Downtown Insider: Daniel Scordato

8 Questions with Daniel Scordato

Daniel Scordato has run Vivace for more than three decades. But, until a year and a half ago, he had never owned a restaurant downtown. That changed when his landlord's husband, one of his food distributors, told him about a historic bank building on East Congress. Scordato walked in, saw the pink marble, the mirrored wall, the pillars, and pictured a bride coming down the staircase. He knew it couldn't work as a restaurant due to its immense size of 22,000 square feet. However, he thought it could work as an event and cultural space.

Soon, the former vaults and financial halls became The Treasury 1929. Its subterranean bar, Emerald 29, opened this year. Scordato grew up in Tucson. His family ran a chain of mobile snack trucks on Miracle Mile in the late 1960s, a business he calls "mini Circle Ks." He never expected to end up downtown. Now he's part of a scene he watched empty out in the 1970s and rebuild block by block, restaurant by restaurant, over the following decades. Here, in his own words, is what downtown Tucson means to him.

Why did you choose downtown Tucson for your business, and what keeps you there?

I had no intention of going downtown. (My restaurant) appeals to an older crowd, mostly, and downtown never struck me as my forte. Then my landlord's husband, one of my food distributors, told me about a building they wanted me to see. I walked in and fell in love with it: the marble, the mirrored wall, the pillars. I pictured a bride coming down that staircase. Rio Nuevo helped with the tenant improvements- such as the electrical and plumbing people don't think about. What keeps me there now is simple: I found out there's a market for a business like mine downtown.

What's something people still get wrong about downtown Tucson?

Parking. Everyone I talk to says parking, parking, parking. I don't buy it anymore. With GPS, navigating down there is easy, and there's plenty of parking; you might just walk a couple blocks. All over the world, people walk. It's not expensive compared to other cities, either. All you've got to do is Google parking spots, and you'll find tons of them.

What does downtown Tucson offer people that they may not find elsewhere in the city?

I remember when downtown was dying. The Fox Theater went dark, the restaurants and bars fled, everyone wanted to drive everywhere instead. What's come back is the ability to walk from place to place, to have a whole evening in over a stretch of blocks. It has a heart. I can't think of anywhere else in the city where you'll find that.

How would you describe downtown Tucson to someone visiting for the first time?

I'd say it's a vibrant place to experience a lot of different restaurants and bars. Right now that's probably 90 percent of what draws people. I'd like to see that broaden. Something like a mini Eataly would be great, a place people go just for specialty food and produce, not only dinner and drinks.

Was there a moment when you realized downtown Tucson was really changing or evolving?

The 2000s, for sure. Hotel Congress was the one that got people thinking, hey, you can go downtown and get drinks and eat somewhere fun. Then El Charro opened their steakhouse, and Café Poca Cosa was there too, one of the first places that made downtown an actual destination instead of just a stop. Between those, people started to see there was more reason to go, and it grew from there.

What other downtown businesses, restaurants, bars, shops, or organizations do you love supporting?

I don't like picking out single restaurants. I go to a lot of them depending on my mood, and they all have their own strong points. I don't like ranking one over another. I'll admit I haven't made it to the museums yet. I should. I just don't get out enough for that, and I feel a little bad about it.

When you think about downtown Tucson five years from now, what do you hope to see?

More than just restaurants and bars. Grocery stores, specialty products, something like what I saw in Italy where you can buy really good produce and ingredients in one spot. My sister lived in Portland, and their downtown was designed decades ago to be walkable in a way we're still catching up to. Ours started small, so there's only so much you can fit in. But with the Fox Theater, the Rialto, and Hotel Congress doing big events, I think we'll keep pulling people down. I just wish there were more daytime reasons to come, beyond eating and drinking.

What does your ideal downtown Tucson day or night look like?

Honestly, most nights I'm already there. I run Emerald 29 inside The Treasury 1929, so that's where I am. Over the years I've eaten and had a drink at pretty much every restaurant and bar up and down the strip. I'm not much of a bar-hopper these days, though when I was younger I would have been out doing it all the time. I wish I still had that in me. But I've been to almost all of them.