The menu was quite fussy at The Coronet, located in a charming 1860s adobe building in the Barrio, in downtown Tucson. But the food turned out to be fantastic – from the “shrub” (fruit-infused non-alcoholic drink) to the small plates (mushrooms in a white mole sauce; pork belly perfectly grilled with little fat, in a delicious sauce) to the steak we shared, which was served sliced with some grainy rice, broccoli, and a berry sauce that was more savory than sweet. I was skeptical of the Black Forest cake but it was better than the cake I had in its namesake place – – Germany’s Black Forest. This one was rich and chocolaty with tart cherries, and not sweet whipped cream.
Lunch was very different, at the original BK Tacos in South Tucson. We couldn’t stomach its famous Sonoran hotdog (we’re not huge Chicago hotdog fans either…there’s a Portillo’s here, for homesick Chicagoans. We far prefer Wisconsin’s brats) but their other specialty carne asada was good, especially the flour tortillas. Our favorite was the taco Birria – the discovery this trip: a French-dip style taco with shredded beef.
breakfast was the amazing Barrio Bread we ordered two days in advance to avoid the long line! we got two loaves but they were so huge we gave one to our friends here. The heritage bread looked lovely, with an image of a saguaro in the crust. But we kept the cinnamon raisin, which is so good. (I watched a travel video about Barrio Bread at a nail salon in Chicago two days before our Tucson trip…and made a beeline for the place,when we arrived.)
In between eating, we did do some hiking , first at saguaro national park east (the east Mica View trail through a saguaro desert) and later at saguaro national park west (a less easy uphill and then downhill through the west trail – king canyon) across from the desert museum, which now costs $30 to go to).
TakeBetsywithyou 