Tucson tortilleria is now home to Chihuahuan restaurant

Armando Hernandez and his chef-wife Nadia Holguin will open Tortillas Chiwas on Thursday in the former home of Grande Tortilla Factory in Barrio Hollywood.

“When the opportunity came by, we came and saw the building and the history it has, and just the location and the way that it feels,” Hernandez said. “To tell you the truth, it felt like something that was kind of destined to happen.”

The restaurant will be open with a limited menu from 5-10 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays until September, when Hernandez said they should have their liquor license. Their regular hours will be Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10 or 11 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m.

The Tucson venture comes a decade into the couple’s restaurant journey, which started in 2016 when they opened the Chihuahuan taqueria Tacos Chiwas in Phoenix.

Hernandez and his wife, who graduated from La Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale, had been cooking professionally for years before going out on their own. Hernandez cooked with James Beard Award-winning Phoenix restaurateur Chris Bianco at his namesake pizzeria and his fast-casual Pane Bianco while Holguin, who grew up in her family’s restaurant, worked alongside Chef Matt Carter at Scottsdale’s upscale modern American/French-influenced The House Brasserie.

The couple has been nominated for three James Beard Awards, including this year for Best Chef Southwest for Tacos Chiwas. They also were partners in Bacanora, the critically acclaimed wood-fired Sonoran-style Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, with chef René Andrade, who went on to win a James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest in 2024. The couple sold their interest in the restaurant to Andrade last year.

Tortillas Chiwas steps into a building whose DNA is embedded in tortillas, starting with Grande Tortilla Factory in 1947. Two generations of the Pesqueira family made tortillas in the historic burnt adobe block building at 914 N. Grande Ave. for more than 60 years before closing in 2009.

La Tortilla stepped in and produced tortillas for 16 years, until closing late last year.

Hernandez said the tortillas he makes in Tucson will be used in Tortillas Chiwa’s 38-seat restaurant and in the couple’s six Phoenix-area restaurants, including the Phoenix and Mesa outposts of Tacos Chiwas.

“Part of having the tortilla (factory) is we're gonna be able to mill all of our nixtamal and use it for all our concepts across the board,” Hernandez said, explaining that he anticipates once the factory is up to speed they will produce hundreds of pounds of masa each week for the restaurants’ hand-pressed, made-to-order corn tortillas.

“We don't plan on right away having the ability to sell retail. We're gonna work our way towards that,” he added. “Right now, it'll work as a delivery vehicle for all of our concepts, mostly, and then eventually, as we kind of figure it out and get the right people and equipment in place, we'll expand a little bit more.”

Tortilla production will take place in the back end of the 1,800-square-foot building. The restaurant and kitchen will take up the front end.

“You have the kitchen right inside of the actual bar, and so you'll be able to see us there cooking,” said Hernandez, who has been working on the buildout since January. “There's something really kind of nice and unique about cooking in the presence of people and also having that intimacy of only 38 seats.”

Hernandez said the building didn’t need much beyond a deep cleaning and some upgrades.

“We re-epoxied the floor and obviously did a lot of just kind of bringing it into our own, like the decorations,” he said. “There was a lot of beautiful tile work that was already done. We had to redo some of the ceilings. … It was in a little bit rough shape, but simple fixes.”

With the intimate space comes an intimate menu of around 15 items, largely drawn from dishes served at the couple’s Chiwas Hospitality Group restaurants including the cocktail-forward Espiritu Cocktails + Comida in Mesa; the chef-driven Cocina Chiwas in Tempe that takes a contemporary approach to Chihuahuan cuisine; and Main Burgers in Mesa, where burgers come classic American, with American cheese and grilled onions, Sonoran with chiltepin and cheese costra (think pan-fried cheese), and Chiwas with queso asedero (similar to provolone or Monterey jack) and roasted green chiles.

In Chihuahua, where Hernandez and Holguin are from, beef and pork are predominant proteins and cheese is central to the cuisine, from the melty Queso Menonita (aka Queso Chihuahua) to the asedero.

“There's a huge Mennonite culture that went into Chihuahua over 100 years ago, and so cheese is actually really big in Chihuahua,” Hernandez said. “A lot of those things come from French and German influences that came in through that Mennonite culture, and so that's one of the big components of it. It just ties it all together.”

The cuisine also borrows influences from its neighbor Sonora.

“It’s all northern food, just different variations,” he explained, noting that while Chihuahua is landlocked, Sonora connects to the Pacific Ocean “so they're able to kind of mess around with a little bit more of that (seafood) profile.”

Chihuahua also is known for its guisos — slow-cooked meats and vegetables similar to hearty stews — braised meats and dehydrated proteins including carne seca (dried beef) and machaca.

Tortillas Chiwas requires reservations through Opentable.com.