80-Year-Old Tucson Restaurant Faces Demolition

A demolition team might need to come in and remove a classic restaurant.Photo byAbdur AhmanusonUnsplash

You might not always remember the name of the Mexican restaurant, but chances are you’ve driven past the bull and matador statue standing in front of Casa Molina more than a few times. The Tucson mainstay has been serving the community around East Speedway for nearly 80 years. It takes more than luck for a restaurant to remain that long. However, after a fire two years ago, the restaurant has sat dormant, and now, it may come crashing down at the hands of a swinging wrecking ball. 

Back in April of 2022, the restaurant, located at 6225 East Speedway (across the street from Bookmans), suffered a sudden grease fire that damaged the inner workings of the kitchen. From the outside, the building looks, more or less, untouched (outside of some overgrowth of grass poking up around cracks in the parking lot and by the road). While the building itself did not suffer damage, the family has received a demolition permit from the city. 

But why would the family request a demolition permit for a restaurant that was not damaged in the fire? According to the city’s released report on the fire, there were all kinds of building code violations that had gone undocumented before the fire. These violations would likely have gone unnoticed had the fire not occurred. The emergency inspection (which occurs following any fire) identified issues with the main electrical system (missing grounding conductors), a downstream panel with excessive rust, junction boxes missing covers, holes in drywall throughout the building, holes in the ceiling of the kitchen from roof leaks, and other issues. 

The city instructed the owners of Casa Molina to keep all utilities off until the necessary repairs were made. Between repairing what the fire damaged inside the kitchen and correcting the building violations, it would, at the very least, cost tens of thousands of dollars (if not significantly more) to bring the building up to code. These were repairs that were avoided for years, and now the fire bubbled everything up to the surface. 

While unfortunate, the fire could have possibly prevented serious injuries to patrons and employees, had someone more serious occurred (based on the identified problems, an electrical fire was not out of the question). 

While the family does have the city’s demolition permit in hand, they are still deciding what to do with Casa Molina. In a statement issued to KGUN 9 News, the restaurant’s management blamed the fire for all of the disrepair. That, as the city report indicated, was not the case. Regardless, there is no word yet as to whether a total demolition will continue.