Best Of Tucson®

Best Mexican

Café Poca Cosa

The location and the décor have changed, but little else has. Conversion of the Santa Rita Hotel into condominiums sent Café Poca Cosa looking for a new home. Now, appealing aromas and taste treats at this culinary gem can be found at 110 E. Pennington St., in the ground floor of the Pennington Street Garage. Modernistic chrome has replaced the former subdued traditional surroundings, but the menus still change twice a day for lunch and dinner and are still handwritten in chalk on a slate board brought tableside for an explanation of the entrées. Susana Davila, recent winner of a Heart of Downtown Award for her contributions to the growth and spirit of downtown, brought more than recipes and goodwill from the previous location. Her daughter is pastry chef, and her bartending son is pour-master at the new location. (If the lines are long, and diners are ravenous, Davila's two sisters run the Little Poca Cosa, nearby at Stone Avenue and Alameda Street).

Runners up:

2. El Charro Café, Various locations, www.elcharrocafe.com

3. TIE

Mi Nidito, 1813 S. Fourth Ave., 622-5081, www.minidito.net

Rosa's Mexican Food, 1750 E. Fort Lowell Road, 325-0362, www.rosasmexicanfood.com

5. La Parrilla Suiza, 2720 N. Oracle Road, 624-4300; 5602 E. Speedway Blvd., 747-4838; 4250 W. Ina Road, 572-7200, www.laparrillasuiza.com

Sign of the impending apocalypse: On the Border, eight votes; Taco Bell, two votes