Most of our restaurant reviews focus on places in Puerto Peñasco and Sonoyta because our American readers like to know about good places to eat when they're in Mexico, but also because we seldom eat out when we're in Tucson--a sandwich at Arby's is about our speed. But our daughter Alison, who works at Cafe TerraCotta in Tucson, gave us a gift certificate for Christmas, so we indulged ourselves by going out to lunch there.
The ambience is Southwestern, but also cosmopolitan. On the left as you enter are wine racks built against the wall. Going toward the rear, you pass an open hearth with a brick oven in which breads and pizzas are baked by a chef right in front of your eyes. The restaurant is light, with many windows and a couple of doors leading to open-air seating outside. The walls are hung with interesting paintings and art work in Southwestern and other styles. It's a very pleasant place to eat.
This is not your ordinary restaurant where you order roast beef, pork chops or chicken and then choose French fries or mashed potatoes, soup or salad, and corn or peas for the vegetable. This cafe has a menu full of so many exotic choices that we asked our server to give us extra time just to finish reading it. Two dishes Alison recommended were tortilla-crusted chicken breasts and calamari salad. But we found other choices even more intriguing. Finally John ordered a pizza with goat cheese, caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and cilantro pesto. The pizzas come in individual portions about the size of a large dinner plate. I had a sandwich with roasted eggplant, Portobello mushrooms, red peppers, cheese, tomato, and basil, served on focaccia bread. With it I had orzo, a pasta shaped like grains of rice and served with butter and chopped parsley. I don't remember in detail any of the other items, but this will give you some idea of the menu.
There's a large selection of wines and beers. On the principle that a better wine would be wasted on me, I ordered the house's white Zinfandel. John had a beer that he really liked, but he's terrible with names, and not being a beer aficionado, I don't remember either. But we did enjoy our drinks.
Cafe TerraCotta's prices are quite reasonable--$15 to $20 for full meals, less for salads, soups, and sandwiches. And the service is excellent. Our server was very attentive, and our assistant server (Alison) backed her up ably.
Alison is 21 and has been working in restaurants since she started college 3 years ago. For two years she was a hostess and server at Caruso's, an Italian restaurant downtown. Now she has taken this position to get experience in a different type of restaurant. She plans to go to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, next year to take their Hospitality program and eventually perhaps open her own restaurant or bed-and-breakfast. Like many of our friends in Puerto Peñasco, she's another young person with a future.
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