Terra Cotta Restaurant
Tucson, Arizona

While the restaurant has made a slight name change, the food is as great as ever.

The Café opened in 1986 in Tucson's St. Philip’s Plaza.

Chef/Proprietor Donna Nordin and her partner (now husband) Don Luria were innovators of the newly emerging Southwestern food craze.

Known for taking regional native ingredients and preparing them with classic French techniques, Nordin’s dishes and Café Terra Cotta's casual, artsy atmosphere were an instant hit.

The restaurant on Sunrise Drive

Terra Cotta moved to its current, stylish building on Sunrise Drive in the Santa Catalina foothills in 2001.

Unfortunately, an electrical fire broke out on July 5, 2004 on the restaurant’s 18th anniversary, closing it for almost half a year.

Upon re-opening, Café Terra Cotta shortened its name to just "Terra Cotta." While the building is the same, the interior color scheme changed completely.

The gate outside the restaurant’s patio

Terra Cotta Restaurant’s focus is still on innovative contemporary Southwestern cuisine.

Diners can choose from soups and salads and starters and small plates as well as entrées and pizzas.

As you might expect, Southwestern ingredients such as corn, chipotle and poblano peppers, tomatillos and cotija cheese turn up in regional dishes.

However, they've also incorporated them into unique dishes reflective of other cuisines.

Examples include:

• squash blossom and nopalitos blue cheese crisp ($9)
• New Mexico chile-marinated pork tenderloin with cranberry relish and corn fritters ($18)
• flank steak stuffed with red pepper relish with mole verde and poblano potato gratin ($20).

With the re-opening of the restaurant, Nordin and Luria branched out, incorporating dishes with Asian and Mediterranean influences including:

• roasted garlic and artichoke ravioli with yellow tomato champagne sauce ($11)
• crispy seared maple leaf duck with a sweet corn rice pilaf tower and tart cherry port reduction ($22)
• chicken alfredo pizza with shiitake mushrooms and spinach ($14).

All dishes have elegant presentations and very fresh ingredients. Menu items change seasonally.

The restaurant also has a special Happy Hour menu at the bar from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily.

The $5.00 menu includes:

• chile-rubbed steak sticks on a rosti potato cake with chipotle-Tabasco butter
• tempura artichoke hearts with rosemary-habanero aioli
• grilled chicken panini with fresh mozzarella and Willcox tomatoes.

Their large drink menu offers a variety of specialty margaritas including that Southwest favorite, the prickly pear margarita, as well as martinis, beers and fruity specialty cocktails like the mango mojito.

They also have an extensive Sunday brunch.

At just $20 per person, diners get a choice of entrée, coffee or tea, fresh baked pastries and a glass of orange juice, prickly pear lemonade, mimosa, mango Bellini or Bloody Mary.

The brunch entrées menu is extensive, including:

• strawberry-pecan cream cheese stuffed French toast
• crab and roasted corn flat enchiladas with a chipotle cream sauce served over black beans with poached eggs
• chile- and brown sugar-rubbed 8 oz. prime rib with a chipotle-lime hollandaise.

The spacious patio

The restaurant occupies its own corner, so there’s plenty of parking.

Desert plants like mesquite trees, saguaro cactus and prickly pear cactus fill the outdoor areas.

The interior is contemporary and incorporates indigenous materials throughout.

There are Southwestern touches like viga beam ceilings and scored concrete floors.

One side of the first floor is the dining room with simple wood tables and chairs and soft brown walls. The atmosphere is casual and relaxed.

The other side of the restaurant is the lounge with a handcrafted copper bar, couches, bar stools, high tables and a plasma TV.

A large, wood-fired pizza oven dominates one wall, filling the restaurant with the most delicious scents.

Eclectic art from local and regional artists fills both rooms.

You'll see paintings, sculpture and pottery from artists including Linda Carter-Holman, Sergio Bustamante, Richard Zane Smith and Bill Worrell.

One favorite is a human-sized cat sculpture wearing pink cowboy boots and a deep purple feather boa around her neck, lounging in a chair at the bar.

The Santa Catalina Mountains dominate the skyline along Sunrise Drive

A huge full moon rose over the saguaros outside the restaurant.

Terra Cotta’s Tucson foothills setting makes it feel as though it’s perched high above the city.

The Santa Catalina Mountains tower to the restaurant’s front. Behind it, the lights of Tucson twinkle below.

Entering, we felt like we were in a gracious, eclectically appointed home. The mood was relaxed and casual.

The menu had so many intriguing items it was hard to choose. A number of starters looked good.

Jeff opted to go simple with a Caesar salad ($7).

It was a light and refreshing course for a warm summer evening, topped with big shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and red chile-dusted croutons.

I chose a Terra Cotta classic, the garlic custard ($8).

This silky and soft custard comes unmolded, surrounded and topped with a garlicky salsa vinaigrette of chopped tomatoes and cilantro.

Providing a contrast to the creaminess is a pile of roasted hazelnuts lightly fragranced with cumin and chile.

The custard was delicious, creamy and rich. My only thought was that a small fresh herb salad would provide a better counterpoint to all of the richness of the custard instead of the hazelnuts.

For my entrée, I opted for the goat-cheese stuffed prawns ($21), another one of their classic dishes.

Six huge prawns, butterflied and stuffed with a luscious herb-filled ball of goat cheese, sat atop a fluffy bed of orzo.

A bright tomato coulis complemented the sweetness of the prawns. This was a wonderful dish that doesn’t disappoint.

Jeff had the grilled salmon topped with a creamy, roasted tomato-basil hollandaise sauce ($21).

Accompanying the salmon is a rosti cake which is essentially a potato pancake. Terra Cotta’s variation used sweet potatoes laced with poblano chiles and jack cheese. Both the salmon and cake were delicious.

For dessert, we had to have another Terra Cotta restaurant signature dish – the chocolate mousse pie ($6). This mile-high dessert is sure to elicit gasps when it’s brought to your table.

A saguaro cactus graces the entrance to the restaurant

It’s so impressive we were tempted to whip out a tape measure to see exactly how tall it was!

The pie begins with a thick chocolate wafer crust which is topped with a huge slab of chocolate mousse that’s light as a cloud.

The crowning glory is a thick layer of luscious whipped cream.

Take our word for it, the chocolate mousse pie is heavenly and deservedly famous.

It’s worth every caloric bite, even if you do have to hike a few more desert trails to work it off!

We also tried the dessert sampler ($8).

This selection includes a crème brulée, a tulipe of the day’s sorbet and one other dessert specialty, which changes regularly on the chef’s whim.

During our visit, the sampler consisted of:

• a vanilla crème brulée
• a cup-shaped tuile cookie filled with raspberry sorbet
• a slice of white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake.

Each was wonderful, but the cheesecake really stole the show with its rich yet light blend of white chocolate and berry.

We’ve found the service at Terra Cotta to be excellent. The staff is very friendly and helpful.

When we stopped to admire the pizza oven, the chef took the time to chat about how they make the pizzas.

And, we had to admire the patience and gracious demeanor of one waitress who was responsible for a table of convention goers.

Slightly inebriated and very full of themselves, they often treated her like a servant.

She, however, handled them with a grace and kindness that we couldn’t help but admire.

High Points: Delicious food; great service; nice setting.

Low Points: Can get a little loud as noise reverberates off the concrete floors

Location: North Tucson in the Santa Catalina foothills

Address: 3500 Sunrise Drive, Tucson AZ 85718 (at corner of Campo Abierto, ½ mile east of Campbell Road)

Google Map Directions: Click on "+" and "-" signs on Map Controls in upper left hand corner to zoom in and out on the location.

Phone: (520) 577-8100

Hours:
Special Summer Hours (starting May 27) open for dinner only starting at 4:00 p.m.
Happy Hour: 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. in the bar/lounge
Sunday Brunch: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Rest of the year: open daily 11:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (last reservation).

Reservations: Recommended

Dress: Casual to high casual

Vegetarian Options: Yes

Good for Families/Kids: Children are welcome but Terra Cotta’s menu and ambiance are more for adults

Wine List: Small but well chosen selection of primarily California wines

Smoking Policy: Smoking permitted on the patio only

Parking: There is plenty of free parking in Terra Cotta restaurant’s own lot

Credit Cards: Accepted

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