After El Güero Canelo won a James Beard award for American Classic Food last year, Tucson has two reasons to be excited for one of the highest honors in food this time around.
The semifinalist nominees for the 2019 awards were announced this morning, and two Tucson restaurants/chefs made the cut.
Don Guerra, the mastermind behind Tucson favorite Barrio Bread has been nominated for Outstanding Baker. Longtime Tucson classic El Charro has been nominated for Outstanding Restaurant.
Congratulations to all of the nominees, but especially to our local favorites!
Five finalists in each category will be announced on March 27, so keep an eye out for more foodie award news coming up.
The James Beard Award Gala will be held on May 6 in Chicago.
Check out our 2017 article on Don Guerra and Barrio Bread here.
Find the full list of James Beard Award semifinalist nominees here.
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2019.
Don should win for two reasons, great bread and, he is a genuinely nice guy!
A reminder that El Charro owner Ray Flores publicly supports the Rosemont mine abomination. Apparently he doesn’t care if our environment is trashed as long as a couple extra miners can afford to buy a few more tacos from him. I haven’t eaten in any of his restaurants in years and will refuse to give him one penny of my business.
Ditto on supporting Rosemont, which is worth a boycott all by itself, but they also fought against the minimum wage increase.
Besides, El Charro’s food is overrated, and therefore, overpriced.
Enough El Charro