The Corner at 6th and Tucson Blvd Is a Neighborhood Again

For five years, the block most Sam Hughes residents used to describe as "the Rincon Market corner" was mostly a story about what used to be there. The grocery closed in 2020 after a run of more than 90 years. Flora's Market Run tried the space from 2021 until it abruptly went dark on January 6, 2025. Then, in the span of about ten months, three separate operators rebuilt the corner into something the neighborhood had not really had before: a small cluster of independent, food-forward tenants sharing one historic footprint.

If you live here, this is the update worth having. The building turns 100 next year, and the way you use it in 2026 is nothing like the way you used it in 2019.

What actually sits on the corner now

The Village at Sam Hughes runs along 2512 to 2532 E. Sixth St., anchored at the Tucson Boulevard intersection. Inside the old Rincon Market building at 2513, two businesses now share the space under one roof, which is the piece most residents have been slow to register. It is not one restaurant that replaced Flora's. It is two, side by side, with a shared history and separate menus.

Kevin Bedient of SOAZ Group LLC assembled the partnership after Flora's closed. Within about three weeks of that January closure, Sonoran House owners Arianna Wilson and Courtney Bedient reached out to Redbird's Rory Martin and his partner Pinon about splitting the building. Redbird brought its cactus mural aesthetic and forest-green booths to one side. Sonoran House brought its coffee bar and 100-plus local artisan retail section to the other.

"I don't think any restaurant in Tucson has two concepts under the same roof," Pinon told the Arizona Daily Star about the arrangement. "They've been great neighbors and great partners to work with."

For the block, the practical effect is that a single door can now cover coffee at 7 a.m., a mid-day sandwich, a bourbon at 4, and a bone marrow plate at 8.

Sonoran House Sam Hughes: the daytime engine

The Sonoran House side opened its doors in a soft launch in late June 2025 and had its official grand opening on July 28. Executive chef Gabriella Alba runs the kitchen, and the offering is deliberately broad for the hours it covers.

Here is what has actually been consistent since the opening, based on published coverage from Tucson Foodie and OpenTable:

• Hours: daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the bar and kitchen opening at 11 a.m.
• Coffee program: house-roasted, sustainably sourced, plus an extensive tea lineup
• Food: house-baked breads, tapas and shareable boards, grain bowls, sandwiches, seasonal meat and seafood, plus a tinned-fish menu with grilled sourdough
• Bar: bourbon-forward, curated wine list, local beers on tap, plus a market wall of beer, wine and zero-proof options for takeaway
• Retail: gifts, snacks and pantry items from more than 100 Tucson artisans

Two dishes get name-checked over and over in the coverage: the bone marrow with agave brulee and prickly-pear guajillo jam, and the Sonoran Shrimp Cocktail built on lime broth with chiltepín, avocado, fire-roasted corn and pasilla pepper. Both read like Alba's Sonoran-inspired, scratch-baking approach in one plate.

For neighbors, the useful shift is the daypart. Nothing at this corner previously handled a proper 7 a.m. coffee and a 9 p.m. glass of wine from the same room.

Redbird Scratch Kitchen + Bar: the evening side

Redbird opened its Sam Hughes location at 2515 E. Sixth St. in September 2025, its second address after the original at 6444 N. Oracle. Hours run 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

The menu leans into scratch-made comfort food: smash burgers, wings including an al pastor version, tacos, and a full cocktail program built around the bar in the middle of the room. Rory Martin has said the larger kitchen at Sam Hughes gives the team room to experiment beyond what the Oracle location could plate, so the menu is worth rechecking every few visits rather than assuming it mirrors the north-side location.

The two operators keep their identities separate. If you want a coffee and a bookstore-style browse, you cross to Sonoran House. If you want a booth, a burger and a Wildcats game, you sit on the Redbird side. The wall between them is functionally a hyphen.

Unraveled Pasta + Bar, arriving spring or summer 2026

At the east end of the Village, at 2527 E. Sixth St., the space that most recently held Ampersand Old & New has been taken by Sally Shamrell-Murphy and Glenn Murphy. If those names sound familiar, they own The Cork Tucson and UnCork'd Kitchen & Cocktails on the east side, and Sally rented three separate houses in Sam Hughes during and after her University of Arizona years.

Their new concept, announced by Tucson Foodie on January 8, 2026, is Unraveled Pasta + Bar. Glenn Murphy told the publication he had been waiting for the right time and place to bring the concept back to the U.S. after running an earlier version in Perth, Australia. The plan is a customizable pasta menu at low to moderate prices, with the room designed around a European-village mural and a logo drawn by the owners' six-year-old niece. Planned hours are 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

For residents, the meaningful detail is timing. Spring-or-summer 2026 opening means a third neighborhood restaurant is landing on the same block within roughly a year of Sonoran House. That is a real concentration in a district where the last major food-and-drink cluster of this density was Rincon Market's own deli, hot bar and cafe seating before 2020.

A walk that actually uses the corner

The most Sam Hughes way to spend a Saturday now runs a loop that stitches the Village to the park and back. If you are pushing a stroller or walking a dog, the whole thing takes under two hours before you add any sit-down time.

1. Start with a coffee and a pastry at Sonoran House around 8 a.m., before the bar side opens.
2. Cut south on Tucson Boulevard six blocks to Himmel Park at 1000 N. Tucson Blvd. The park runs 25.4 acres and includes the branch library, the pool, tennis and pickleball courts, and the bocce court donated by John Blackwell and Denise Blake in 2021. Doors open at 6 a.m., so you are well within park hours.
3. If it is a Sunday afternoon, swing through the drum circle on the north knoll from 3 to 5 p.m.
4. Walk back north to Sixth Street and detour east one block to Tumerico for a mid-day plate, or west on Campbell for a Rocco's Little Chicago slice.
5. Close at Redbird around dinner, or, once it opens, slide two doors down to Unraveled for a plate of pasta.

None of this requires the car. Sam Hughes covers roughly one square mile between Speedway and Broadway, Campbell and Country Club, and the Village sits near the middle of it.

The block's 100-year rhythm, in short

The building at 2513 E. Sixth St. has run in roughly three eras:

• 1926 to 2020: Rincon Market operates as a full-service neighborhood grocer, deli, catering kitchen and cafe.
• 2021 to January 2025: Flora's Market Run runs a grocery-plus-restaurant hybrid before closing on January 6.
• Summer 2025 forward: Sonoran House and Redbird split the space under The Village at Sam Hughes.

The 2026 arrival of Unraveled at 2527 makes the block a three-restaurant strip for the first time in its history. The Rincon Market building turns 100 in the same window.

FAQ

What are the current hours of the Village tenants? Sonoran House is open daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the bar and kitchen opening at 11 a.m. Redbird runs 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Unraveled's announced plan is 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily once it opens.

Where is Unraveled Pasta + Bar going, exactly? 2527 E. Sixth St., at the east end of the Village, in the storefront that most recently held Ampersand Old & New. The opening window announced in January 2026 was spring or summer.

Is there parking? The Village has a small shared lot off Sixth Street. On busy weekends, the residential streets north of Sixth into Sam Hughes are usually the faster option, provided you honor posted signs and driveways.

Is Sonoran Restaurant Week worth planning around? Yes. In 2025, Sonoran House Sam Hughes ran a multi-course dinner on September 13 as part of the Tucson Foodie–produced event. Similar prix-fixe seatings tend to sell out, so watching the venue's Instagram in late August is the practical move.

If you have been in Sam Hughes long enough to remember when Rincon Market was still cutting deli sandwiches behind the counter, the past twelve months are the most meaningful shift the block has seen since 2020. And if you are newer here, the short version is that your neighborhood corner is running again. When you or someone you know is ready to talk about staying in Sam Hughes, moving inside it, or listing a home here, Dan Leonard and the team at Net Properties know the block by address. Request a call back when the timing is yours.