Food Desert? Not in Tucson!

Food Desert — Not in Tucson! As we travel we often encounter both outstanding food choices and food deserts. Tucson is not a food desert. In fact, our anniversary dinner uncovered a great downtown restaurant.

Great downtown restaurants alone would not create a blog post. We have been to lots of great downtown restaurants. However, having the best Reuben Sandwich — ever does create the need for a repeat visit and a blog post.

The second time is not always the charm

Sometimes we go back to a place and are disappointed that our favorite xyz isn’t as good as we remember. That is the reason that we are updating this post from December 2020. In 2020 the Hub Restaurant and Ice Creamery in downtown Tucson didn’t disappoint. The Reuben Sandwich served with a nice side dish of french fries was just as good as I remember. So, The crown still goes to The Hub’s Reuben as the best Reuben Sandwich ever.

Best Reuben Ever

In terms of food, I don’t lack perspective as my waistline will attest. I can’t claim to have tested Reuben Sandwiches across the globe, or across America, or anything like that. But a Reuben is one of my favorite sandwiches. The Reuben Sandwich is a grilled sandwich on Rye bread served hot, composed of corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing. I had no clue about these things so I looked up the ingredients.

I can’t even tell you what I liked best about the sandwich, only that it is now my number one Reuben Sandwich ever.

Hub Restaurant and Ice Creamery

The restaurant was the Hub Restaurant and Ice Creamery on Congress Street in downtown Tucson. Here is a link: The Hub Downtown

The Hub also has a separate ice cream location almost directly across the street. Tomorrow, I plan on calling the management to point out that Julianna made sure we had excellent service (although I don’t think she is a waitress). I didn’t catch the waitress’s name and have no idea who the cook is.

After sampling the ice cream I decided that I was going to write this article, so on the way out the door, I snapped a few cell phone pictures. I am glad it wasn’t busy at the time — in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.

I should also mention the ice cream, Tami said the strawberry balsamic ice cream was great. Yes, it was strawberry balsamic ice cream — it only sounds like a salad. I assure you it didn’t taste like a salad. I loved all the ice cream and couldn’t pick a winner.

As you know we don’t frequently post these random snippets if they don’t warrant a special mention and this Reuben made the cut. I say that as if there was some kind of standard of measurement, there is not. In this case, the winner was obvious. This was the best Reuben Sandwich I have ever had. You can’t win them all, in every category, so later I will point out some other incredible food we have found.

Food Deserts

Back to the subject. Actually, the subject was the best Reuben Sandwich ever. “Food Desert” was a good catchphrase for the introduction. I hope I didn’t break some kind of rule by introducing a positive with a negative. But just in case you had any doubts, we have been to many food deserts and they are usually not in the desert, nor are they always in far-off locations.

Far off locations

I figured that I would at least point out that not everywhere we travel is a food paradise. Sometimes the best food we can find at a particular location is at a fast-food drive-thru. No kidding. Typically we bring our own food. We have been on so many back roads way off the beaten track you might expect this to be the case. Being well off the beaten path doesn’t really make much of a difference; food deserts are also along major freeways and sometimes in the biggest cities.

Some general signs of a Food Desert

It is a bad sign if a fast-food restaurant is located inside the only gas station. It is worse if the gas station is the only grocery store in town and it is the bowling lanes, but they only have four lanes. (location concealed) If there is a no-name gas station with a no-name grill in a town that doesn’t have a neighborhood, then it may be ok, but probably not.

The term food desert also describes grocery stores, not just restaurants. If the only grocery is a dollar store, you are probably in a food desert.

Back to the Best

• We described the best Eggs Benedict ever in this article. Snippet: Thomas Hammer Coffee, Brown’s Bottom Bistro, Spokane, Washington
• Best Bacon Cheeseburger — Guppies Hot Rod Grill, Twin Falls, Idaho
• Best Barbeque – Phil’s Barbeque, San Diego, California
• Best Garlic, Swiss Cheeseburger, Sadly – this location is closed.
• Best French Fries — Snow Eagle Brewing Company, Idaho Falls Idaho (now tied with Bulldog Burger, Tupelo Mississippi)
• Best Tamales & Tacos — Tia’s Big Sky, Missoula, Montana, Sadly – this location is closed.
• Best Potato Chip — Prison Hill Brewing Company, Yuma, Arizona (all the food was great)
• Best Stout — Dragons Milk, Holland, Michigan (we have not been there, and we can’t always find this in liquor stores)
• New winner Best Stout, Founders Brewing KBS Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout or Goose Island, both beat Dragons Milk… but the contest is close.

Just in case you have any questions, we have no affiliations with any of these companies other than we love their food.

I have been looking for a job visiting great restaurants and being paid to eat great food. I would even do this job without pay — as long as I get to pick the location and time, and they don’t expect much in terms of knowing what I am talking about.

We only talk about stuff we have actually personally experienced. I hate articles written by people who have no idea what they are talking about.

Please subscribe and join us on our journey

We will add you to our email list and send you updates about once a week. Here is a link. Subscribe