Gus Balon’s Restaurant celebrates its 51st anniversary this month and very little has changed since its namesake opened the eatery known for its low prices and down-home cooking.
“There’s a lot more stuff on the menu than when my grandfather originally started, but absolutely everything that he had on the menu is still on the menu,” said Kelli Phillips, Gus Balon’s granddaughter.
“It wasn’t broken so we didn’t fix it. Everybody appreciates that. We cut our own meats and bread our own chicken fries. Everything is done from scratch and I think people appreciate that. At a time when everything is boxed and processed, it’s made in a way you probably wouldn’t make for yourself.”
Kelli owns the restaurant with her husband, William. After Gus retired, Kelli’s parents took over running the restaurant. It wasn’t easy; still isn’t. Being a small business owner means 70-hour work weeks, no benefits, no paid vacations. Kelli’s parents wanted more for their daughter after she earned her degree in hospitality management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. But she had grown up working in the restaurant and after a few post-college jobs, she gravitated back to Gus Balon’s. She took over when she was 25 and has kept the place running for the last 11 years.
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Why have you kept the menu pretty much the same all these years?
Kelli: “My family is originally from Iowa and my grandfather, he went to the military and was put on kitchen duty so that’s really where he started. That’s why he started in the food business. They moved to Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project when it was a closed city. My grandparents had to get clearance to live there. A couple chefs that used to cook for the scientists invited my grandfather to come in and that’s where he got his bread recipes. From there they settled in Tucson. It’s always been Midwestern comfort food, meat and potatoes.
“There have been people coming in here since I was in diapers. Obviously they continue to come in because they like the food, they like the atmosphere, they like the consistency. I think that’s a huge part of it and we have been able to keep our prices reasonable.”
What is the first thing you remember cooking?
William: “My mother and I, we always would make cinnamon rolls together.”
Kelli: “My mother-in-law and I have an argument, who makes the best cinnamon rolls — if it’s Gus Balon’s or if it’s hers. She doesn’t put frosting on hers.”
William: “She makes fun of ours. ‘Do you have enough frosting on those?’”
Do you have a favorite recipe to bake?
William: “I like the pecan pie. It’s probably my favorite one because you have to sample it to make sure it turned out alright. And then I enjoy baking cookies because a lot of times I give out samples, especially to our regular customers.”
What advice do you have for people who haven’t done a lot of baking?
Kelli: “I definitely think you need to get good ingredients, first of all. And, like with our bread, because we don’t use a bread machine, it takes hours to even get the bread from the dry ingredients state to being put in the pan to raise it and an hour and 30 to bake, so it’s patience and time. Letting the food do what it needs to do so it’s good.”
William: “You definitely can’t rush it.”
Kelli: “There’s a lot of science behind cooking, like having the correct water temperature because you will kill your yeast, or having the correct temperature in the room or else your bread won’t rise. ”
What do you cook at home?
William: “As little as possible.”
Kelli: “There’s a lot of times when we take meals home from the restaurant because we’re busy after work and the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook. If I’m going to cook dinner for my family, it’s grilled chicken and vegetables, nothing too exciting or fancy.”
Does your son work in the restaurant?
Kelli: “Kyle is 9 and he comes up and helps us. He is the best egg cracker ever. He is so fast at it and he says he always wants to work, but I am crossing my fingers that he doesn’t really take an interest in the restaurant. That’s what my parents had hoped for me, but it didn’t happen. It’s very hard work, very difficult. I would rather him do something else. But he is more than welcome if we have it by then, by the time he is ready to have a career, he is more than welcome to take it.”
Kimberly Matas is a Tucson-based freelance writer. Contact her at kimmataswriter@gmail.com
