Top Valley restaurant owners bring a taste of Chihuahua to Tucson

Phoenix diners will need to fuel up their cars before heading to the new restaurant from a local power couple. 

Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin are the James Beard Award-nominated chefs and restaurateurs behind Tacos Chiwas, Cocina Chiwas and other popular Valley eateries. On Thursday, they will open their newest restaurant, Tortillas Chiwas, in Tucson. 

The couple took over a historic red brick building, located on Grande Avenue and Delaware Street in Tucson’s Barrio Hollywood, earlier this year. They were primarily interested in the space as a second tortilleria to nixtamalize corn and make tortillas for their taquerias and other eateries.

The Tucson space housed tortillerias for nearly 80 years. Under Hernandez and Holguin, it will also host an intimate 38-seat restaurant. From the dining room, guests will have a view of the bar and open kitchen, which share a corner of the small eatery.

“We try to make it seem like you’re coming to our home,” Hernandez says. “We’re putting on a show for you, and we want you to be comfortable.”

During Tortillas Chiwas’ soft opening, the team will only serve dinner Thursday through Saturday nights, and reservations are recommended. The menu features about 15 plates. Phoenix diners may recognize some of the mesquite-grilled dishes the team has perfected at Cocina Chiwas and Espiritu, but “with a little bit of a twist,” Hernandez says. 

“We’re going to be utilizing a lot of the components that we’ve done in the past at the other restaurants and bringing them into a new life here,” he says. “We have a little bit of everything.”

What to expect at Tortillas Chiwas

Diners can start their meal with a Caesar or cucumber salad before moving on to protein-heavy plates featuring chicken, fish and dry-aged ribeye from Arizona ranchers, including Vera Earl Ranch in Sonoita. 

In the kitchen, chefs will use a yakitori grill fueled by binchotan charcoal and mesquite to finish meat and vegetables. Hernandez likes the high heat of the Japanese briquettes, complemented by the smoky aroma of the local wood.

Corn will feature in fresh tortillas and empanadas, among other plates, Hernandez says. For their opening, the team has prepared two-toned blue-and-yellow corn tortillas. 

“That’s the whole idea here,” Armando says of their new Tucson spot, “utilizing the corn, which is the nixtamal, and the flour tortillas in everything we do.”

The restaurateurs are still in the process of securing the eatery’s liquor license, which Hernandez anticipates they’ll solidify in about a month. In the meantime, the drinks menu will offer nonalcoholic options. Once the bar is up and running, it will pour a selection of mainly Mexican small-batch spirits, wine and beer, as well as a taut cocktail list. 

Once the liquor license is in hand, Hernandez notes the restaurant will also expand its hours, opening around 10 or 11 a.m. The daytime menu will feature gorditas, burritos, tacos and other casual eats.

The Chiwas team takes a hands-on approach to building out their restaurants, and Tortillas Chiwas is no different. They left much of the original tile lining the interior walls intact, patching it where needed, and preserving artwork featuring the Virgin Mary. 

“There’s a lot of beauty in keeping some elements that were already there,” Hernandez says, “so we try to be really careful to preserve as much as we could.”

The group refreshed the space with light ash tables, angular Moravian star and lantern pendant lights and a colorful painting of the owners’ respective grandparents in a cornfield, gathered around a comal and tortillas. 

Since the couple announced their first venture outside of the Valley, they’ve received a “really warm, good reception” in Tucson, Hernandez says. They’re excited to bring their style of Mexican cuisine, influenced by their upbringing in Chihuahua, Mexico, and life in Arizona, to another part of the state. 

“There’s so much beautiful food happening already in Tucson. The Mexican landscape is fantastic already,” Hernandez says. “We just want to add a component of what we specialize in.”

Tortillas Chiwas

Opens Thursday
914 N. Grande Ave., Tucson