Quite the accomplishment for someone to own one of Tucson’s oldest restaurants AND one of its newest eateries, but the Flores family can proudly claim that title.
El Charro Café was established in 1922 (that’s one hundred years ago for all the math challenged folks out there) and has been run by the Flores family ever since. The Monica opened last week. The Monica is named after Monica Flin, the family’s great aunt who open El Charro way back when.
The two restaurants couldn’t be more different in both food offerings and space design. El Charro is located in the Flin family home on a quiet side street near downtown. The space is cozy and colorful.
The Monica is a huge open space with clean lines and a big city buzz.
El Charro’s menu is strictly Sonoran with all the old favorites. The Monica – where you order at the counter – has burgers made with a hint of mushrooms, breads from Barrio Bread, pizzas and pastas and plenty more. There is a nice wine list and a full-range of cocktails. Chef Danny Perez heads the kitchen sith a fine hand and much creativity.
We ate at The Monica last night and had a most enjoyable time. We ordered some shareables, a couple of burgers, a couple of entrees, desserts and took home two slices of pie.
The shareables included the panecito, a huge hunk of focaccia from Barrio Bread (Don Guerra is a partner in this new venture) with balsamic dipping sauce, an olive tapenade, goat cheese and wilted spinach. The focaccia was soft and warm and lightly seasoned and served as a great base for the other items.
Grilled Brussels sprouts were paired nicely with El Charro’s famous carne seca. The combination is clever and decidedly different. The mini chimis – another El Charro claim to fame – were filled with green chile cheddar and topped with three sauces – a red, a green and Bechamel queso. I loved all of them but thought the last one was top notch.
Heads up on the Responsible Burgers: Because they are comprised of 30% mushrooms and 70% grass-fed beef, the kitchen doesn’t cook them to temperature( i.e., rare, medium and well) so you won’t get that bloody burger found elsewhere. The Jules, which was the choice of the burger eaters at our table, is served on some of that tasty focaccia and topped with a three-cheese blend, grilled onions, arugula and a Dijon mayo. A true winner.
I didn’t get a chance to try the citron salmon but my friend, Norma, loved it. I enjoyed my meltingly tender short ribs that came with mashed potatoes topped with a French onion gravy, wilted spinach and wild rice. The taters were especially tasty with a perfect texture – not too thick, not too soupy.
The desserts were rich and wonderful. A devilishly good chocolate cake called ‘the ticket cake’ had creamy center and chocolate ganache topping. The tiramisu held a Mexican spin with a Mexican wafer and hints of coffee, orange and clove. Its name? Café de Olla. I think that translates to coffee pot.
Sorry, I have no pics of the marguritte pizza that I took home. I ate it cold for breakfast this morning. Styled after Roman pizza, this was a thick square of more of the focaccia, with cherry tomatoes, cheese and tiny leaves of basil and the house tomato sauce – a great way to start my day.
There are several menus at The Monica: The Pantry Menu – perfect for lunch to eat there or to go. The pizzas are available then as well as salads, soup of the day, chili and cornbread and more.
The Breakfast menu comes either from the Pantry or a full menu of intriguing breakfast items. The Lunch menu can also come from the Pantry or bigger plates. There’s even a Happy Hour menu and pantry items like loaves of Barrio Bread, El Charro tamales and other food items to take back to the office or home for dinner.
I want to go back for lunch and sit on the beautiful patio. What I’ll order who knows, but if I know that if I worked Downtown, I would eat at The Monica several times a week and never really repeat myself.
The Monica is a wonderful addition to the Tucson restaurant scene. Gracias, Chef Danny Perez and his hard-working team. Gracias, Flores family.
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