Magpies turns to fan for an update

Anderson's design talents helped get Union Public House off the ground. He did Cartel Coffee Lab's most recent incarnation as well.

Before that, Anderson, 32, was all over the Phoenix area working on high-profile venues and restaurants such as the Foundry and Mabel's on Main.

Anderson's latest foray into food includes opening Umi Star, a chic Asian food bar at 2502 N. Campbell Ave., in September and taking on a complete redesign of the Magpies pizza chain, starting with the overhaul, from top-to-bottom, of its North Fourth Avenue location.

In his own words:

We've been doing well with Umi Star so far. We've tried to focus on our location to see what kind of customers patronize our spot. We've seen a good cross market. We get the students. We get families who live in the area. We get a lot of commuters for both lunch and dinner. It has been a good surprise and a good experiment to see who eats our type of food in the area.

Umi Star is not your traditional Japanese, Chinese or Korean restaurant. You can't really classify it. That is why we call it an Asian food bar. It has Asian foundations, but it is not purely one thing. There are some items on the menu that are not easily recognizable. Explaining ingredients, what they are and how we prepare them, is critical for us, on both the food and the drink side.

We are doing our own juices and making our own bitters. We are marinating a lot of our own proteins. We do all our own sauces. A lot of those things need some explaining. Some of these things are not available in local markets. There is no local point of reference.

It is our own take on those different cultures and what we like to eat and drink. It is us. People try to find the most popular business market and go after that. That is not how we approached it. We focus more on what we really like and love and find a way to market that.

We are going to continue to roll out some new things, like a noodle bowl and a midnight torta. We are really trying to experiment with some other foods now.

Being a small restaurant allows us that flexibility. We don't have to be The Cheesecake Factory. We have the flexibility to do a lot of seasonal items and specials. We just rolled out a butternut-squash ravioli, all made in-house. We just did sea urchin. That is a huge delicacy. Those sell out in a heartbeat. We have our bread and butter, things you know will always be there. But you can also get something funky that's just amazing.

There are opportunities along Campbell. You just have to be creative about who you are and what you are in terms of brand and product and price point. We'll always be working on that. That is Tucson. You just never know what you are going to get. It makes it exciting, but it also makes it frustrating at times. You just have to stick to what's good and what's great. You are providing a service. You try to make everyone happy and healthy, and you work every day for that.

With Magpies, it was a huge opportunity for us to really go back and reinvest capital into a building and do a complete remodel and rebrand. Magpies still uses the same ingredients and recipes. We just wanted to consolidate it and make it more personal to the student base and the historical neighborhoods by improving the frontage that we have.

I think it is really a good partnership, looking at ways to make Magpies a better, stronger participant on Fourth Avenue and across Tucson. We started with Fourth. We are going into the other locations. Magpies is a business that is born and raised in Tucson. It has a name. It just needs a little bit of an update. Being a design-build guy, it was in my wheelhouse.

We are 90 percent done with Fourth. We have already started to go into the other locations to remodel those as well. Unfortunately, we had to let our Speedway location go. Geographically it was good. We just needed a little bit more room and better parking. The location didn't make sense financially, and it was tough for the new program that we were trying to lay down. We are looking for future locations to expand to take care of the northeast quadrant.

I grew up on Magpies. It is an honor for me to help. Hopefully, I can do it justice. You have to be delicate when dealing with something that has been there a while. We are trying to do it the right way with what we have.