Brother Johns Restaurant

Tucson, AZ, United States

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Brother Johns Restaurant

Tucson, AZ, United States

Firm

Ibarra Rosano Design Architects

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Restaurant Bar/Nightclub

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2016

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

BUDGET

$100K - 500K

On “silver coin night” a nickel could buy a young college student a stiff drink at the Wildcat House. Four generations of students passed through that rowdy scene, making countless memories with that foggy backdrop. But eventually with increased competition, the business slowed down to a trickle until its doors closed and the building lay vacant for several years.

The new owners tasked Ibarra Rosano Design Architects with repurposing the old college haunt, the 100’ x 100’ masonry box, into a new restaurant: Brother John’s Beer, Bourbon and BBQ.

Their challenge was in turning the vacuous nightclub interior into an intimately scaled family friendly dining experience. Since the venue interiors were built to withstand the impact of hundreds of drunken youth, the bars were built of massive timbers felled from the forests of northern Arizona. The new owners imagined opportunity in them to solve their budget shortfall by milling them into smaller lumber for fences and walls. But the architects recognized their greater value as vestiges of the building’s legacy, not to mention the architectural power in their 14” x 18” heft.

The interior is now redefined by these stacked iconic partitions that separate dining rooms from ‘back-of-house’ activities. The new Bourbon Lounge and dining areas are given their own distinct spatial character through the use of lighting, color and seating. At the same time, the overall space maintains clear sightlines for its continued use as an after hours live music venue.

The new restaurant is both a repository of old memories and new experiences, as well as a newly revived landmark in the fabric of the city.