Today the new door was installed at Ba, hours earlier the Grill in Tucson shut it’s doors perhaps for ever. Julia and I started the Grill 16 years ago on our student loans and our friends sweat. It was a hit on day one, and created thirty part-time, and twelve full-time jobs. Grill fed hundreds and hundreds of people each week, 24 hours 7 days a week, moving $600K through the local economy each year.

Grill was truly a restaurant by the people for the people. I had always hated the economic disparity of cooking. I.e. The higher up I got as a chef, the less my friends and I could afford to eat in the places that I cooked. So Grill was my answer to that, we kept the prices barely above cost and treated everyone like family. It took the customers some getting used to but they caught on.

Grill was a positive economic force in the blighted neighborhood, luring many hip business to the block after opening. It took away business from Denny’s and Coco’s and showed that restoration was better than tearing down old buildings for strip malls. It was one of very few independently owned 24 hour restaurants left in the South West, and proved that you could serve fresh food done well and still be successful.

Grill ran its course and I am sad, but we will raise a glass to it at Ba very soon.

http://youtu.be/aZtQhVp6an8