Tucson loses a favorite as Shari's closes down

Across town at the Plaza at Williams Centre, a similar yet not as storied drama unfolded early this week. On Monday, workers packed up the remains of the five-year-old Intermezzo, an Italian restaurant that was once a popular lunchtime spot.

Both restaurants blame their downfall on the harsh economy, which in the past six months has dramatically pushed up gas prices and food costs. They join a growing list of closed restaurants that includes the 30-year-old Olive Tree Greek Restaurant, which closed in February; Yokohama Rice Bowl at North Oracle and Magee roads in Oro Valley; and the Coffee Vein, which ended its nearly three-year run on North Stone Avenue in May.

Shari's fate, though, has been months in the making. The 53-year-old burger stand at 2650 N. First Ave. has been wobbling on the brink of collapse since shortly after Jennifer and Jeff Noel took it over in April 2007. The pressure mounted early this year, when the owner of the building, Joseph Giuffre, put the property on the market.

The Noels bought the business from Giuffre for $30,000 as an investment and had a manager run it for them. Jeff Noel sells insurance for a living, and his wife takes care of their two small children. In January, they fired the manager, who Jennifer Noel said last March was running the business into the ground. She began working at Shari's full time, and things looked to be turning around.

In April, though, when the couple's lease was up for renewal, Jeff Noel asked that Giuffre allow them to go month to month.

"The insurance business has been much better to us than the hamburger business," he conceded this week.

Shari's has been a Tucson landmark since it opened as an ice-cream stand in 1955. It added burgers to its menu in 1957. The name Shari's dates to 1979, in honor of former owner Shari Bartol.

A couple owners followed her, including Giuffre, and each seemed to have stuck with Bartol's formula of success: made-to-order burgers with chopped lettuce and onions and dill pickles, served from the counter of the 443-square-foot building. You ate on picnic tables out front, in the shadow of the towering Shari's sign.

"We're kind of broken up about letting something that's been around so long go away," Jeff Noel said Monday. "We certainly didn't want to be the ones that were the last owners of Shari's."

"That's one more piece of Tucson that's closing down," bemoaned longtime devotee John Gatty, 46, who has been a regular since the late 1980s. "They'll probably put another Jack in the Box in its place."

Noel said he has been trying to sell the restaurant for months. He has it listed on Craigslist for $20,000 and will entertain only cash offers.

"If somebody wanted to come along, there's definite advantages to striking while the iron's hot," he said.

Giuffre said he and other previous owners were able to make a living with the restaurant. He said the Noels "just weren't restaurant people. It really does take a special breed of people, but they just didn't want to invest the time."

Giuffre said the building is still on the market, but he's had no solid offers. He's willing to lease it to someone for a burger stand.

"Whoever goes in there, if they serve a quality burger, whatever the name is, they would make it," he added. "If I wasn't such an old fart, I would run it again."

Intermezzo's final act

Last Saturday was the final day for Intermezzo, 5350 E. Broadway. A sign taped to the window thanked customers for their patronage and urged them to eat at locally owned restaurants.

"These hard economic times in which we find ourselves have delivered a blow we were not prepared for," Intermezzo's chef, Sheri Thornton, said in the note.

"Although it is too late to save my small establishment, I implore you to support other locally owned and operated restaurants, such as the members of the Tucson Originals, so that we will not lose other culinary treasures."

Intermezzo, the inventive eatery that leaned heavily toward Italian, was once part of the Scordato stable. Daniel Scordato opened it in 2003 and sold it the next year to Charles and Stephanie Heckman, who could not be reached for comment. The restaurant's phone number was disconnected and the Web site was offline.

On Monday, workers were packing up equipment and vacating the restaurant, one of several in the plaza. Others include Jason's Deli and 58 Degrees.

"We really just found out yesterday and don't have all the details," said Melissa Plumb, the Larsen Baker leasing agent for Williams Centre. "It's pretty fresh."

Plumb said it was to early to speculate what would replace Intermezzo in the 1,920-square-foot space.

It was business as usual last week when Arizona Daily Star reviewer Margo Hernandez was there for dinner Tuesday and for lunch Thursday. During her first visit, she and her party were the only customers in the restaurant.

The Star's thumbs-up review was to have been published today. To read excerpts, go the Star's food blog at go.azstar net.com/foodforthought.

On StarNet: Shari's recently won the food fight for best burger. Check out the rest of the victors at aznightbuzz.com/foodfight.