The mural panels came off the front of the former Johnny Gibson's Downtown Market late last month, which was probably the biggest hint that the store's long-awaited replacement was about to open.
But when Gibson Food Hall & Market owners Nick Wayne Eggman and John Hardin put out the "now open" sign on the sidewalk Friday morning, it took nearly 30 minutes before anyone walked in the front door at 11 S. Sixth Ave.
By lunchtime Friday, the story had changed; dozens of people trickled in to try out the loaded potato, fries or mac and cheese at José Ramos's Don Ribs BBQ, where barbecue has taken on a Sonoran twist. Rubs and sauces are rich in Mexican spices, including chiltepin adding heat to the fiery pineapple barbecue sauce and habanero lighting a burn to the smoked peach.
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Others found a familiarity in Kaiju Burger's smashed Wagyu burgers that the husband-and-wife duo of Rafael Del Cuesta and Destiney Medina had been serving at neighboring Brick Box Brewery on East Broadway since early January. The owners pulled out of the brewery May 31 in anticipation of Gibson's opening.
More than 18 months after the market closed and six months past the date Eggman and Hardin had hoped to launch, Gibson Food Hall & Market quietly opened without the social media bells and whistles many new businesses pull out to herald their arrival.
From left to right, Liany Martinez, Yasmine Grant and Alejandro Tapia finish up their lunch at the newly opened Gibson Food Hall & Market in downtown Tucson, which quietly opened its doors last Friday.
"For not having announced our opening, we have been pretty busy," Eggman said Monday as a handful of lunch-hour latecomers sat in the dining room that takes up the center of the 6,000 square feet comprising the food hall and market.
Eggman and Hardin took on the project as a complement to their adjacent downtown ventures — the 12-year-old HighWire Tucson bar and nightclub at 30 S. Arizona Ave. behind the market, and The Grand Tucson event center next door at 33 S. Sixth.
The pair, last February, added a small convenience store to the Gibson project when Rio Nuevo leased them the storefront on the corner of Congress and South Sixth.
Nick Wayne Eggman, co-owner, talks inside of the storefront on the corner of East Congress Street and South Sixth Avenue that was home to the former Crescent Smoke Shop. Eggman and his partner, John Hardin, took over the space and will open it as a convenience store.
The 1,200-square-foot space that had been the home to the historic Crescent Smoke Shop since 1908 will sell everything from packaged spirits to snack foods, incidental toiletries and cigarettes when it opens next week. It will be downtown's first convenience store since Rae's Place Downtown Market on North Stone Avenue closed in early 2023 to make way for the Fox Tucson Theatre expansion.
Crescent, which originally opened as a cigar shop and newsstand, had been a downtown fixture before closing in 2023. Its location on East Tanque Verde Road closed in April.
Eggman and Hardin knocked down the wall separating the smoke shop and market and installed a garage door to connect the two spaces. In the tiny basement at 200 E. Congress, the pair created the Pearl Lounge, a reservations-only speakeasy that can only accommodate 20 guests at a time.
In early August, the Pearl Lounge, a reservations-only speakeasy that can only accommodate 20 guests at a time, is expected to open in the basement of the convenience store attached to Gibson Food Hall & Market.
Eggman said he plans to open the lounge, which features all white furnishings, a white bar and a turn-of-the-last-century photo-op-worthy iron clawfoot tub painted white, in early August.
All told, Eggman said he invested $1.5 million on the renovations, $584,000 of which came from Rio Nuevo.
As he walked through the market and food hall Monday afternoon, Eggman wondered aloud about the role the market will play for residents living in the 1,082 downtown apartments. He said he hopes diners make their way to the groceries and shoppers find their way to the restaurants, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two.
Unlike its predecessor, Gibson Food Hall & Market has a limited grocery inventory. A wall of refrigerators/freezers carries the essentials, including eggs and milk, fresh produce, dairy products and frozen foods. Several small aisles of shelves have an array of dry goods from dog food to canned goods and snack foods.
In addition to Don Ribs BBQ and Kaiju Burgers, Samurai Teppan Steak & Sushi, featuring a selection of sushi rolls and nigiri and Barrio Bites with its menu of Mexican food, including tacos, quesadillas, loaded baked potatoes and half-pound Sonoran hot dogs served in a specially-made 9-inch roll comprise the food hall.
"Everything (on the menu) is basically food we grew up with," said Barrio Bites chef-owner Michael Lopez, whose menu is inspired by decades working in Tucson restaurants.
Lopez's stall was the only one not open on Monday — he said he held off until Tuesday because of computer issues — as Rob Elias and his Southern Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce colleagues Isabella Castilblanco and Anissa Trujillo were finishing lunch.
"I think it's a wonderful concept and a good addition to downtown Tucson to give people an option," Elias said.
A customer peruses the refrigerator aisle at the newly opened Gibson Food Hall & Market, 11 S. Sixth Ave. The market has a limited grocery inventory that includes a wall of refrigerated essentials including eggs and milk, fresh produce, dairy products and frozen foods.
"I think it will be a great addition to the night life, as well," added Castilblanco. "There's not a lot of places that stay open late."
Gibson is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, compared to the majority of downtown restaurants that stop serving at 8 or 9 p.m.
Yasmine "YeYe" Grant and her twentysomething friends, Alejandro Tapia and Liany Martinez, heard about Gibson's opening through social media and said they were pretty impressed with their first food hall experience Monday afternoon. Each had tried a Kaiju burger, which Martinez and Grant left unfinished, saying the portions were big; Tapia had no problem polishing off a double-patty burger, he proudly boasted.
Customers are greeted with a coffee bar and snacks at the newly opened Gibson Food Hall & Market, which opened last week.
"I would definitely come back," Grant said, and her friends nodded. "The only problem is parking, but parking downtown in general is bad."
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Bluesky @Starburch
Cathalena E. Burch
Reporter
Johnny Gibson’s Downtown Market to reopen as Tucson food hall
