Closings-Signs of the times

Two restaurants of note went under last month, Auntie Dora's Soul Food and Mexa, a hip little taco joint.

Mexa had a good chance. We ate there twice. They had an unusual selection of tasty tacos, done well and pretty cheap. Their location, however, was the kiss of death. You know where Home Depot is on Oracle? Yep, that was the shopping center. Between being tucked into an alcove no one could see from the road and the brown shades they drew over the windows even when open, it was hard to figure out that the place existed. Now, alas, that problem is moot.

Auntie Dora's Soul Food was open for about ten minutes on Ft. Lowell. After it was shut down by the city for a lack of permitting, it never reopened. D'oh!

Now both these places suffered from the usul lack of restaurant expertise. Mexa was always full of the owner's pals hanging around and making it feel like a club you didn't belong to. Auntie Dora's? Really? You don't think you might need a permit to run a commercial gas grill and deep fryer?

But there's something else these two locations share. That is, it's been a month or two now and both remain empty. Heck, the building Auntie Dora's occupied was empty for a year or so before they moved in. Not only Mexa's space, but all the spaces in their building stand vacant.

So what's the point? Well, where is the support from the landlords? When Mexa started to stumble, did any one offer help with advertising, or a rent abatement? Judging by the pathetic signs they used to put out on Oracle, I'm guessing no. And Dora's? Heck, the place was a restaurant for years. Did the landlord ever take thirty minutes to sit down with these folks and ask them if they needed the benefit of a little expertise?

Now before you go all Libertarian on my ass, I'm not suggesting that landlords have a responsibility to run their tenant's business. What I am suggesting is that something has disappeared from Tucson business ethics. And that's the urge to act in one's own enlightened self-interest. And what's that a product of? Well, I have absolutely no proof of this, but I suspect its a function of absentee ownership.

If you're a local landlord, longevity of tenants is important to you. If you're a conglomerate like General Growth Properties, you probably don't really give a shit. And who pays for that? We do.

In a culinary market increasingly dominated by Chilis and Macaroni Grill, we all have a responsibility to our marketplace. You and me the eater have to support local restaurants of quality. We have to speak up when we see a good place screwing up. Local landlords need to foster the growth of their tenants that have a chance. Otherwise, the next time we go to eat, it'll be a choice between Applebees and Cocos. And I don't want to live in that world.

You have been warned.