Did a little roadfood tour of my own this weekend when I took my daughter down to Tucson for the Annual Caldwell Banker Soccer tournament in which she participated. (Her team came in first in their classification.)
Between games on Saturday I made my way over to Wag's Restaurant for an excellent Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich.
This place does several things wonderfully including a Maid-Rite sandwich, their well-known rubarb pie, Real malts (try the butterscotch, mmmmm), great breakfasts and of course, the Porky.
The owners are a married couple from Indiana and Iowa so the place is mid-western themed. I've been here several times and the service has always been very friendly and prompt.
Wags is open every day except Monday and is located just east of Alvernon on Grant road.
4026 East Grant Road
Tucson, Arizona 85712-2509
ph: 520.323.2345
That evening we had the mandatory multi-team pizza party at the hotel lobby...pizza was not good but the kids had fun.
Sunday morning I headed over to Frank's, a great little breakfast joint worthy of Roadfood praise. From what I could gather, the place has been Frank's for the past 25 years, before that it was a Tastee Freeze.
When I entered the place, it was buzzing, this was about 9 AM. From behind the counter a lady greets me with a smile and "Good Morning." I sit up at the counter and she promptly pours me a coffee and grabs a glass of water for me. Behind the counter is an open kitchen, and the line cook was impressing me with his short order skills.
I like it when the kitchen is open like it is at Frank's. Nothing to hide. A cop comes in and sits down beside me and we start up a conversation about the place. He says the place has changed owners a couple times but the food has always remained the same...great!
I order my food and we start talking to the lady behind the counter, whose name is Candice. She gave us a little history of the place, and in fact, she was at one time a part owner of Frank's. The place does breakfast in the mornings but switches over to a Mexican food place for lunch and dinner. A formula that has worked very well for them.
My food came, I had orded two over mediums, with great hash browns, homemade sausage, homemade biscuits and a side of gravy.
The food was quite good, as you can see I doused it with a sauce that was in a squirt bottle that was labled simply "Poblano." The sauce had a nice zing to it.
The menu had a little of everything, including "minced Sonoran Hot Dogs with scrambled eggs."
Although I did not get the home fries, they looked great cooking up on the griddle. The cook also had about 5-6 omelete pans going at once.
The real appeal of this place is the friendly people, the "show" the cook puts on, the funky interior and of course the down home, genuinely good food. This sign pretty much says it all....
Franks is on Pima just west of Alvernon.
3843 E Pima St
Tucson, 85716
ph.(520) 881-2710
http://www.eclectic-cafe.com/franks.html
