The Tucson restaurant community is asking for your help to keep our UNESCO city of gastronomy alive by ordering takeout once a week.
In a new video released on YouTube this morning, four restaurateurs—The Parish’s Travis Peters, Senae Thai’s Dee Buizer, El Taco Rustico’s Juan Almanza and Tanque Verde Ranch’s Janet Balderas—urge you to visit a local eatery for a takeout meal once a week.
“With everything that we’re going through right now, we need to make sure to support local and help out your family and our families survive and get through this together,” Balderas said. “Our family wants to feed your family.”
The video was filmed and produced pro bono by Scot Litteer and the Litteer Films crew. The production company has worked with Tucson Electric Power, Visit Tucson and Sun Tran/Sun Van.
Peters’ Facebook post about the current crisis a few weeks back was the catalyst that brought the restaurant community together in solidarity to ask The Old Pueblo for a helping hand.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2020.
I have wanted to take out food every day. I call place to place and ask them if they are practicing any mitigation to help prevent spread . Every single one tells me it’s just the take out, they are not doing anything different . I think that’s a problem. Even if risk is low, they should be messaging what the are doing to help keep the public safe especially in regards to touching the containers. People are afraid of what they can’t see. I swear restaurants would get a lot more business by putting that info out on their websites, doors and press. It’s totally psychological. And if you give us a list of names of who has taken this seriously, I will happily order in. So far, it is only national chains that seem to be telling us what they are doing.
I not only try to take out at least once a week, but I always add a tip. You know, there are lots of people in that restaurant who rely on tips.