"In the first weeks we've exceeded initial projections," Nick Wayne Eggman told Tucson Foodie in July, a few weeks after Gibson Food Hall & Market opened. "Doing that in the dead of summer makes me so proud."
That quote matters beyond one business. Gibson reopened at 11 S. Sixth Ave. on July 10. Up the street, a former parking lot at 31 and 47 N. Sixth Ave. is being turned into a shared patio for a barbecue restaurant and a coffee bar that plans to stay open until 11 p.m. Put them together and a short stretch of Sixth Avenue is set up to cover a whole downtown day, from groceries and coffee through dinner and a late drink. Many of the people behind it learned the trade at other downtown addresses.
A grocery store with a basement
Gibson is the anchor because it brought back something downtown had gone without for more than a year and a half. Johnny Gibson's Downtown Market opened in July 2015 as the first market downtown in decades. The new owners bought it in September 2024 and closed it for construction on Dec. 21, 2024. The rebuild took about six months longer than planned. The hardest part was fitting exhaust hoods over the food-hall stalls, which took three companies and a lot of on-site reworking with the architect and engineers.
What reopened is three businesses stacked into one building:
- The grocery side. Eggman says he's leaving shelf space open so the store can add items customers ask for. In his words, "From the beginning we recognized the importance of maintaining essential grocery items downtown."
- The food hall. Four vendors: Kaiju Burger, Samurai Teppan Steak and Sushi, Don Ribs BBQ and Barrio Bites.
- Pearl Lounge. A hidden door next to a Red Bull cooler leads down to a basement speakeasy serving HighWire craft cocktails.
That HighWire connection is the first sign of the pattern. Eggman and his co-owner John also run HighWire and The Grand, both established downtown venues. Tucson Foodie describes Gibson as the team's move into daytime dining and grocery. "There's overlap and common threads that run between them," Eggman said. "Everything has evolved and come naturally over the past 11 years." In short, a nightlife team that knows downtown built its daytime grocery.
The parking lot that became a patio
The second half of the Sixth Avenue story is a couple of blocks north. Lucky Penny BBQ and Bonanza Coffee Co. are both run by Open Container Hospitality Group. They're moving into the space that used to be Miss Saigon, which relocated a few blocks away and reopened as Saigon Blossoms.
The design choice that matters most is what happened behind the building. The old parking lot is now outdoor dining space of more than 1,000 square feet, with raised planters and built-in seating, landscaping, room for yard games and a live-music area. Gravel-style aggregate replaces much of the asphalt. Downtown has given up one parking lot and gained a shared yard.
The two businesses are very different sizes:
| Lucky Penny BBQ | Bonanza Coffee Co. | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 47 N. Sixth Ave. | 31 N. Sixth Ave., Suite 151 |
| Footprint | Just under 4,000 sq ft, kitchen included | About 650 sq ft |
| Indoor seating | About 20 at the bar, up to 105 more | About 15 |
| Planned opening hours | Roughly 4 to 10 p.m., five days a week, later on Fridays and Saturdays | Roughly 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., five days a week |
Bonanza hopes to stay open until midnight on weekends once things settle, and Lucky Penny wants to expand to seven days a week and eventually add lunch. A coffee bar open until 11 p.m. next to a dinner patio means the block isn't built around a single mealtime.
Lucky Penny calls its food "contemporary BBQ," with smoked meats plus smoked vegetables, seafood and dishes drawn from Sonoran food traditions. Possible standouts include smoked brisket and smoked-and-charred pulpo. Brisket trimmings get ground for burgers, and prices are expected to run from under $10 to more than $50. Owner Brock Lynch calls the look "midcentury western revival." Fabricator Aidan Cornelius of Reppin Industries built the custom smokers, and Lynch met local artisan Daniela Figueroa at the Made in Tucson Market. The restaurant is named for his late grandfather, Bill "Mac" McIntosh, a lineman and carpenter who was the person people called when something needed fixing.
The chef came from the Mercado
In June, Lynch said only that the executive chef was "well known locally." That chef is David Solórzano. He took over as executive chef at Agustín Kitchen in November 2022 and left in mid-2026 to lead the kitchen at Lucky Penny and Bonanza.
The Mercado District's next chapter is already lined up. Agustín Kitchen announced in late September that it had permanently closed at 100 S. Avenida del Convento after 13 years, having anchored the northwest corner of the Mercado San Agustín courtyard alongside Presta Coffee Roasters, Seis Kitchen and La Estrella Bakery. Next in the space will be Il Santo, an Italian concept from hospitality veteran Vito Prencipe and fifth-generation Tucsonan Bonnie Callahan. No opening date has been announced. Kira Dixon-Weinstein called the pair "a dream addition for the Mercado District," which marked its fifteenth year in May.
So the talent is moving around within downtown, not leaving it. A chef who spent nearly four years refining a brasserie menu on the west side is now behind custom smokers on Sixth Avenue, and a fifteen-year-old courtyard is getting a new Italian kitchen.
Pueblo Vida is building on the same idea
The same push toward all-day spaces shows up on Broadway. Pueblo Vida Brewing Company is closing its original taproom at 115 E. Broadway Blvd., open since 2014, and moving next door to 121 E. Broadway Blvd. The opening is targeted for late fall 2026. The new taproom will seat more than 100, with large booths, a curated wine program and a 14-tap bar. Chef Scott Girod of Anello is opening a restaurant in a shared common area, scheduled for early 2027, and plans also call for a coffee partner. Brewing stays at the original address, and the old taproom becomes a private event venue.
"We outgrew our current taproom concept a long time ago," co-founder Kyle Jefferson said. "The new space means more seats, food on the table and more reasons for people to spend time downtown with us." The brewery says details on a farewell for the original room are coming soon, so there's still time for one more pint there.
What's actually open as of early October
Opening dates slip, and several of these already have. Here's where things stand as of Oct. 4:
- Open: Gibson Food Hall & Market and Pearl Lounge, 11 S. Sixth Ave., since July 10.
- Imminent but unconfirmed: Lucky Penny BBQ and Bonanza Coffee Co. In June, friends-and-family previews were tentatively set for Oct. 8–10, with a grand opening the weekend after. Both official websites still just say they're coming in fall 2026.
- Late fall target: Pueblo Vida's new taproom at 121 E. Broadway Blvd.
- No date yet: Il Santo at Mercado San Agustín.
The street work is also wrapping up. The city's Downtown Links project has reopened all Sixth Street lanes to drivers after striping, with work continuing at Church and Franklin and at the Fifth Street railroad crossing.
The weekend it could all stack up
If Lucky Penny's June schedule holds, its grand opening would fall the weekend of Oct. 16–18. That's already downtown's busiest weekend of the month. Tucson Meet Yourself runs those three days at Jácome Plaza, 101 N. Stone Ave. It's free, and Sun Tran and Sun Link rides are fare-free that weekend. This year the festival is organized into 10 themed villages, has a Smithsonian partnership and lists about 50 food vendors. Talega Cafe at 177 N. Church Ave. also holds its public grand-opening celebration for Velvet Cowboy, its after-4 p.m. cocktail-and-tapas bar, on Oct. 16.
Before that, the 22nd Tucson Film Festival runs Oct. 8–11 at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., with six features and 30 short films. After it, Cyclovia turns the South Tucson–Downtown route into car-free streets on Sunday, Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On a festival weekend, a grocery with a food hall and a patio with coffee until 11 p.m., a few blocks from the plaza, are about as useful as downtown gets.
Want to know how a new patio or a reopened market changes everyday life on a particular downtown block? The Tucson Agents follow these openings closely and are happy to walk through what's changing around any downtown address you care about. Schedule a consultation with The Tucson Agents.
