After three years of on-again/off-again work, Tucson restaurateur Patricia Schwabe is opening her latest downtown venture.
Schwabe, who owns Penca at , opened in the former National Shirt Shop building at on Saturday, Oct. 19. The fast-casual breakfast and lunch cafe and bar will feature house-baked pastries, breakfast sandwiches, burritos and breakfast plates in the morning and sandwiches, salads, grain bowls and pasta for lunch.
The menu also will feature vegan and gluten-free items and brunch on Saturdays.
Sam Salazar picks out lettering for an outdoor sign ahead of the soft opening of the National.
A full-service bar will serve craft cocktails with or without alcohol and beer and wine. In a couple of weeks, the business will sell packaged alcohol, from beer and wine to spirits, Schwabe said.
Schwabe said the National, which will have counter service and grab-and-go, will give downtown residents, workers and visitors one more breakfast and lunch option.
"I think it's nice to have a little place where people can come for breakfast and lunch and even happy hour," she said.
Schwabe first conceived the idea for the space, owned by her and her husband Ron's Peach Properties with partner Marcel Dabdoub, three years ago, when she was in the middle of opening her classic American eatery Blue Front at
Five months after opening, an electrical fire temporarily shuttered Blue Front, which is now permanently closed. Schwabe said a new operator is expected to take over the space with a new concept sometime early next year.
She would not name the operator since the details are not finalized.
Work on National stalled after the fire and Schwabe admitted the Blue Front setback knocked the wind out of her ambition.
Schwabe
"I was just not interested in putting any energy into a restaurant," she said. "It was emotionally hard to have to start all over again.”
But when she realized that the project was nearly 75% done, “somehow I got the energy and focus," she said.
"I finally got ahold of that positive energy,” she said.
National takes the space that was the longtime home to Wig-O-Rama, which moved in 2013 after the store sustained damage from a fire at the neighboring 24-hour diner The Grill and Red Room; both had been closed for two years at the time of the blaze.
The burned-out remains of The Grill, in the historic downtown buildings on the 100 block of East Congress Street, were still apparent one year after a fire swept through the structure. The Wig-O-Rama, a long-time business that was next door, was also damaged in the blaze.
Peach Properties and Dabdoub bought the 5,400-square-foot building in 2017.
Schwabe said the restaurant will take up half the space and she will open a store selling books, candles and other gift items in the other half. The business also will host live music.
"It's a good space to hang out and write and read and have light music," she said.
That part of the project won't open until the end of the month.
Schwabe had initially wanted to name the business Shirt Shop Mercantile in a nod to the National Shirt Shop that was in the building in the 1950s. The shirt shop's original logo is still etched in the terrazzo flooring at the corner entrance.
National will be open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.