El Charro Cafe
Featuring Sonoran and innovative Tucson-style Mexican food, El Charro has won the Tucson Lifestyle Reader’s Poll Gold Medal as Best Mexican Restaurant nine years in a row or since the award was began in the local lifestyle magazine and was named in 2010 as one of America’s Top 50 Restaurant Icons by Nation’s Restaurant News.
El Charro Cafe, Street View
I spent my high school years in Phoenix and used to visit Tucson quite a bit. In Phoenix, my brother and I used to go to a place called La Tolteca a lot back when Van Buren was the preferred haunt of crack ho's. It was quite a trip: Part tortilla factory, Mexican pastry shop and deli that also served BBQ chickens for the brothers and sisters. The owner was Greek and packed a 38 in a holster. He would always greet us warmly and tell his kids to look at us because he respected two brothers that hung out as family (Some family, my mother and father were divorced but it sure was nice to see a father figure with some respect for family.). In any case, the super burrito must have weighed about five pounds, cost only a few bucks and my brother and I could live off one for a day (Good food too). It just goes to show that you do not have to be rich to eat well.
I revisited Phoenix about ten years ago and it was great to see how much they have benefitted from the revitalization of Van Buren.
La Tolteca