- Photo by Yoohyung Jung.
- Aussie Cantina will close its doors tonight, so no more Aussie meat pies.
Tucson’s only Australian restaurant will close its doors tonight.
The names of the new restaurant owners haven’t been disclosed yet. But they intend on reopening the space in the fall, according to the former Aussie Cantina owners Glenn Murphy and Sally Shamrell-Murphy.
“The new pub owners are very active in the community,” Glenn said. “They are friends of mine, and I have known them for a very long time.”
The Australian eatery opened in the fall of 2013, and was recently reviewed by our Chow reviewer Jacqueline Kuder.
“It was an honor to bring the subtlety and flavors of Australia,” Sally said. Glenn says the Sixth Avenue and UA construction made it difficult for the business. “There was a big concrete block in front of us. It makes it tougher when you’re specifically a destination location,” Glenn said.
Here’s the official word from the Facebook page:
BIG NEWS! We can finally announce, Aussie Cantina has SOLD! We are happy the new owners are very good mates! They LOVE what we did to this space & they will definitely be open by the UA Football season! But this will be our final day as Aussie Cantina. To our faithful, long-term staff & our devoted regulars… thanks for your company! It was fun sharing Kangaroo, Sausage Rolls, Meat Pies, Lamb Chops, pints of Fosters & Aussie Sunsets with all of you! As they say in Oz … CHEERS BIG EARS!
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2014.
Glen was a hell of a nice guy & I loved their food & happy hour specials – sorry to see them close…
I worked there from day one, I enjoyed the staff and owners very much and I wish everyone the best of luck.
Well, which is it Glen?
What’s with all the bitterness? These must be the fired employees who have literally no knowledge of this sale. The new owner must have something fresh they can bring to the table or the Murphys wouldn’t have sold it. I went there several times and was impressed with the thought that went into building the space. The food rocked and we caught some awesome Wildcat games there. Good luck to the new owners and staff, and thanks to Sally and Glenn for bringing something unique to Tucson.
Hey Jonathan I have a bridge to sell you…..
Please take your negative attitude else where and I can suggest a place to put it! Aussie Cantina was a LOCAL business that did its best to provide Tucson with something different and employed people in this community!!!! The last thing any owner would want to put people out of a job and sometimes that happens! I was also there since day one! I’m proud to have worked with EVERYONE I met at Aussie Cantina! Even the people that left!! Glenn and Sally are both great people! Maybe Red Leader should get there head out of their a** to make room for their negative attitude cause no one wants to hear it on here!
Bummed to hear this place has sold. The owner and his crew did a great job with the makeover inside. And the food was great….and the wings. I did some business with Glen when he had the Rhino.. always a standup guy. Thought this was a good concept. That comment from the cook is a crackup. Hope the next owner does;’t hire a knucklehead like that guy
The cook was right on! I was also an employee there for awhile when the place first opened… It started out cool enough, then one or two key people left and the paychecks started bouncing. Not just once or twice but regularly. You can’t afford to pay the staff but you sit around eating, getting drunk and make them serve you. What a joke… The guy brags to everyone about how many places he has owned. Must have all lasted about as long as this place.
Looks like the Weekly has deleted a couple comments. Is this what we can expect with new ownership?
We deleted comments that didn’t abide by our policy (http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/Comment…), same as usual.
Dan are you personally friends with Glenn Murphy?
The information posted that I saw was factual, therefore not libelous. Interesting that you chose to remove it.
It’s their site, they can delete whatever they want, especially if it goes against their policy. One would think a Lawyer of your caliber would understand that fact…
If they can delete what they want then why go through and post policy? One doesn’t need to ba a lawyer to understand that, but must have at least a couple IQ points….
Lawyer: I don’t know Glenn Murphy at all, but I won’t let the comment section become a discussion forum for accusations that I neither have the time nor desire to investigate. Also, comments left by anonymous users with fake emails are generally deleted (I’ll leave yours now, just for the sake of clarity).
generally deleted implies that you do it often and that you do it based on them being anonymous. In my experience in these forums, anonymous user comments are rarely deleted. I’ve seen threads here span several dozen comments and a good ratio of them are anonymous. Perhaps you should revisit having that as an option if they are truly “generally deleted”, would save the editors a lot of time. You’re welcome in advance for the suggestion.
Lawyer: Anonymous comments are fine. Anonymous comments using clearly fake email addresses are less acceptable. Anonymous comments using fake email addresses using our comment section to attack others, definitely not acceptable. In this case, four comments with different user names under the same IP address, all with fake email addresses? Those are open to be deleted.
Looking back, we’ve left quite a few “mean” posts from your IP address in the past (including a shot at me for making fun of H20’s VIP credit application), I’d think you’d have some sense of what you can get away with, no?
My personal opinion: if you want to attack someone’s reputation, be willing to do it under your own name, even if I can probably guess your identity.
It’s astonishing that Lawyer has enough time to create these false identities just to post on this site. A sad use of anyone’s limited time on the planet.
@Nintz – “Lawyer” is probably charging some poor sap by the hour while he trolls.
its not hard to figure our what type of law i practice and who i represent. fortunately i was able to screen cap the cook’s post before it was removed.
See? His/her trolling is considered billable time! I told ya!
I played music for Aussies Cantina, and both owners Glen and Sally were real positive and kind people. It was a shame to see them close. I hope the people that are upset can understand that selling it to someone else who may be able to do more for it’s future realize that businesses come and go.
Also Lawyer, with all the time you spent complaining, you probably could have applied for some new work. So I’m really not sure what you aim to accomplish by whining on the Tucson Weekly blog article here….
Aussie Cantina may be closed but as of this posting it has not been sold.
I believe that before reporting any story you should have your facts correct. Evidently from what I am reading they were not or else there would not be all of this nonsense going back and forth. You wrote that the place has closed and has been sold and others say it’s not sold. Do you have the facts or are you just writing what someone else has told you to write. I am also annoyed by the fact that you have deleted comments about this story. As an outsider looking in it seems like there is a lot more to it that is being swept under the carpet. Honesty is always the best policy and this looks shady. Now it’s up to you to post or not to post. Let your conscience be your guide.
The Weekly posted a press-release which included a Facebook post from the previous owners. Period. End of story.
Everything else is much ado about nothing. If you want in-depth reporting on trivial matters, get a copy of your local high school’s paper.
But I’m sure you’ll find a conspiracy there too…they’re everywhere, you know.
Ya, because everything one may read on Facebook is the true story. You may think it’s a trivial matter but the people losing their nest-eggs after joining up with this “stand up guy” (cough cough) sure don’t. Sometimes the most charming ones are the one’s you should run from the fastest. It’s a hard lesson learned. The place has not sold..
That’s the Fair Dinkum Truth Mate.
Someone at this paper needs to do some more investigative journalism. Call the landlord or something. Why are we accepting spoonfed info from the owner. Get to the truth, it looks like there is more that meets the eye here.
The closure of the restaurant does not merit an “investigation”. Every one is entitled to their opinion as this thread has shown.