Best Of Tucson®

The End-of-Days Exit Interview: Michael Luria

Michael Luria is a name familiar to many Tucson foodies ... and many Tucson parents. His family owned the late, lamented Terra Cotta, a spot that helped define "Southwestern cuisine" before closing in 2009. Today, Luria, 43, is the executive director of the Children's Museum Tucson, a post he's held for about four years. While the Children's Museum is, of course, generally a venue reserved for kids and their families, on Friday, Nov. 2, the museum, at 200 S. Sixth Ave., will open its doors to adults for the annual "Evening of Play" fundraiser. Tickets are $125, and include great food, libations and music. For more information, visit www.eveningofplay.org, or call the museum at 792-9985, ext. 105.

A meteor is going to hit the Earth tomorrow. Where would you sit down in Tucson for your final meal?

Somewhere with a view of the Catalinas; I'd rather look at a view of the Catalinas than the city. I'd do a picnic on the roof of a building in the foothills, with my favorite foods and an awesome bottle of wine.

Our new robot overlords want to ban alcohol. Where would you want to have your final drink?

At the bar at Fleming's, because the bartenders know me by my name. It's my Tucson Cheers. The bar staffers are consummate hospitality professionals. They make an effort to know your name and your favorite drink, and welcome you each and every time you return—not to mention they have an awesome stock of wine in the cellar, if one could get access to it for that final night.

Global warming has increased outside temps to 130 degrees in the summer. Where do you go to cool off?

Scott and Co. They have a cool vibe and fantastic libations. My current favorite is a gin drink, "Beez in the Trap" (with genmaicha tea-infused gin, overproof rum, honey, fresh grapefruit, lime and Angostura bitters).

Aliens have landed in your backyard and say: "Take us to your leader." Where would you send them?

To the statehouse in Phoenix. They'd be lost for decades up there.

The mole people are invading the surface world through a tunnel that opens in your backyard. What local business would you turn to for help?

Chris Edwards at Tucson Appliance Company. Well, he's got an ad for everything; I am sure he has an ad in which he plays an exterminator.

If a zombie apocalypse were to happen in Tucson, what shopping center would you like to hole up in?

Costco! You could entertain yourself for days. Big-screen TVs, computers, adult beverages and food ... what else would you need?

What Tucson band or musician would you like to write the soundtrack to the end of the world as we know it?

I've got to go with Calexico. They've represented Tucson and Southern Arizona so well for years. We might as well go out with a bang with them.

If you had only one sunset left in Tucson, from where would you watch it?

Gates Pass. As a young adult, it's one of the first places you go to hang out, although more to watch the sunrise than the sunset. It's a very Tucson thing.