The Weekend Skyline and Campbell Could Finally Have Every Table Open

There are two openings on Skyline and Campbell this fall, and neither one is fixed yet. Frida American Brasserie is moving into the old Living Room space at La Encantada, and its owners hope to open on October 22. Across the intersection, Vivace closed after a kitchen incident and plans to reopen November 15.

If both dates hold, the first weekend with both rooms open is November 21–22. That's also the weekend of the season's first La Encantada Fine Art Festival. Until then, the corner gains one restaurant while it waits on the other, and both dates can still move.

Frida American Brasserie, and why it slipped to October

Owners Charles and Frida Hunt first aimed for an August opening at La Encantada. In late September they moved the target to late October. Frida Hunt said the team hopes to open October 22 but called the end of the month the safer estimate until the date is confirmed.

The space has history. The Living Room opened at 2905 E. Skyline Drive in October 2015, and it had closed by the time Frida was announced in March 2026. The Hunts aren't new to Tucson either. Their family runs Villa Peru, which opened in Tempe in 2011 and moved to Tucson in 2017. Frida Hunt said at the time that the move made sense because she and her sister lived here and Tucson regulars had been driving to Tempe.

When the restaurant was announced in March, it was described as European-inspired American dining built around Champagne. The planned room included:

• A custom two-story Champagne display
• A private upstairs red-wine room styled as a wine cellar
• A climate-controlled patio and a 30-foot indoor-outdoor bar
• Champagne carts that guests call with a button at their booth
• DJs at Sunday brunch and on weekend evenings

Some of that build-out may explain the gap between an August plan and an October opening. In the September update, the team repeated its plans for the display, the cellar-style second floor, and the patio.

What the menu preview shows

The team shared an early look at dinner, wine, and cocktails, and cautioned that the menu is still a work in progress. The preview includes a Crab Louie salad with blue crab, avocado, and shaved egg, and a French onion soup finished with Gruyère. Small plates run from crab cakes with Old Bay remoulade to mini lobster rolls on toasted brioche. There's also a short sushi list of about five rolls, with ingredients like spicy tuna, yellowtail, and mango. The roll names are expected to change.

The lunch plan matters for anyone running errands at La Encantada midday. Frida Hunt said lunch will include panini plus brasserie staples like burgers, steak frites, and a French dip. That puts the restaurant on the noon schedule too, alongside the center's current lineup of Ra Sushi, North Italia, Firebirds, True Food Kitchen, Blanco, and AJ's Fine Foods.

The wine list leans hard on Champagne. Bottles run from Veuve Clicquot at $120 to Krug Grande Cuvée at $500, with several rosé Champagnes and still wines from France, Italy, Spain, and the United States. For a weeknight, the more useful detail is the by-the-glass list, which includes Veuve Clicquot, a Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fuissé, a Giovanni Rosso Langhe Nebbiolo, and a Torres Celeste Tempranillo. The preview cocktail list pairs Veuve drinks like a French 75 and a Cucumber Spritz with a Whistle Pig Old Fashioned and a Mango Mojito. That list is still expected to change.

Across the street, Vivace is closed for about six weeks

While Frida gets ready, the other corner of the intersection has gone quiet for now. Vivace, at 6440 N. Campbell Ave., posted an update on Friday, October 2. It said a minor kitchen incident had left the restaurant without gas or electricity and that it would stay closed until November 15, 2026. All reservations booked between now and then were canceled.

That's about six weeks without one of the corner's Italian dinner options, and Frida's late-October target falls in the middle of it. If you had a Vivace table booked for a birthday or anniversary in late October or early November, you'll need to make other plans. Vivace says it will post updates on its website and on its social accounts at @vivacetucson. Questions go to [email protected].

Both dates are targets. Vivace's November 15 is the date the restaurant posted. Frida's October 22 is a hope, and late October is the owners' own safer estimate. A slip on either side moves the day both rooms are open at once.

The weekend schedule has already changed

Restaurant openings get the headlines, but the earliest change on this stretch of Campbell comes with the calendar. The St. Philip's Plaza weekend market at 4280 N. Campbell Ave. posts summer hours of 8 a.m. to noon from May through September, and October-through-April hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

That extra time pushes the market past lunch. A Saturday that used to end by noon can now run into mid-afternoon. The market describes itself as focused on local artists, makers, creators, and food businesses, set along cobblestone paths under sycamores. From late October, someone could spend the late morning there and head up Campbell to Skyline for lunch at Frida, if it has opened.

Why November 21–22 is the weekend to circle

The La Encantada Fine Art Festival returns November 21–22, 2026. It runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, and admission is free. Art State Arizona, the nonprofit formerly known as SAACA, puts it on. Its roots go back to the Greater Oro Valley Arts Council, founded in 1997. The juried festival brings artists from across the Southwest working in sculpture, painting, jewelry, glass, fashion, and mixed media, set up in the center's courtyards.

The timing makes that weekend different from the rest of the fall. It comes six days after Vivace's planned reopening and about a month after Frida's target. If both dates hold, it's the first weekend this season with the market on its long hours, both restaurants open, and festival crowds in the courtyards, all within a short drive along Campbell. Plan for the parking to match.

The festival also comes back January 16–17 and March 27–28, 2027. If the restaurant timelines slip, those weekends are the next chances to see the whole corner running at once.

Around November 15 is a good time to check Vivace's update page. Watch Frida's site at fridatucsonaz.com for a confirmed opening date. Those two updates will settle the schedule above.

At Net Properties Real Estate, we track changes like these along Skyline and Campbell because they shape how Foothills homeowners spend their week. If you'd like to talk with Dan or Holly about what's changing near your part of the Foothills, Request a Call Back and we'll get in touch.