TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Buying malls throughout the U.S. skilled a decline through the pandemic period, however have largely recovered to their pre-COVID ranges.
A part of this restoration is as a result of enhance in meals choices, together with native eating places.
Tucson isn’t any exception: each Park Place Mall and Tucson Mall have boosted native food and drinks choices in recent times.
The newest addition is Fatboy Sandos, which can be part of the Park Place Mall meals courtroom early subsequent month.
“Buying facilities are usually all company or franchises, particularly shops and eating places,” mentioned Fatboy Sandos proprietor and head chef Rafael De La Cuesta. “So it’s actually cool that Park Place is taking a unique path and catering to the area people.”
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Fats boy Sandos It began as a meals truck in 2022, which “was an enormous success,” in accordance with De La Cuesta. With no culinary expertise however a protracted historical past as a house prepare dinner, De La Cuesta was fascinated by the idea of “sandos,” a sort of Japanese sandwich that makes use of milk bread and coupé mayonnaise as its foremost elements.
De La Cuesta experimented with elements, beginning with the acquainted Japanese egg salad and including varieties like pork katsu and a vegan eggplant sandwich.
Nonetheless, he quickly felt restricted by the meals truck's setup.
“Life in a meals truck could be very exhausting,” De La Cuesta mentioned. “It’s very unpredictable. Typically you do very effectively, typically you don’t make something.”
This led De La Cuesta to seek for a bodily location, which he finally discovered at American Eat Co. on South Fourth Avenue, along with opening a second location in Mesa.
Opening a location in a shopping mall wasn’t of their authentic plans, however the alternative abruptly introduced itself when De La Cuesta acquired an electronic mail from Park Place representatives. Even then, it didn’t look like an choice.
“The mall appeared a bit loopy to me,” he mentioned. “I believed, ‘It’s too massive for us.’”
However when a buddy texted her a photograph of an empty spot within the mall's meals courtroom, De La Cuesta jumped on the probability. She contacted the mall and secured a spot.
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De La Cuesta acknowledges that in 4 years, they went from a meals stand to a shopping mall because of the assist of their group. “Tucson is superb as a result of it actually makes itself current for its neighbors,” she mentioned.
He additionally acknowledges that it’s potential to experiment and all the time enhance the standard of the meals. “We proceed to enhance,” he says. “By being extra genuine and doing issues in a different way.”
De La Cuesta is planning a grand opening for Fatboy Sandos on Friday, August 2. Nonetheless, this date might change relying on whether or not the restaurant is able to open. De La Cuesta recommends following the enterprise’ social media for updates.
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Joel Foster Joel is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who beforehand labored as an English trainer in each Boston and the Tucson space. Joel has expertise working with the net, print, and video within the expertise, finance, nonprofit, and public sectors. In his spare time, you could find Joel taking part in Tucson's native comedy scene. Share your story concepts with Joel on joel.foster@kgun9.comor connecting in Fb, Instagram both X.