El Parador Restaurant, at 2744 E. Broadway Blvd., has announced that it is closing its doors.
From a press release:
We would like to thank the thousands of Tucsoans who placed their trust and faith in us hosting their wonderful family celebrations. Also, special thanks to the many business and professional groups that met weekly and monthly at El Parador. We have enjoyed serving you, our guests; in our beautiful Tropical Garden restaurant...It is a blessing to have been a part of your lives.
UPDATE: We spoke with Loretta Jacob Carlson, daughter of El Parador founder John Jacob and manager of El Parador, who said, simply, that its time for the business and the family to move on...but hinted that there's something else on the horizon.
"It's time and it's a transition period for us. We're transitioning out of a full-service business and we're going to progress onto another facility ... well, another point in life—another phase in life," Carlson said. "It's time to transition into another phase in life."
"My dad's been serving Mexican food in Tucson since 1946 at Club 21, so it is a sad thing and it is a deeply emotional thing," Carlson continued. "Our family has been serving here at El Parador for 40 years. Our world and our culture has been transitioning out of a full-service and it's time to go on. It's sad to say goodbye, but we're making way for that silver lining."
When asked what her family's next plans were, Carlson played things close to the vest, saying (emphasis ours): "We're not sure we want to tell you what our next plan is for right now—we met with a gal, and she says we're going to transition into a heart-healthy kinda world, and we're going to tell you about that in a couple of weeks. We're going to say our goodbyes, and thank Tucson, and thank our wonderful staff and all the people that supported us."
We'll see what's next from El Parador—though, apparently, we've got a bit of a wait coming.
See the press release, in full, below the jump.