Rising from the ashes of decay and neglect, the Tourist Home All Day Cafe’ was born. Tourist Home (became the third concept he developed in Flagstaff. Enter Kevin Heinonen, a self-described accidental restaurateur and former attorney who saw an opportunity to add to the rejuvenation of the south side of Flagstaff. Renovating a near-condemned building is not for the faint of heart.
#TINDERBOX KITCHEN OR ROOT KITCHEN WINDOWS#
Garcia eventually became the cook for Tourist Home, the first in what is now a forever tradition good food made from scratch for hungry Flagstaff residents and visitors.įor decades though, the building sat in ruin, a battered phone booth, boarded windows with the occasional sound of a falling decaying brick from the handball court or the whistle of wind through the leaking roof the only testament to the buildings rich past. The traditional Basque game of handball helped visitors to stay in touch with their cultural roots. Immediately adjacent to the Tourist Home a pelota (handball) court was built by the pair. The sheepherders would stay at the Tourist Home before moving their flocks from summer locations in the San Francisco Peaks to winter locations farther south. The business served as a sort of cultural way place for those of Basque descent (a region of Europe which is a mixture of French and Spanish influence). Now celebrating its fifth year in business, the Tourist Home All Day Cafe represents the community meeting place in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona.īuilt in 1926 by Jesus Garcia (a Basque sheepherder) and his mother, Isabella, the Tourist Home was conceived as a boarding house for sheepherders who would descend on Flagstaff to conduct business and have some fun. More “Flop House,” than a boarding house, the curiously named “Tourist Home,” was a place you avoided walking past let alone walking in. (PRESS RELEASE) For nearly forty years, a building sat surrounded by weeds on South San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff. Tourist Home All Day Cafe’ Turns Five, a Story of Remarkable Rebirth from the Ashes for a Building Rich In History and Culture
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