photo: David Olsen
When Janos Wilder talks about his newest culinary endeavor, his face excites and his eyes develop a faraway look. It’s a look that could suggest – if you know where he’s going – that he’s gazing across the globe at approximately the 32nd parallel.
It’s as though Wilder is looking toward his inspiration’s source for DOWNTOWN Kitchen Cocktails: around the world at Tucson’s latitude, hundreds or thousands of miles away, but more or less – as he sees it – at home.
The restaurant will serve local fare fusing the cuisines of that hot belt. “Farm to market, with global influences,” as the 30-year veteran restaurateur describes it.
The food, prepared by former VinTabla chef Bruce Yim, is intended to reflect ourselves as Americans and Tucsonans, most all immigrants or bred of them. “It’s a celebration of who we are now,” Wilder says.
It’s also “a celebration of being downtown and downtown being a place to be.” He did, after all, name it DOWNTOWN, in capital letters.
The restaurant is to open in early October in the former home of Barrio Food & Drink at 135 S. Sixth Ave. No date has been set as plans await city approval.
But when the doors do formally swing open onto the planned Sixth Avenue patio, Wilder expects to sell food at mid-range prices. Dinner entrees will likely cost less than $20.
He also plans to offer an array of cocktails. Infusion tanks are slated for behind the bar.
“(DOWNTOWN) is not meant to be a college bar,” says Wilder, also the man behind Janos and J-Bar at The Westin La Paloma. “It’s more sophisticated, with a greater cross section of people. A meeting place for before and after performances, lunch, dinner and late night.”
