He was a waiter at Micha\u2019s restaurant on South Fourth Avenue from 1983-93 and said he always told coworkers that one day they\u2019d be eating at one of his restaurants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
El G\u00fcero\u00a0Canelo began with a food cart in 1993. The cart is on display at the Oracle Road location, noting that\u2019s where it all started.<\/p>\n
El G\u00fcero Canelo<\/p>\n
After marrying his wife Blanca in 1987, Contreras bought his first food cart in 1993, selling Sonoran hot dogs before opening a brick-and-mortar shop.<\/p>\n
Following the original location on 12th Avenue, Contreras opened the Oracle Road restaurant in 2005 and the 22nd Street one in 2011.<\/p>\n
In 2018, El G\u00fcero Canelo won the coveted James Beard Award given to pioneers in the gourmet food world.<\/p>\n
Contreras told the Star at the time that when he got the call, he had never heard of such an award.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Known for their James Beard Award-winning Sonoran hot dogs, El\u00a0G\u00fcero Canelo restaurants are for sale.<\/p>\n
Star file, 2025<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me for information, and they asked me for this and that, and I said, \u2018Wait a minute, I don\u2019t even know who you are and you want my Social Security number. No way, man,\u2019\u201d he told the Star at the time.<\/p>\n
The sales memorandum for the properties cites the stores\u2019 locations in high-traffic areas, featuring solar power systems and a staff of 90 experienced employees.<\/p>\n
Growth opportunities, the memorandum states, include adding beer and liquor sales and possible franchising opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe success I\u2019ve had,\u201d Contreras said, \u201cis to be loved by so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact reporter Gabriela Rico at grico@tucson.com<\/p>\n
Be the first to know<\/p>\n
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He was a waiter at Micha\u2019s restaurant on South Fourth Avenue from 1983-93 and said he always told coworkers that one day they\u2019d be eating at one of his restaurants. El G\u00fcero\u00a0Canelo began with a food cart in 1993. The cart is on display at the Oracle Road location, noting that\u2019s where it all started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3323,3321,3319,3322,3320,1727,35848,35847,68,7331],"class_list":["post-46073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-dining","tag-arizona-food","tag-arizona-grocery-stores","tag-arizona-restaurants","tag-food-service","tag-memoranda","tag-memorandum","tag-restaurants","tag-tucson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117401144766342432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}