The Gardens at Bear Canyon — Restaurant in Tucson

What a wonderful idea to have sprung from the aftermath of the 2020 pandemic world we have all endured. I wish I had found this place sooner.

I spent the evening with friends, having drinks. They have a modest in-house menu that looks like it would be good, but they also offer the option of ordering from Bear canyon pizza next door (they are affiliated). So, we ordered wings from there.

Two points of note. The mixed drinks here are all prepared from scratch as you order. That is to say, no syrupy watered down drinks at this place. If you order a blackberry whiskey sour, they pulp the blackberries and blend them into the drink right at the bar. The upside of this is that you get a very fresh tasting and more authentic drink experience than in a normal bar setting. The downside is, if you are used to syrupy drinks, there is no added sugar. As a result the drinks come off more savory than sweet. This has zero impact on the wine and beer of course, just seemed worth noting.

Secondly, the wings are arguably the best damn wings in tucson. I don't know where they source their chicken, but these were the biggest, plumpest, most flavorful bone-in wings I've had since moving here 20 years ago. I tried the canyonized and honey sriracha wings. Canyonized is buffalo wing sauce with jalapenos and caramelized onions diced into it. It was a little spicy. I could only pick up hints of sriracha in the other. My friends claim that because everything is made fresh, the flavor profiles can vary a bit from week to week, especially on the sweet and spicy flavors like the raspberry chipotle or honey sriracha.

I fully intend to test that claim. This may become a regular hang out for me. So maybe I'll...

Here we are 2 months later. Still like the venue. The food...today staff still task focused without customer oriented. Counted 4 maybe from the bar. 3 couples sat after me. Waved, called out nope. Finally caught the attention of the young man in nice blue plaid button shirt. Asked if he'd seen me. "No" a new customer approached bar as well. I asked for a menu, and a .coke. Young male said they are busy. He should a sacarcastc comedian. Want bill paid with order no problem. Problem was better payment now, you might not see me for a while tho all staff walk behind bar constantly. No worries. Then my food came up. Sat there a good 10 minutes. Guy next to my wished me luck. Asked if that meal may be.mine? Sure was. No one saw the white carry out. Neither did the guy who cooked it and set it there. boo Who.

attentiofrom young man...

This place is very unique. It is a bar(huge selection) but all the seating is outside in a garden area. They get live music 3 times a week.

They have the best fries I have ever had. They called them scoop fries and just wow. We had them with two dishes 3 dip (basket full of fries with a choice of 3 dips) and irish nachos (never had nachos like this and it was delicious).

We were lucky and they just finished taking out some lightly seasoned pulled pork(no picture because it was devour too quickly) and it was delicious.

They have a desert style dish which was fried apples with a dipping sauce. Like fresh apple pie with a crunch.

Our server,Mindy, was very talkative and made you feel like you belonged there but just haven't visited in a long while. It was a very...