“Oh my god. It smells exactly the same.”
“It looks exactly the same.”
“Oh my god.”
Okay, the title suggests that it was a triumph to go back to Sweet Tomatoes, seeing as its been closed for almost 5 years. In fact, its been about 6 years for us last time we stepped foot in one.
When the Sweet Tomatoes on Broadway here in Tucson reopened in April of 2024, even waiting a week or two, and like on a Tuesday around 2pm, the place had a line of people extending into the parking lot. So we waited. Waited some more. Then we kind of forgot about it. Dealing with crowds in that capacity, all ready to scoop lettuce on a plate, queuing to plop mac and cheese in a bowl or maneuvering around throngs of unattended children screaming that there aren’t any sprinkles left to squeeze out some ice cream doesn’t sound like a pleasant afternoon to us.
Waiting became legend, legend became myth…
Until one day, quite recently actually, the wife asked if I was up for Sweet Tomatoes. If there wasn’t a mass horde of all-you-can-eaters then, sure. Why not?
Luckily the heat from the relaunch had cooled down as there was very little people in attendance. Which was great. For us. We’re not the “more the merrier” kind of couple. We enjoy empty theaters and restaurants at off hours. Call us crazy for liking leisure when we partake in leisurely activities.
Now here is where the word “triumphant” comes into play. Turns out that this Sweet Tomatoes, the one here in Tucson, on Broadway, is the only Sweet Tomatoes in operation! Anywhere. None in Wisconsin, none in Alaska, none in Fiji and none in Siberia. Tucson baby. We gots the Sweets!
Thing is, and this is just my opinion so I apologize to the ST faithful, Sweet Tomatoes is okay at best. The greens are always crisp but taste like they’ve been sitting in a bag for a while. The dressings are…fine. The toppings are expected. The pasta bar is decent but you have to season it up with pepper flakes and such to ease out some flavor. Same goes for the mini pizzas.
It’s all just…fine.
Here’s the thing with the wife and I, as I’m sure goes with a lot of Sweet Tomatoes attendees: It’s a memory poke at the lobe that reminds us of lazy afternoons sitting there, reading books, or playing games, surrounded by essential comfort food if and when we want it. We paid our ticket, so we gonna ride this out for a while.
Unless its busy. Then we’ll eat and go. Sorry. No we’re leaving. You can totally sit here. Cheers.
That memory jab came at an almost instant once we were through the doors. Other than some new signage and a bit of AI influenced advertising, it looked, smelled and felt exactly the same before closing their doors in the pandemic.
The old routine returned as well. Get a tray, grab two plates (one for green salad the other to pile on whatever salads they may have on special) and make the stretch down option alley.
Luckily on this trip they had the tuna tarragon salad which was always a curious favorite of mine. That recipe has not changed mercifully.
The only disappointment that day, for the wife anyway, was the lack of brothy soup. Usually Sweet Tomatoes is equipped with a chicken noodle or something where she could just ladle in for the broth, her main reason for showing up in the first place. But, alas, no brothy soup. Just the creamy or chili variety. Oh well.
As we sat there watching the lunch crowd grow in numbers, that feeling of odd nostalgia set in. It wasn’t that kind of decades gone familiarity then whooshed into verisimilitude like an old arcade, video rental stand or toy store. It was more of a “Yeah. Here it is. Here we are. Not much has changed. Okay. Ready to go?”
A lot, if not most, of my chef-y friends absolutely despise buffets. “Anything employing a sneeze guard,” one chimed in, “and you know you’re in the middle of a filth storm.”
The years that we have been going to Sweet Tomatoes, there has never been an issue. We used to attend the one that still stands empty and sun bleached dead by the Tucson Mall on Wetmore and all of the employees looked happy to be there. We even had our favorite server, a lady in her maybe 30s, Latina, who always boasted the biggest smile when she saw us. To this day we always wondered what happened to her. Mainly because my wife, who is the GM of a popular and long standing restaurant, wanted to hire her when the restaurant reopened in late 2020.
It was always clean, well-stocked, and rarely overcrowded. It was maybe a once a month thing for us. Hey, its our day off, can’t decide on what we want for lunch, we’re hungry, hey!, how about Sweet Tomatoes? Sure!
Going to the one (and only!) on Broadway is a bit out of the way for us so I’m not too sure if we’ve even been to that one. Maybe a while ago but with age that trigger has loosened and my aim is getting less true. Still, it was nice to be back, even though we left our books at home and had to rely on people watching and engage in conversation. Ugh!
Will we go back to Sweet Tomatoes? Probably. In fact, no, we definitely are. Anytime soon? Doubt it. But its good to know that it’s there and that Tucson has the sole key to the Sweet Tomatoes franchise. When we are on that side of town and getting the belly grumbles while failing to come to an agreeing cuisine conclusion, we can just pop in, grab a tray and get down with an old friend.
Hopefully we’ll have our books with us that time.
Cheers!
Words and Pictures
Mark Whittaker
yeahwritemark@gmail.com
Yeah Write Mark 