Lost Restaurants of Tucson by Rita Connelly

Author:Rita Connelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Café Terra Cotta

From an interview with Donna Nordin and Don Luria, July 2015.

“In order to keep me here,” said Chef Donna Nordin, “what he did was say, ‘Why don’t we open a restaurant?’” The “he” of which she speaks is her husband, Don Luria, and the restaurant they opened was Café Terra Cotta. By the time Nordin came to Tucson to teach cooking classes, she had established herself as a nationally recognized chef and teacher. Don, along with Candace Grogan, owned and operated the Tasting Kitchen Cooking School and Gourmet to Go catering company.

So, Nordin took Luria up on the offer and, together with Grogan, formed a partnership. It took a few years to get funding and find the perfect spot, but within weeks of Café Terra Cotta’s opening, the place was jumping. This was in 1986, and up until then, there had been nothing like what Café Terra Cotta was doing. They called it Contemporary Southwestern, and in a city that knew its chiles and beans, Café Terra Cotta showed locals a new way of eating.

The restaurant was located at the relatively new Saint Philip’s Plaza, at the base of the Santa Catalina foothills, Tucson’s fast-growing upscale neighborhood. It was an ideal spot. People had the expendable income, and Café Terra Cotta was just down the road. They decked out the open space in the colors of the desert and hung artwork from Arizona and New Mexico artists. Later, some of the artwork was used for labels for Café Terra Cotta’s private wine label.

While the Contemporary Southwestern concept was solid, finding the perfect name took a little longer. Then, on an “eating project” trip to San Francisco, Nordin noticed a faceplate made of terra cotta on a table at a restaurant and thought, “Terra cotta…now that sounds southwestern!” They added the “Café” part because they wanted the place to be casual.

Nordin believes that the restaurant’s sudden popularity had something to do with the fact that a few weeks after opening, she got a call to be part of Great Chefs of the West series on PBS. Then Mimi Sheraton wrote about Café Terra Cotta as well, garnering even more national recognition. From the local perspective, they received a glowing review from Laurie and Tom Pew, the best-known restaurant reviewers in Tucson at that time. The Pews were getting set to retire and told Nordin and Luria that they’d try the place; if they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t write a review. The restaurant had only been open a few weeks, hardly enough time to give a fair review. But the Pews loved just about everything about the place and wrote a great review, and the crowds followed in droves.

Nordin and Luria brought in Kevin Baker, a friend of Donna’s from California who had made a name for himself opening restaurants. Baker was a great chef with a temper to match but was the ideal fit. “We were one of the first places to have a wood-burning pizza oven,” said Luria.

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