On a recent late Sunday morning, I was cruising south from Saguaro National Park East on Old Spanish Trail heading more or less toward Colossal Cave when I suddenly came upon The Settlement Smokehouse.

Turning abruptly into the parking lot, this establishment seemed somehow familiar. Didn’t this use to be … let me think … yes, yes. The old Bone-In Steakhouse. And before that it was the Webb’s Old Spanish Trail Steak House. Going back some 40 years, previous incarnations had been adequately panned and damned by a bevy of carnivorous customers and callous critics.

But I had recently read that the new name came with new management, and several folks had told us that it had changed for the better. So, I thought, why not a steak for brunch?

Entering by the front door, it’s hard to miss the large dining patio with a fountain and a dozen or so umbrella-shaded tables. From the patio, diners look east toward the nearby the Rincon Mountains and thousands of giant saguaros. This would be a delightful venue for a warm evening under the stars. But by 11:30 AM the patio was getting a little too warm for my comfort.

I was greeted and seated by Donald. I had a choice of a booth by the front window or one of many tables with upholstered knotty pine chairs. I took the booth and Donald took my drink order. Typically when going to a restaurant to do a review, I will order whatever the house says is its specialty. No reason not to let them show off what they think is their best. So I ordered The Settlement Margarita.

Waiting for my drink, I could look around and take in the scene. Mine was one of only three occupied tables, so service was probably not going to be an issue. (Although by the time I finished my meal, the place was filling up fast.) The ceiling was fashioned from saguaro ribs and looked sufficiently rustic. The walls had large framed prints of American Indians and cowboys. There were some old saddles draped over low interior dividing walls. In short, the place looked like what a steakhouse should look like … Old West through & through.

My “Settlement” margarita ($9) arrived in no time. Somewhat engrossed with the ambiance, I had forgotten what I had ordered. One sip reminded me. The Settlement Margarita is made from Patron Reposada Tequila and the usual … except for one particular, a jalapeno. Let me just say what should immediately be obvious. This margarita had a kick! But delicious!

Donald came back to take my order. I inquired as to the differences in their steaks and perhaps his recommendation. Donald had no recommendation. As it turned out, Donald had never had one of their steaks. Donald had just started working here.

No matter. I fell back on my usual choice when preparing a dining review. I ordered the house specialty: The Gaucho ($27). Donald didn’t actually know what a Gaucho was, but said he had heard good things about it. At this price, one would hope so.

While my meal was being prepared, I took a stroll around the place. Toward the back of the restaurant is a large window that allows customers to observe the huge mesquite-wood smoker and the mesquite fired BBQ. The area on the other side must have been quite warm because the chef looked to be about medium rare.

In the background was some canned country music. However, there was a sign as I entered indicating that they sometimes have live music … I presume on Friday & Saturday nights.

My Gaucho arrived with an assortment of grilled veggies and a large baked potato. Immediately there was an issue. There was something green on my steak. Seems the chef put a slather of cilantro sauce on the meat.

Hummmm. I like cilantro in very small portions. For example, at the Desert Museum’s wonderful Ocotillo Café they first bring you fresh-from-the-oven bread with a cup of cilantro spread. Very good. But on a steak … ?

Truth be told, it wasn’t bad, but I did scrape most of it off the meat. Speaking of meat, the Gaucho turned out to be a very good flank steak … just slightly chewy, but very tasty. Definitely mesquite-smoked flavor. With the giant serrated carving knife that came with it, slicing the meat was easy.

The sautéed veggies were excellent … grilled but not over-cooked. And the baked potato? LOVE baked potatoes with butter (but not sour cream). The menu indicates that you can have other stuff on your baked potato, such as jack cheese and their smoked bacon bits for only a dollar more. Maybe next time.

As a restaurant critic, I’m supposed to look for things to critique. So here are my only quibbles. Upon entering the restaurant proper, Donald seated me in the booth immediately to the left of the entrance. Somehow the design of this particular booth forces the body against the back of the seat and away from the table. Trying to sit up straight and eat my meal was going to be more abdominal exercise than I wanted under the circumstances, so Donald moved me to a nearby table with a knotty pine straight chair. Much better.

That potato with butter that I so enjoyed? The butter came in little foil-wrapped pads that were ice-cold. Unwrapping the foil is a nuisance, and particularly annoying when the butter is too cold to spread. A scoop of spreadable butter in a small cup would have been appreciated.

About that cilantro sauce that was served on my steak … I would have much preferred it served on the side. Finally, if it was on the menu, I didn’t see it, but if the meal had come with a fresh cold salad and a slice of fresh-from-the-pan cowboy bread, it would have been near perfect.

The menu is true Old West smokehouse. Pork, chicken, Black Angus beef. But The Settlement also offers salads, sandwiches, burgers, and seafood. If you go, I would expect you to have a most enjoyable dining experience. And try that Settlement Margarita … it’s an eye-opener.

I will be adding The Settlement Smokehouse to our List of the Best Southern Arizona Restaurants (by cuisine).

5400 South Old Spanish Trail

Tucson, Arizona 85747

520-885-4600

Hours:
Mon – Fri: 3:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Sat – Sun: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm

Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain

Even though I was a newspaper & magazine publisher for almost 4 decades, I stopped reading the Arizona Daily Star some years ago. However, by chance I saw an article it published recently with the headline: Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain shares top SW resort ranking. That caught my attention. As publisher of SouthernArizonaGuide.com, I should know these things. After all, I do make dining & lodging recommendations.

The article proceeded to rank the Top 25 Resorts in the Southwest according to Conde’ Nast Traveler readers. Neither the Star nor Conde’ Nast bothered to explain why Traveler readers have a lock on discriminating taste.

According to this Top 25 list, the Ritz at Dove Mountain tied for Numero Uno of the Southwest with Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa in Paradise Valley. Tucson’s Loews Ventana Canyon Resort is #13; followed by #14, the J.W. Marriott Starr Pass. Lodge at Ventana Canyon barely made the list at #24. But any resort in the Top 25 is a fine place to stay.

I tend not to trust the Star to do serious research, so I went to the Traveler website to see for myself. Found something interesting.

If you go to Traveler’s Gold List of Arizona Hotels & Resorts, you will find one of our finest resorts was left off the Top 25 in the Southwest, but was #4 on the Gold List: Miraval. How did that happen?

Miraval Resort & Spa – Tucson

Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain got a score of 92.5, same as Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain. Tucson’s Miraval scored 91.3. Just so you know, #1 on the Gold List: Mii amo, Sedona got a solid 94.0 and way ahead of Loews Ventana Canyon at 85.3.

Ms. Karen & I have stayed at some fine hotels and resorts. The most pleasantly memorable are the Winter Palace in Luxor overlooking the Nile and a short walk to the magnificent Temple of Karnak;  and the Mena House on the Giza Plateau in easy walking distance to the Great Pyramids. Somewhere, I have a photograph of Ms. Karen teeing off on the 6th fairway with the Pyramid of Khufu in the immediate background. Not sure any resort could match that.

In Jeruselem, we stayed at the (then) new Hilton (along with President Clinton) where we had an unsurpassed view of the Old City. Absolutely glorious at night. What resort can match that? Clearly my criteria for great lodging are significantly different that the readers of Conde’ Nast Traveler. I didn’t find any of these on Conde’ Nast’s Gold List. But they’re on mine.

For our Southern Arizona Lodging reviews, click HERE.

Let me know which are your Gold List Southern Arizona Hotels & Resorts. Please include your criteria for excellence. If I haven’t already reviewed them, I will check out your suggestions for best Southern Arizona lodging. Thanks!

J. Marinara’s Italian Restaurant in Oro Valley

Recently, I had the pleasure of dining with two friends at J. Marinara’s in Oro Valley. The restaurant’s tag line is “Where The Sauce Sells Itself.” I like “East Coast” Italian. I have fond memories of Italian dining in New York City and Baltimore, MD, so I was looking forward to writing this review.

It was a Monday and this establishment only serves from 11 AM to 3 PM on Mondays. We arrived around 1:30. All other days, they serve both lunch and dinner.

As soon as we parked, we could see they have a small patio in front, but saw no reason to take advantage of it since it only overlooked the parking lot and Oracle Road.

Casual East Coast Italian Dining

The interior, while pleasant enough, was nothing fancy. No white table clothes or related finery as one encounters at Vivace in St. Philip’s Plaza. However, I understand that dinners are slightly more formal with Italian-looking table clothes and more formally-dressed wait staff. Lunch is clearly informal. Given they have no Dress Code, it seems safe to say that J. Marinara’s is casual East Coast Italian dining.

Bret seated us and said he would be our server. In fact, Bret was the only server in the whole place. Two of us order iced tea. When it arrived after a few minutes, it looked like slightly tinted water … very weak tea, indeed. Bret apologized and, after several minutes, returned with real iced tea.

The lunch menu was interesting. We had a choice of several different pastas and, for a couple bucks more, we could add our choice of meatballs, chicken, sausage, or shrimp.

Kathy ordered the Butternut Squash Ravioli. Jeff ordered the Angel Hair Pomodoro. And I ordered both the Sicilian Rustico AND the Lasagna dinners.

J. Marinara’s Sicilian Rustico

Yes, I know what you’re thinking … want a glutton! True, I have been known to over-indulge on occasion. But, here’s my reasons for ordering two full dinners. First, I had a Groupon for half off dinner for four. But there was only us three. To use my Groupon, I had to purchase four meals.

Second, Ms. Karen was out of town on business for a couple of weeks, so I had to fend for myself. I figured I would eat my Sicilian Rustico for lunch, and take home the lasagna for later in the week. Besides, as I so love lasagna and have it almost every time I dine Italian, it’s easy for me to offer my viewers a comparison.

Sicilian Rustic is a combination of chicken & mild sausage served in a champagne tarragon cream sauce, topped with two jumbo shrimp all over a penne pasta. It was excellent! Fresh pasta and lots of flavor. But the notion that I would consume the whole thing in one sitting turned out to be fantasy because the portion was so huge, I took half of it home along with my complete lasagna meal.

I inquired as to how Kathy liked her Butternut Squash Ravioli. “Very good,” said she, “wanna try one?” I tried one. Wow! Very good, but unexpectedly sweet. Almost could have been dessert.

I made the same inquiry of Jeff’s Angel Hair Pomodoro. He too said, “Very good.” I waited politely, assuming he too would offer me a sample. Nothing. And this from a good Catholic boy and fellow Rotarian.

We did have a small dinner salad with our meals. Fresh, no complaints. But just a salad. Next time I want to try their Caesar Salad.

One minor disappointment occurred when I ordered some garlic bread. Italian should always be accompanied by fresh-made garlic bread. When mine had not reached our table by half way through lunch, I asked Bret about it. “Oh, so very sorry. We burned it and that was the last of the garlic bread until we make more in the morning.” Bummer!

Not Cheap, But …
Our bill came to $80, which worked out to $20 per meal. Not cheap, particularly when you consider that we had no wine or cocktails. But I can attest that the food at J. Marinara’s is very good and the servings are more than I can eat at one sitting.

As to that take-home lasagna, it too was both very good and the portion was so huge I got two very fine meals out of it. I made my own garlic bread to go with.

Full Bar, Full Menu
J. Marinara has a full bar and a full Italian menu. They serve just about anything Italian you can think of … Veal Marsala, Chicken Parmesan, Portobello Mushroom Ravioli, and on and on. I intend to go back for dinner sometime before the holidays. I will also add J. Marinara’s to our 2012 List of the Best Southern Arizona Restaurants. 

8195 N. Oracle, Oro Valley
Reservations are recommended: 520-989-3654