudden death. So cheers to the Tucson Weekly, Arizona Daily Star and Google Images for providing me with some pictures. I don't make any money off of the Tucson Homeskillet, so if you come after me, all I can pay you with is a hearty shrug and a "Sorry". Thanks...)


 The first time I met Mukhi Singh was the first time I ate from the Twisted Tandoor truck. It was a Wednesday, early evening, late spring, in a dusty lot off of Ft. Lowell and Campbell Ave. There were other food trucks around but this particular one served up my favorite cuisine, regional Indian. Years ago, while still living in San Francisco, I had fallen in love with Indian food on a chilly day when I had very little pocket money and a voracious appetite. There was this place up the street from my apartment that had a all you can eat Indian buffet for only $5. Not really familiar with authentic Indian food at the time (like I said this was a long time ago) but heeding the call of my rumbling stomach, I walked in, loaded up a plate of steaming colorful food and took a bite. 

Immediately I was hooked. The complex flavors, the textures, the....everything! was so magical to me that I became a regular at that little Indian restaurant (what was it called...?) along with several others across the city. Moving to Tucson in 2006, I was lucky to find a few good Indian restaurants, but when I discovered the Twisted Tandoor, I knew I was in trouble. 

Mukhi greeted me with a big smile as he leaned out of the sliding glass window of his truck. I asked what I should order, he gave me a knowing nod and wink and said "I'll fix you something and you'll like it." It was a spicy beef curry dish with potatoes and lentils and it was incredible. Seeing as it wasn't busy that night, we struck up a conversation as I ate his savory food. 

He told me he and his wife moved to Tucson over a decade ago, started the truck in late 2012 and have been busy ever since. Having lived in India most of his life, Mukhi said he learned to cook by watching his mother in the kitchen and just walking around the busy streets of his hometown, Secunderabad, and studying the street food vendors there. Well, all that observation and practice sure paid off because my first dish from him was amazing. 

That started an almost obsession with the Twisted Tandoor, as I hunted him and his truck down across the arid plains of this funky hamlet of ours seeking out new flavors and dishes that Mukhi had created in such a small and sweaty space. Like I said, I was hooked.

Courtesy of Tucson Weekly

One particular evening, after ordering way too much food, I informed Mukhi that I had been a chef in the past for several years. Studying the long line of tickets he had clipped up over his roiling cooking area, he leaned out the window and asked "Do you want a job?" Seeing as I had recently made the switch from kitchen to library (long story, I'll explain later...) and was actually kind of missing cooking professionally, I lightly bobbed my head and said "Sure". We exchanged numbers and social media information but the job of cooking alongside Mukhi never actually came to fruition. 

But I was seriously considering helping him out on a few nights. Had it all planned out in my head: I'd work from 9-6 at the library, jam out to wherever the Twisted Tandoor was parked, help prep, cook and breakdown and then head home in time to watch bad TV with the wife. The wife, though, wasn't too thrilled with this idea and was relieved that the part time job did not come through. Not that she didn't like Mukhi or his food, far from it, but the idea of me coming home sweaty and stinking of curry was not her idea of a fun Friday or Saturday night. 

Oh well.

Courtesy of Tucson.com

Then one day I got a text. It was She-Ra, the wife in question, informing me that the Twisted Tandoor was mashing it up with my favorite pizza place, Vero Amore, for one night and serving up Indian inspired pizzas. This, my friends, caused a ruckus in not only my stomach, but my brain as well. How can two of my all time favorite eateries come together and create a fantastic collaboration of culinary profiles like this? I was floored. In fact, I didn't care about the "how", I was just thrilled about the "why". Why they decided to pair up for a night of Italian/Indian wizardry was like an early birthday/Xmas gift for me. 

At the time I didn't know this would be a regular event, so on that first night I ordered one each of the Indian pizzas. When I came to pick them up I was greeted by a wide grinning Mukhi, holding onto a frosty glass filled with beer, who shook my hand and asked what I had ordered. 

"Umm," I began. "One....each?"

"Of my pizzas?" he quizzed with a giggle. There were like six or seven of them.

"Uh. Yeah."

Mukhi just laughed and patted me on the shoulder. He was busy and had to get back to work. When my pizzas arrived ( to go mind you!) the bill came to $80, the most I had ever spent on pizzas. She-Ra just rolled her eyes. But I didn't care. The Indian inspired pizzas were glorious and I had leftovers for a week. 

Best $80 I had ever spent.

Soon after I had gotten word that the Twisted Tandoor was going brick and mortar. A location was set, somewhere out on Limberlost, and I was so excited that I could barely contain myself. 

Just a few months earlier I had re-started  my food blog, this one!, and turned it into a full blown dot com after a lengthy hiatus. Knowing that I had to do a feature on Mukhi and his new stand alone restaurant, I messaged him asking for an interview and photo shoot. He immediately said yes and that he would get back to me as soon as he could seeing as he and his family were very busy with not only the truck but the restaurant. 

I told him to take his time and we will keep in contact. 

On August 18th, 2015, I sent him a text asking about the restaurant. He, once again, was very gracious, but said the interview would have to wait because of time constraints. Then, sometime in the late afternoon of Friday the 21st, over the course of social media, I got the news that he had passed away. Wait...what? Apparently, just two hours before the opening of the Twisted Tandoor restaurant, he collapsed suddenly suffering from a massive heart attack. Mukhi was only 52. 

Shocked and saddened, I sent out a small tribute to him on Facebook. But that just didn't seem like enough. Sure, the Tucson Homeskillet is a fun food site, with snarky articles on rotten burritos and the like, but it is also a place for all things culinary here in Tucson, and Mukhi Singh was a huge part of that. 

He was always gracious to me, he always filled my to go containers with extra portions and a tasty surprise on the side, he freakin' offered me a job at one point and was a kind man. I wasn't close to Mukhi by any means, we never hung out beyond his truck or Vero Amore, but that didn't matter. From what I did know of him, and the food and smiles he provided, he seemed like an amazing spirit. 

For that, we at the Tucson Homeskillet want to thank you for all the good times, the fantastic cooking and the generosity you provided us over the years. 

Cheers Mukhi. The other side is eating really well right now...

Courtesy of Tucson.com

"Metal" Mark Whittaker
Late August, 2015


Metal Tribute
OM, "Thebes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM22W_stXG4