I like Tucson. Despite the 90-mile drive, I always enjoy my visit in the Old Pueblo. I took Hansel as my canine companion. SteveT and his dog Trace came along.
Spending time in Tucson means getting all the dogs who stay behind ready for my absence. The front yard dogs need their exercise before I leave for the day. So there's always a lot of preparation when I venture on a day trip.
I got up early to walk all the front-yard dogs: Wolfie, Sweetie, Hansel and Gretchen. Wolfie did very well sleeping outside with his sister. He may just come around as another mellow boy like his dad, with some training to keep him from jumping up on people. He shows reactivity toward other dogs, but he seems fine around people. Fritz is the one who tends to attack him, though. Wolfie needs to develop some confidence. In that regard, he's much like Gretchen.
Today's goal in Tucson was to fulfill a Yelp Elite meal at Buendia, a Mexican restaurant that opened late last year. I have been an elite Elite reviewer going on five years now, and the status grants me free meals or partial free meals to new restaurants in the greater Tucson area. These "freebies" come with an invite from Yelp. I have to request a spot for each invite, and I get accepted to half of them. Despite the long drive to Tucson, it's a great excuse for me to visit the town that I'm beginning to appreciate quite a bit. The town has great restaurants and plenty of greens space with scattered parks and multi-use trails. And, more recently, I'm beginning to appreciate its many professionally-painted murals.
The Buendia marquee and building is an old 1950s rootbeer diner that is clearly too small for its passionate clientele. It looks odd: a 1950s relic and a modern Sonoran restaurant. There are still quite a few old 1950s marquees on North First Avenue. I want to check out all the other nostalgic spots soon.
We had to wait 30 minutes for a table while the dogs were in the truck. It was a warm afternoon but I kept the windows open and made sure they had water. A palo verde tree next to the truck provided some shade.
Buendia has no outside patio, but with its popularity, it should really consider expanding its eating space. The drawback to that is cutting down on its parking, which is already very limited.
I don't normally review diners in this blog, but this meal was exquisite. I'm glad I brought my hunger. The Yelp Elite gave us a free appetizer, a cheesy quesadilla, and a free dessert, flan. I had chicken mole and Steve had ranchero chicken burritos. Most customers were local Hispanics conversing in colloquial Spanish. Our server, Patricia, hustled, We both left so full; I never ate another thing today. We had spent almost two hours at this little diner.
It was too hot to walk the dogs in Tucson by mid-day, so our next alternative was to hang out at Borderlands Brewing. They have the best dog-friendly patio in town, complete with palo verde trees along the fence line, sunshades, and misters. We arrived at 2:16pm and sat outside, sharing the patio with several other dog owners. A country-rock-swing band was setting up, but we only stayed another 90 minutes. I had a pint of prickly pear wheat and a pint of their mango wheat ale. Both are very good!
At 4pm it was still in the 90Fs. Steve suggested we just drive home at this point and walk the dogs in French Joe Canyon, right of SR90. The two-mile access road into the canyon is a gentle upgrade. We arrived at 5:15pm and were long enough to see the sunset colors an hour and 2.5 miles later.
I got home at 7:30pm and walked the dogs again: Wolfie, Gretchen, Sweetie. Only Wolfie slept with me while Sweetie stayed with Hansel in the truck and Gretchen napped in the CRV overnight. He was very calm tonight and never moved off the bed.
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