El Guero Canelo Wins Prestigious James Beard Classics Award

TUCSON, AZ – Tucson's El Guero Canelo received a big honor on Thursday. The James Beard Foundation named the chain as one of five "America's Classics."

The foundation, which also hands out the prestigious James Beard Awards – considered the Oscars of food – created the America's Classics Award in 1998 to honor restaurants "that have timeless appeal and are cherished for quality food that reflects the character of ther community.

El Guero Canelo is owned and operated by Daniel Contreras, a Sonoran native who opened his first hot dog stand in Tucson in 2003. He now has three branches in Tucson and one in Phoenix. He also has a bakery that makes the split buns in which the restaurants famed hot dogs are nestled.

" The original stand is now a destination restaurant, outfitted with picnic tables and serviced by a walk-up order window," the judges wrote..

"Fans converge for bacon-wrapped franks, stuffed into stubby bollilos, smothered with beans, onions, mustard, jalapeño sauce, and a squiggle of mayonnaise."

ALSO HONORED:

• Sun Wah 5039 N. Broadway Street, ChicagoOwners: Kelly Cheng, Laura Cheng, and Michael Cheng Eric Cheng began his career in New York City in Chinatown. In 1986, he and his wife, Lynda Cheng, opened a B.Y.O. storefront in Uptown Chicago, then, as now, the city’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood. In 2008, three out of their four children, Michael Cheng (barbecue chef), Kelly Cheng (general manager), and Laura Cheng (executive chef), took over the business and moved the restaurant to a bigger space around the corner. People travel from across the city for their famed three-course Beijing Duck Feast (so famous the family doesn’t bother listing it on the menu), carved tableside and served with duck fried rice and duck soup. Sun Wah got its liquor license years ago, but in a nod to its history and its loyal supporters, permits B.Y.O. for a ludicrously low corkage fee.
  
• Galleria Umberto 289 Hanover Street, BostonOwners: Paul Deuterio and Ralph DeuterioNorth End used to be a neighborhood of winding cobblestone streets. Italian immigrants began arriving here in the 1860s from Genoa, then Campania, Sicily, and Abruzzo. Umberto Deuterio founded Galleria Umberto in 1974. Sons Paul Deuterio and Ralph Deuterio run it today. The interior is straightforward, dominated by a counter and a hand-painted wall map of Italy. The Deuterios make arancini and calzones, but the main draw is crisp-edged squares of Sicilian pizza. When the pizza runs out, the shop closes for the day. They also close Galleria Umberto in July to maintain the business and spend time with family. Much has changed in the North End, but $1.85 here still buys you a slice and a taste of the old neighborhood.
• Los Hernandez 3706 Main Street, Union Gap, WA Owner: Felipe Hernandez Union Gap is the retail hub of rural Yakima County and home of Los Hernandez, where handmade tamales are the sole menu items. In 1957, Felipe Hernandez immigrated from Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico, to eastern Washington to work in agriculture. Some 40 percent of U.S.-grown asparagus is cropped in Washington, much of it by Hispanic farmworkers in the Yakima Valley. He opened Los Hernandez in 1990, using a recipe adapted from his sister Leocacia Sanchez’s tamales. Today, Hernandez and his wife June, along with daughter Rachel Wilburn and her husband Dion Wilburn, begin by milling dried corn to make masa. Chicken and pork tamales are available year-round. From mid-April to June, production shifts to a pepper jack and asparagus combination that makes the most of the short-lived local crop.
• Dong Phuong Bakery 14207 Chef Menteur Highway, New OrleansOwner: Linh Tran GarzaThe Vietnamese community in New Orleans dates to the end of the Vietnam War, when refugees moved to Louisiana, where they relished a climate reminiscent of their home. De Tran and Huong Tran settled in New Orleans East. In 1982, they opened Dong Phuong, one of the area’s first Vietnamese bakeries. They became known for their banh mi, sandwiches variously stuffed with pâté, Chinese sausage, and barbecue chicken, slicked with aioli, and topped with pickled vegetables and fresh herbs. Now run by Huong Tran and daughter Linh Tran Garza, Dong Phuong exemplifies how thoroughly the Vietnamese community has become a vital part of the local culinary landscape. The bakery now supplies dozens of cafes and shops with thin, crackling-crust bread with a pillowy interior, ideal for building the city’s iconic po-boy sandwiches.

Photo courtesy El Guero Canelo