Owner Mark Erman of Ermanos made it pretty clear in his interview with us in a previous article that his new bar was in fact a bar first and not a restaurant. However, with a menu touting locally sourced ingredients, seasonal selections and unique flavor combinations, it seemed like this bar was promising some of the best bar food in town.

Starting off with the Zip burger, which is just $7 during happy hour and late night (Tuesday-Sunday: 2 - 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to close), I was immediately impressed. For a "not restaurant," Ermanos certainly has other restaurants in town beat on the burger front. The moist, tender Double Check Ranch beef patty was thick and flavorful, accented perfectly with the house "Zip sauce"—a savory blend of soy and worcestershire sauces, butter and herbs that's been reduced and intensified. It's the kind of burger you'll be thinking about for a few days after you eat it. I could go for another right now, in fact.

Anyways, after that first successful taste, my table decided to kind of just go for it, ordering dish after  dish because that burger blew us all away.

The gnocchi and cheese with poblano chiles and herbs ($10) came in a small, hot cast iron dish. The flavor was similar to a standard mac and cheese, but the pillowy gnocchi gave the finished product more interesting texture.

The meatballs ($10) used the same Double Check Ranch beef that made the burger stand out and it's that attention to sourcing that really makes Ermanos' food much more than bar food. Using quality ingredients and augmenting them with stimulating spicing  combinations, which in the meatballs' case was orange, fennel pollen and whole grain corriander, allows those ingredients to take center stage, while still  Even the fries ($4), which were perfectly crispy, were served alongside a five spice spiked ketchup. Typically I forego ketchup, especially when they fries are good on their own, but the creative addition of five spice to the condiment made it tasty and exciting—much more than a ramekin of Heinz. 

In terms of beer, Mark's brother Eric Erman has done a great job of curating a list that features many different varieties and breweries. The staff was ready and willing to help with suggestions, should you have difficulty deciding as well. Some of the best brews I tried from that first visit were the Destihl Raspberry Berliner Weisse (a sour white beer tinted blush from the berries), Great Divide's Colette (a lightly vegetal farmhouse ale) and Dragoon's Pony Express (a complex and smoky American Pale Ale). But, with 34 taps total at Ermanos there's a lot more to try off the list—and that's not even getting into the wine selection. 

Really, the only way Ermanos isn't a restaurant is the fact that all service comes from behind the bar. Unfortunately that was also one of the only faults I found in the restaurant on that first visit. With a group of about six, someone else's tab was mixed into mine and removing those items off of my card took a bit of time. It's not exactly a major hinderance, but I did notice after I had left that I ended up being double charged for something anyways. Hopefully with time those glitches in the system will be worked out, allowing the bar and kitchen to shine as brightly as they do already.


Ermanos is open now at 220 N. Fourth Ave. Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 12 a.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. 

Calling all agave distillate lovers. On Tuesday, April 14, Pasco Kitchen & Lounge will be putting on a special four course dinner celebrating the food of Oaxaca and it's smoky, sultry spirit: Mezcal.

The Noche Oaxaca dinner will feature four different dishes, including fideo with BBQ pork belly and shoulder as well as a spiced hot cocoa and corn cake with a crema de mezcal. Each course will be served with a paired mezcal varietal from Del Maguey's single village mezcals. Like wine and scotch, mezcal is highly variable based on terroir so this event will be a good opportunity to hone your palate to those subtle differences while eating dishes native to those regions as well. Here's the full menu:


Best of all, all four courses are just $30 plus tax and gratuity, which is kind of a steal when you look at what you'll be getting. You can pick up tickets to the special dinner event at Pasco Kitchen & Lounge, located at 820 E. University Blvd.

On a few magical Saturdays, Dragoon Brewing Co. will join forces with Exude Yoga to present a super relaxing morning of stretching and brews known as Bakasana & Beer. This month, Saturday, April 4 is the day to head to the brewery, located at 1859 W. Grant Road Suite 111, for your beer and yoga.

While both are good on their own, the real reason to head to this special event series is that it's actually a really good deal. $5 cash gets you into the class and also gets you a beer, both of which run at $5 on their own typically. Plus, you can feel like you earned your local beer after burning a few calories in the Exude class.

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for the class, which starts promptly at 10:45 a.m. and runs for an hour. The class is a bring your own mat event. Future Bakasana & Beer events are scheduled for May 2 and 16.

One of the first things I noticed about Tucson's food and beverage scene was a somewhat prevailing mentality of not needing or wanting to be recognized. I'd ask folks in the industry around town just how it was that Tucson isn't a bigger deal nationally and at least statewide. That line of questioning was typically met with shrugs and a sentiment that felt a lot like "maybe we don't want to get big."

Whether that's true, it's beginning to look like the issue might lie more in the rest of the state and its modes of culinary recognition. Understandably, you can't expect someone in the biz to care too much about something that ignores their strides time and time again just because driving an hour and a half takes an hour and a half. Although the Arizona Foodist Awards finalists did include at least one Tucson-area nomination for most categories this year, that step in the right direction isn't really enough.

The announcement of the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame inductees for this year took that step right back by inducting, yet agin, only Phoenix-area food and beverage professionals. I'm not saying Tucson should be recognized as a hand out just to ensure inclusion, but I also find it really irksome that Tucson has been largely ignored by the ACHoF for over a decade (unless you count Sam Fox and his empire of upscale, but casual New American joints). That's to say Phoenix has had better entrants in every category for over a decade essentially and I don't buy it.

After all, can you even keep calling yourself the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame if you fail to represent anything south of Riggs Road? Is there some sort of legal precedent for this?

That's not to say the inductees this year didn't deserve to be recognized. It's just unfortunately beginning to look more and more like an unbreakable trend where one part of the state gets all of the credit for carrying the culinary torch—and it just isn't true.

Listen up, Phoenix: If you can make the drive to Gilbert to hit up Joe Johnston's restaurants, you're pretty much halfway to Tucson anyway. Overlooking Tucson makes these awards look silly and it's time for a change. If you're still not ready to head south, I suggest calling it the Scottsdale Culinary Hall of Fame since the ACHoF awards come from the Scottsdale Culinary Festival anyway.

And to Tucson: Keep doing what you're doing. It's great and we can just start our own awards if we need to. Best of Tucson is right around the corner, after all.

For now, I leave you all with this:

Regardless of whether you're planning on observing the Easter holiday on Sunday, April 5, there's plenty to celebrate this year with eight local restaurants serving up some great brunch specials. Fresh fish, roasted lamb and a handful of Benedict options are available to make your Easter Sunday as tasty as possible.

Cup Cafe
From 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., Hotel Congress' historic little cafe will be serving up three different upscale entree options along with two desserts for Easter. On the savory side, a smoked salmon Benedict, a pork porterhouse with cheddar grits and a rabbit hash with sweet potato, turkey chorizo, fried eggs and bearnaise sauce will provide some stick-to-the-ribs fare, while the fried bread pudding bites and peep s'mores will finish the meal off on a sweet note. You can make reservations by calling 798-1618. The full menu is available to view on the Hotel Congress website.

Penca
Along with some of Penca's regular brunch offerings like corn cakes with black beans and eggs and achiote pork hash, Easter brunchers can opt for a roasted salmon dish with tepache-glazed carrots and bright spring onions from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. For dinner, the restaurant off of Broadway Boulevard will be offering a duck leg confit special as well as roasted salmon and cream of asparagus. You can make a reservation by calling 203-7681.

Check out 6 more brunch options after the jump!

 
Luke's on Speedway has closed, after being locked out of his restaurant for failure to pay rent. Luckily, there are other Luke's locations to keep your belly happy. 

From the Luke's on Grant Facebook:

A Message to Our Valued Customers of Lukes Restaurants.
As some of you may have heard, the Lukes location on Speedway Blvd has closed it's doors. Sometimes there are just too many obstacles to overcome. As disheartening as this is, we would like to ensure our customers that we will continue to proudly serve you at our Lukes on Grant location as well as the Lukes on Alvernon, Lukes on Ft. Lowell, Lukes on Thornydale, Kenney D's on 22nd Street, and the Lukes on Indian School in Phoenix. All of Tucson is feeling the crunch, not just business but individuals as well. Lukes has desperately tried to keep our prices low enough for hard workers to afford a decent home cooked meal. We appreciate your patronage of local small business and will continue to strive to provide great food to the Tucson and Phoenix area. We are not perfect...sometimes we make mistakes...but we always strive for the best. Our family has put our hearts and souls into this business for over 50 years and hope to be able to continue that tradition. It has never been easy but it is so worth it when we see a smile on a customers face. We hope to see you soon. Thank you.

The owner of Luke's on Speedway, Jason Amadori,  issued the following notice on Facebook after being locked out:

Listen up, carboloaders. The European-style bread bakery chain, Breadsmith, is opening its first western outpost and it just so happens to be in Oro Valley. With 43 locations in the midwest and east coast, owners Jan and Mike Kruziki are excited to bring Breadsmith the farthest west its ever been.

The Breadsmith name and recipes have been known since 1993 to represent old-fashioned, hand-shaped bread making technique, with the original owner learning traditions from bakers across Europe. Now, over 20 years later, the bakery has over 300 bread recipes at its disposal at any given time,  meaning the Kruzikis have a lot to choose from when it comes to their day-to-day bread line-up.

You can expect loaves of French peasant, rye, sourdough, whole wheat and more, along with baguettes. Jan says the plan is to carry core varieties every day and rotate out specials to keep the line-up interesting for bakery regulars. The spot will also offer a sizable selection of rolls and pastries as well. All of that doughy goodness is baked in the store's Italian-made four-deck over outfitted with hearth stones. 

Although these recipes were formulated in a much more humid climate, the Kruzikis said they haven't run into issues yet in the arid Arizona climate because their store is temperature controlled and their oven operates on steam injection. However, should those issues arise, they're ready to tweak recipes to ensure a crunchy crust and a soft inside. 

Without preservatives or artificial additives, Oro Valley's Breadsmith will only sell freshly baked daily  bread and what's left over will go to local food banks.
Although Mike worked for years as a programmer and software analyst in the Midwest, eventually retiring early and moving to Tucson with Jan, he says he's excited to get back to work at a craft that allows him to make something more tangible. 

"There's a lot of engineer burn out in the corporate field," he says. "You just want to get out there and actually do something hands on and meet people."

Along with their 24-year-old son Jake, who worked at other Breadsmith locations to learn every position in the store, the couple is excited to bring fresh bread to their neck of the woods.

"There really wasn't a bakery in Oro Valley," Jan says. 

Breadsmith, located at 10355 N. La Cañada Dr., will celebrate its grand opening on Tuesday, March 31 at 7 a.m. After that, the bakery will be open Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m., Saturday from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Fourth Avenue is about to get a cool new spot for beer, wine and late night eats when Ermanos opens between 8th and 9th streets. Now, before you get all up in arms that the name misspells the word brother in Spanish, you should know that it's a play on the brothers Mark and Eric Erman's last name. Feel better? Alright, let's continue.

The Erman brothers have dreamed of opening their bar for about ten years. Sitting in their beautiful restaurant just a few days before opening and the night before they train their staff, it's clear that Eric is getting a little choked up.

"I can't believe we're here," he says, looking around at the back lounge area. It's furnished with comfy black leather chairs and a large homey rug. 

Eric worked as a commercial brewer in Colorado for seven years while his brother was an environmental lawyer, eventually moving to Tucson with his wife to enjoy the climate.

After a few hiccups in figuring out their new space (it technically encompasses two addresses on two different streets—good thing Mark is a lawyer), they began exhaustively renovating the space—exposing the building's brick walls and skylight and repurposing the wood that was removed for dividing walls and tables.

"This wood is from the '20s. You can see the saw marks on the boards," Mark says, touching a new wall made from the building's reclaimed wood. "Our carpenter said that back then they would only fell trees for lumber that were over 100 years old so that means this wood came from a tree that was from the 1800s at least."

A large communal booth, more private nooks, bar seating and a patio offer a range of options for seating. 


With the finishing touches being put into place for the building, Eric discusses his plan for the beer program. You can expect 34 draft handles and a selection of over 150 bottles and cans of beer. He's also excited that Public Brew House will soon be open in the back courtyard area, brewing craft beer just feet from Ermanos' back patio.

"We wanted to build on the great beer community here," Eric says. "The scene has just exploded."

For wine, the team brought in a friend from Michigan named Anya Linda. Her goal is to incorporate a list of wines that are both accessible and drinkable but also feature more esoteric varieties to expose guests to new things. She hopes in the future to hold special tasting events in the lounge area as well, such as local vintner features and a popcorn and champagne night. 

"This place is the epitome of a labor of love," Linda says. "It's special and I think it will be the sort of place that anyone can come to."

Of course, it isn't all about the booze. Although Ermanos doesn't plan to offer full table service, a menu of "upscale garstropub" fare will be served for lunch, happy hour, dinner and late night. Using seasonal, local ingredients, many of the menu items, such as the soup and salad, will change regularly.

However, chef David Valencia Jr. knows the Zip Burger, made with a special sauce of soy sauce, worcestershire, butter, herbs and more, will be a menu staple. His right hand man, Jesus Cayeros, also made a grilled cheese for the menu that combines five cheeses and a sweet, tangy onion jam that the whole crew agreed would be a favorite.

The menu also features small tapas-style sharable plates for dinner, including chicken lollipops with a seasonal BBQ sauce, flatbread with chorizo and Oaxaca cheese and gnocchi with cheese, poblano and herbs, to reinforce the casual atmosphere.


Mark Erman says he wanted his bar to be a bar first with the feel of an indoor beer garden. He plans to have live music weekly once they open.

Ermanos is planning to be officially open on Wednesday, April 1 for full service. The restaurant's hours will be Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 12 a.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. with happy hour and late night menu deals. You can follow Ermanos on Facebook for more information and updates on the space.

Jamie Slone has led a pretty interesting life. His family owned radio stations here in Tucson where he worked until eventually becoming a professional race car driver. However, his story doesn't stop there. Slone and his wife moved to Santa Barbara to open their boutique vineyards, named after Slone. 

Although he's no longer a Tucsonan, Slone will be returning for a wine tasting dinner on Thursday, April 2. The event will feature a selection of his wines, crafted by winemaker Doug Margerum, including a 2013 chardonnay from the Santa Maria Valley and a 2012 pinot noir from the Santa Rita Hills.

To get an exclusive taste of Slone's wines, call 531-1913 to make a reservation. The event is limited to 36 attendees for the $95 (plus tax and gratuity) four-course, wine-paired dinner.

Here's the menu for the event:

Remember when we told you that Alton Brown would be coming to town to try out the best Tucson's food and beverage world has to offer? Well, Brown did indeed stop into the city on Sunday, March 22 and it looks like he might have taken some of the suggestions that we saw the most.

Brown posted a photo of the Santa Fe tamale from Tucson Tamale Company, to which one commenter responded:

"Greatest restaurant in the history of restaurants."

Then he snapped a shot of an iconic Sonoran dog from El Guero Canelo, prompting another commenter to say:

"I tried making them last year. It's not easy," attaching a photo of some not-quite-Canelo-worthy dogs ... leave it to the pros.

Next up,  Brown added a photo of him posing with some fresh churros from the Just Churros cart, earning the straightforward response:

"Churros! Gimme."

Before finishing up with a cup of "very good coffee" from Cartel, Brown got a half and half "iced fruit drink" with strawberry and pina colada at Eegee's. While we all know what's up at the Tucson institution, commenters explained it to out-of-towners like so:

"You can't even accurately describe an Eegee's because there's nothing else like it. It's not a slurpee. It's not an icee. It's not a fruit cone. It's one of a kind." Well said, Eegee's-lovin' commenter.

So, what do you think? Did Brown do a good job of hitting up Tucson's must-stop locations for Old Pueblo eats? Where should he come on his next visit?