For years, the Foothills quieted down between the Fourth of July and the return of snowbird traffic in October. The tram slowed, the resort patios thinned, and the good tables at dinner opened up. That pattern is breaking. A new all-day café at Sunrise and Kolb, a second coffee bar half a mile down the same road, and Saturday night electric-shuttle runs into Sabino Canyon have turned late summer into something residents can actually plan around. If you live here, this is the season the neighborhood is quietly built for.
The corner at Sunrise and Kolb finally has an all-day room
The intersection has been trying to solve the same problem since 2010. The Abbey moved into the space that year, closed four years later, and Commoner & Co. opened there in 2015 as the upscale sister to Nathan Ares's Prep & Pastry. Ares moved his operations to Gilbert last July. The 3,500 square feet went dark for months on one of the busiest corners in the Foothills.
Flores Concepts, the family behind El Charro Café, opened The Hills there this spring as a neighborhood all-day cafe with views of the Santa Catalinas and a menu ranging from pancakes to pizza. The address is 6960 E. Sunrise Dr., directly across the intersection from the family's other Foothills restaurant, El Charro Ventana at 6910 E. Sunrise.
What makes this worth a resident's attention is not the pedigree, it is the pricing decision. Ray Flores has said the team is not trying to be high end and wants to stay in the $20 to $30 plate range, or less for lunch and brunch. Mimosas are priced below what nearby resorts charge. Anyone who has looked at a Sunday brunch tab at a La Paloma or Loews patio knows what that gap looks like in practice.
The room itself is designed for repeat visits rather than special occasions. It seats 120 inside and 20 more on the patio with views of the Santa Catalinas, with decor featuring vintage Tucson items and murals by local artist Joe Pagac in what Flores describes as a shabby boho chic aesthetic. The kitchen runs a brick oven, full bar, wine list, and coffee service. The menu accommodates gluten-free, vegan, keto, and high-protein diets, and features the vegan hemp tamales served at all Flores Concepts locations.
A quick history of one corner
| Year | Tenant | Concept |
|---|---|---|
| 2010–2014 | The Abbey | Upscale casual |
| 2015–2025 | Commoner & Co. | Upscale dinner |
| 2026– | The Hills by Monica | All-day café |
The pattern is a corner moving from destination dining toward daily use. That matters if you live within ten minutes of it.
The coffee corridor on Sunrise now runs three deep
Half a mile west of The Hills, another shift happened quietly earlier this year. Presta moved into a former Starbucks building in the Catalina Foothills and opened its fourth location, with matcha lattes, cappuccinos, cold brews, and pour-over coffee sourced from countries including Ethiopia and Colombia. The address is 4700 E. Sunrise Dr.
A resident planning a Saturday morning now has three real coffee options inside a two-mile stretch of Sunrise: Presta for pour-over, Haute Coffee inside La Encantada for a shopping-adjacent stop, and the coffee program at The Hills if you want a full breakfast attached. Before this year, the honest answer to "where should we grab coffee" on this side of town was often "drive down to Broadway."
Monsoon evenings at Sabino Canyon are the season's actual secret
Summer visitors ride the tram at noon and leave sunburned. Residents know the canyon reads differently after 7 p.m., especially during monsoon when the creek runs.
Night tours of Sabino Canyon Recreation Area at 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road return each Saturday from July 4 through October 31, 2026, on an emission-free electric shuttle that provides automated narration during a 7.4-mile round trip through the canyon. Shuttle fees do not include the $8 daily or $10 weekly vehicle fee to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area.
Two dates are worth putting on the calendar now:
- Every Saturday through October 31. Regular night crawler runs. Tickets are $15 per adult, and tours often sell out much of the afternoon, so buying ahead matters.
- Saturday, September 26. The Harvest Moon tour, with two wheelchair-accessible Sabino Canyon Crawler electric shuttles seating up to 62 passengers each in service.
The reason to go in August and September specifically comes down to water. The canyon is open year-round, but the creek runs strongest during monsoon season from July to September. The tram bridges cross the creek several times, and hearing water move under an electric shuttle at dusk is a different canyon than the one on the postcards.
One practical note for locals who have not been in a while: during monsoon, the shuttle service monitors Sabino Creek flow closely and operates conservatively for passenger safety, which can mean route changes depending on weather. Check before you drive up.
La Encantada is still the anchor, but the tenant mix is worth a fresh look
For residents who have not walked the upper level in a year, the roster has shifted. The center now includes West Elm, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, lululemon, Apple, Madewell, Tecovas, Alo, and Vuori among its tenants. Restaurants at La Encantada include Ra Sushi Bar, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, True Food Kitchen, North Italia, Haute Coffee, and Blanco.
Two things residents underuse:
- The evening hours. The center stays open until 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and until 7 p.m. earlier in the week. A 7 p.m. gelato at Frost with the Catalinas turning pink is one of the more underrated free things a Foothills resident can do in August.
- True Food Kitchen's origin story. The restaurant focuses on healthy dining and was founded in Phoenix in 2008, with a menu based on the anti-inflammatory food pyramid of Dr. Andrew Weil, founder and director of the University of Arizona's Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. The Tucson connection is not a marketing flourish, it is the reason the concept exists.
How to actually build a late-summer week out of this
The point of the map above is not a checklist, it is a rhythm. A Foothills week in August or September that uses the new pieces might look like this:
- Saturday morning. Pour-over at Presta on Sunrise, then the short walk into Bajada Loop at the Sabino Canyon visitor center before the heat lands. The half-mile flat loop starts near the visitor center and passes an unusually good example of a crested saguaro on the trail.
- Saturday evening. Night crawler into the canyon, ideally after an afternoon monsoon cell has dropped water into the creek.
- Sunday brunch. The Hills, before the winter visitor crowd rediscovers it in November. The pricing gap versus resort brunch is the reason to go now.
- Weeknight. True Food or North Italia at La Encantada, then a walk on the upper terrace at dusk.
None of these require a reservation weeks out. That will not be true in February.
The thesis, stated plainly
The Foothills has quietly built the missing piece of its calendar. Between roughly mid-July and late October, a resident can now assemble a genuinely full week of dinner, coffee, and outdoor time without leaving the zip code, most of it inside a three-mile stretch of Sunrise Drive plus one canyon road. The corner at Sunrise and Kolb is the clearest sign. A room that spent a decade chasing destination diners is now, deliberately, chasing the people who live within a five-minute drive of it. When that kind of tenant decision happens on a landmark corner, it usually reflects something the broader market is figuring out about the neighborhood's real audience.
If you are already here, the practical takeaway is smaller and better: your best month to eat and explore close to home is the one everyone assumes is dead.
The Foothills is our home market, and paying attention to how the neighborhood actually lives, not just how it lists, is part of how we serve the people who trust us with the biggest decisions in that home. When you or someone you care about is ready to talk about a move within the Foothills or into it, Brenda O'Brien Team is here for the conversation. Contact Us.
