Sad news in the local Mexican restaurant world, the Guadalajara Original Grill located at 1220 E. Prince Road will be closed indefinitely due to a small fire in its storage room on Thursday morning. The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation, according to the press release. Guadalajara Original Grill originally opened in 2002, and has won Best of Tucson’s guacamole every year the award was mentioned since 2009.
From Facebook:
We regret to inform you that our restaurant sustained a small fire this morning. We will be closed for an undetermined time. We are diligently working to restore the restaurant and will be reopening bigger and better than ever soon. More details to follow soon. Thank you, Tucson, for your patience and support.
Here’s the official word from Tucson Fire:
City Of Tucson 9-1-1 dispatchers received a single call reporting smoke and flames coming from the rear of a commercial building in the 1200 block of East Prince Road. The first fire suppression company was on scene five minutes later. As firefighters arrived they found a large column of dark smoke and flames coming from the southeast corner of the structure.
Firefighters used a gas powered saw to cut through the door locks and pulled hose lines inside the structure to search for occupants and attack the fire. As crews made their way to the rear of the structure they were confronted with dense smoke and zero visibility. Multiple crews advanced hose lines into the structure and located the bulk of the flames in a storage room approximately 15’ x 20’ in size. The ladder company secured utilities and went to the roof where they cut a large ventilation hole with a chainsaw to allow the smoke and superheated gasses to escape, which reduces temperatures and increases visibility. Fire crews were able to keep the bulk of the flames confined to the storage area however there was smoke damage throughout the restaurant. There were no occupants at the structure at the time of the fire.
In total, twenty-seven firefighters from ten units responded to the scene. Pima County Health Department and Building Safety were also responding to assess damages.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2014.
Bummer. Great place. And its salsa is contesting for the Best Salsa in another (unnamed) publication.
Move downtown and make a killing.
They have great EVERYTHING! Get it rebuilt and we will be back….
Dang. Another small business closes from Obamacare.
My uncle build it… How sad….it used to be a Mountain View Restaurant with German and Czechoslovakian cousine
Mountain View was one of my favorite restaurants. I was very sorry to see it go. The food was excellent. When it closed, there was (and still is) no other German/Czech restaurant around. Amber has some German items on the menu, but it would be nice to have a German restaurant in town.
I miss their Mexican flag margaritas already. And living down the street from the restaurant, I didn’t have to worry about driving home drunk. I hope they reopen soon.
We live close to them and see how much business they have at that location. It’s busy all the time and cars are parked for blocks around on weekends. Moving downtown wouldn’t trump that kind of success. They have my sympathies and I hope they recover quickly. I’m sure they will because they have shown all along that they are a remarkable engine for expansion and success.
We too still miss the Mountain View Restaurant and Micha’s North which came after. They were both great family places with some of our favorite comfort food.
i wonder if they paid for the rights to use the name from its original founders, who are from Sinaloa Mex. I suspect they did not and that this fire was not an accident.