Adam Borowitz, our Noshing Around writer, reports:
Cuvee World Bistro, at 3352 E. Speedway Blvd., has closed as of Sunday, Jan. 4, according to a recorded message left on the restaurant’s voicemail by owner Robert Bossardet. “I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the entire city of Tucson, to all of our guests, to all of our friends, to all of our supporters,” Bossardet said in the message. “Unfortunately, the economy turned out to be stronger than us.” Opened in 2003 by Mitch Levy, who owns and operates another Cuvée World Bistro in Basalt, Colo., the restaurant was purchased by Bossardet in late 2007.
Also recently closed: Coffee Point at 2721 E. Speedway Blvd., and the Happy Iguana (3030 S. Sixth Ave.)
This. Economy. Sucks.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2009.
And that old sucky Walgreens moved.
The crappy strip-mall times, they are a-changin’.
You scared me. The Happy Iguana is not to be confused with the Chocolate Iguana, also on Sixth Avenue (at Fourth Avenue).
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What’s the 411 on Adam Borowitz and what enticed him to become the new Nosher?
And Sixth Avenue is not be confused with Sixth Street.
D’oh!
There will be more closings, of course, but look on the bright side. There have been several restaurant openings in recent months:
jaxkitchen, tucson tamale co, harvest, sur real etc.
The economy is bad but one really has to have their ducks in a row any time they open a restaurant.
The Arizona Daily Star just posted this news on its web site. Guess they got around to reading the Weekly!
Wow, I had New Years Eve dinner at Cuvee. It was great! Who knew it was the last hurrah? (btw, I also thought it was the Chocolate Iguana at first and freaked out a bit, whew!).
location matters
Red Star, I agree that location matters, but you can have a prime location, great food even, but if you have no business sense as to what it takes to really run a restaurant you are doomed to failure even in a good economy.
What about those cursed locations? How many are there in Tucson, that no matter who goes in that building they are always doomed to fail?
Red Star, that old walgreens had a huge liquor selection, the new one has less liquor in it than my house.
another newbie: maynards market & kitchen.
there is hope!
Mari – I believe there are truly cursed spots in town.
One in particular is benihana’s on oracle. Years ago it was rumored to be haunted! It’s been just about any type of restaurant you can think of.
Honestly, I don’t think the Cuvee spot was cursed. I think that the economy is going to be “cursing” a lot of places. Also … Cuvee was never the same after Mitch Levy left. It went from a place that was consistently excellent to a place that was more hit-and-miss under the new ownership. In any case, it’s sad to see Cuvee go.
JB – I agree re:Cuvee.
The tone changed considerably once Mitch left.
The tone may have changed to some of you once Mitch left but he stopped caring about it long before he and his wife moved away. It was cockroach infested and going downhill before the new owners. However, the new owners did nothing to improve it. In fact, I would say that they managed to make a restaurant that was slowly going downhill even worse. Good riddance to bad people and bad places!
I agree with Sarah – the restaurant started to slide downhill as soon as Mitch et al. knew they were going to blow out of Tucson. The food quality and management were degrading daily! The new owners were morons and the new Cuvee was doomed. I used to go in there often but could not stand the atmosphere or cuisine once the new owners took over. Good Riddance! Steve