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A & W Drive-in on 12th Ave.


 

I live about a mile from where it was located. The building still stands, & has been through several renovations and owners. The second person (I think) to open (reopen) it was Robert Perez, who also had a restaurant in South Tucson near So. 4th Ave. & 29th Street. He opened it as El Molcajete Mexican Restaurant & I delivered bakery products there around 1977-1979? when I owned a Sunbeam Bakery distributorship. It has since been through another remodeling and is a quite attractive Mexican Restaurant called (I think) El Merendero.


 

John C and I will be working on a project of drive-in restaurants.? If any one has any photos of the original buildings to share, other than those we already have here on VT, that would be great!? Starting point is late 1940's.?? Also any memories, or if you know the original owners names, some who might even still be around here, that would be terrific as well!

Catherine


 

There was also an A&W on Speedway, on the north side between Alvernon and Columbus.

Ken


Kenneth A. Ethridge, AIA
C 214/316-2476


 

Thanks Ken !!
I was thinking that there was an AW out on Speedway, it's long gone now isn't it ? Use
to be popular for the Speedway cruisers back
in the day. The ' Speedway Killer' Charles ? , probably hung out there !
And John, thanks for the name ' Sandys' I could
remember Hardee's which we have here in AL,
they have the Green Burrito but I cannot stand their
'Mexican food' it's awful !! We do have some pretty good Mexican restaurants around but nothing can beat the places on S 4th Ave !! We miss that .
I can remember now the Sandys on South 6th Ave
their logo was the girl in a Scottish outfit .
Many moons ago a friend of mine managed the old
EL Taco out on West Ajo and she use to ask me
to come in to help sometimes as the Border Patrol
would call in orders of at least 50 or more bean burritos and double the amount of tacos. When they were transporting a bus load back to the border they would give each rider a burrito and 2 tacos. It
was great for her business but the BP always seem
to call at her busiest times and needed the food ASAP ... it was complete crazy at times !!! But I did
go help out and sure made a lot of those burritos
and tacos....but wasn't bad as she paid me off in
food and my family liked that .
-Debkaye


N7IQV
 

Deb,

The Speedway location (just east of the Lucky Strike Bowl) later became a Frankie's Pizza Palace (?) after A&W closed down. It is now a car sales lot...I guess cars on the lot have never gone away..the original building still stands! (Charles Schmid, Jr was the name you were seeking..aka the Pied Piper of Tucson)

Carl's Jr (the western US version of Hardee's) also has the "Green Burrito" option in many of their stores. In a word: BLEAH. Buy local..the "Mexican" food is much better when home-grown.

John H

--- In vanishingtucson@..., Deb Rollins <debkaye2001@...> wrote:

Thanks Ken !!
I was thinking that there was an AW out on Speedway, it's long gone now isn't it ? Use
to be popular for the Speedway cruisers back
in the day. The ' Speedway Killer' Charles ? , probably hung out there !
And John, thanks for the name ' Sandys' I could
remember Hardee's which we have here in AL,
they have the Green Burrito but I cannot stand their
'Mexican food' it's awful !! We do have some pretty good Mexican restaurants around but nothing can beat the places on S 4th Ave !! We miss that .
I can remember now the Sandys on South 6th Ave
their logo was the girl in a Scottish outfit .
Many moons ago a friend of mine managed the old
EL Taco out on West Ajo and she use to ask me
to come in to help sometimes as the Border Patrol
would call in orders of at least 50 or more bean burritos and double the amount of tacos. When they were transporting a bus load back to the border they would give each rider a burrito and 2 tacos. It
was great for her business but the BP always seem
to call at her busiest times and needed the food ASAP ... it was complete crazy at times !!! But I did
go help out and sure made a lot of those burritos
and tacos....but wasn't bad as she paid me off in
food and my family liked that .
-Debkaye


 

One of the A&W's on Speedway between Alvernon and the University is still there.? It is now a used car lot.? I believe Carlos added a photo to the restaurants page.

Catherine


 

John H ,
First, thanks for reminding me of that murdering
Charles Schmid Jr .... I was a teenager living on the SW side not very far from the desert area where he buried his first victims, I believe we're Gretchen and Wendy Fritz. My Mom put a tight rein on my sister and I during that awful time in Tucson. But I really wasn't upset about that as it was a pretty scary time anyway. He was such an egotistical diabolical character and it was a relief to know he died .
I think I have the Life magazine somewhere packed away that did a story about him. I have traveled and lived across the country a few times since I left Tucson in 2005 I still have things packed.

I don't go to Hardee's here very much even though its just a block or so away, I may use the coupons for their breakfast biscuits once in awhile but as far as their Mexican food menu... Yuck ! I wouldn't eat it if it was free. I don't know where they got the recipes but to me it's awful. When your use to 'real' Sonoran Mexican food anything else taste like dirt !
But I am a pretty fair cook and I can still make some great tamales and other dishes as I learned from my best friend in Tucson who was born and raised in Hermosillo. Not quite an expert like her but my Marine sons when they come to visit will ask me to make them my enchiladas, beans and rice. Here in AL where i live now we have a good size Latino population and some have opened up restaurants and bakeries, which my husband and I appreciate.
We love the sweet breads with our morning coffee on the weekends especially because they are fresh made and not the packaged ones at the stores that I notice most of those come from Texas. We came back here to be with some of my husband's older family members after I retired from nursing at the Tucson VA hospital and its a nice place where we live between Birmingham and Atlanta off the I-20 freeway. I have flew back to Tucson several times to see friends and I have seen the changes some good but some sad....but we think if we ever move back to AZ it wouldn't be Tucson, we like the area around Sierra Vista, Tombstone and also the Benson, Willcox and Bisbee area. I have family in Tempe and Chandler but that is too metro also. We are fortunate enough to have choices. I tell my sons we may just buy an RV and just move around but they don't like that idea at all. We also really love Kingman and also New Mexico. Sometimes I think the RV idea would be really nice. But of course we'd also want to be around Tucson, it kinda still stays in our heart. ;-)
-Deb