• 🌱 Finding a Path Forward — Gary shares how community support and Youth On Their Own helped him navigate an uncertain adolescence and return to school.
• 🍽️ Starting in Tucson’s Kitchens — From washing dishes and doing prep work, Gary discovered the energy, discipline, and sense of purpose that would shape his life.
• 📈 Working His Way Up — Gary reflects on becoming a kitchen leader, culinary partner, restaurant trainer, and trusted voice in Tucson hospitality.
• 🤝 Hospitality Beyond the Plate — Stepping into guest-facing roles taught Gary that restaurants are ultimately about relationships, belonging, and taking care of people.
• 🌵 Becoming Part of the Flores Family — Gary discusses his partnership with Carlotta and Ray Flores and the shared values behind Charro Steak, Charro Del Rey, Monica, and Flores Concepts.
• 🩺 The Day Everything Changed — Gary recounts the sudden medical crisis that left him paralyzed from the chest down and facing an uncertain recovery.
• 🚶 Learning to Walk Again — With determination, intensive rehabilitation, and support from his family and community, Gary began rebuilding his strength and mobility.
• ❤️ Giving Back to Tucson — Gary explains why supporting young people, caring for guests, and reinvesting in the community remain central to his life and work.

Some lives unfold in a straight line. Gary Hickey’s story is one of building, rebuilding, and continuing forward—even when the path changes without warning.

In this episode of Life Along the Streetcar, Tom Heath sits down with Gary for a deeply personal conversation about the experiences that shaped him long before he became one of Tucson’s best-known hospitality leaders. It is a story of finding opportunity during an uncertain adolescence, working his way through Tucson’s restaurant kitchens, building a life rooted in service, and confronting a sudden medical crisis that left him unable to walk.

Finding a Future in Tucson’s Restaurant Kitchens

As a teenager, Gary experienced homelessness and was among the first young people supported by Youth On Their Own. With help from his football coach, friends, and members of the Tucson community, he returned to school and found work in local restaurants.

What began with washing dishes and preparing food became a place where Gary discovered purpose. He moved through Tucson institutions including Marathon, Keaton’s and Metropolitan Grill, learning the intensity, discipline and teamwork required to keep a restaurant moving.

Later, his work with P.F. Chang’s took him beyond the kitchen. As one of the company’s youngest culinary partners, Gary learned how restaurants are opened, managed and marketed—and how leadership means taking responsibility for the entire guest experience.

Building a Life Around Hospitality

When Gary returned to Tucson to be closer to family, he stepped into front-of-house roles that changed his understanding of hospitality.

Working directly with guests showed him that a restaurant is more than a dining room or a menu. It can become a place where friendships begin, milestones are celebrated and people feel genuinely welcomed.

That people-first philosophy eventually brought Gary together with Carlotta and Ray Flores. What began without a clearly defined role developed into a lasting partnership with the Flores family and more than a decade of helping build new restaurant concepts.

Along the way, Gary contributed to the growth of Charro Steak, Charro Del Rey and Monica, while learning from a family whose commitment to Tucson, culinary tradition and community service stretches across generations.

A Sudden Medical Crisis and the Fight to Walk Again

Then, in a matter of hours, Gary’s life changed.

What began as unusual sensations in his legs progressed into complete paralysis from the chest down. After extensive testing, doctors identified inflammation affecting his spinal cord, and Gary was transferred to inpatient rehabilitation.

When therapists asked him to write down his goal, his answer was immediate: he intended to walk out.

Rehabilitation required weeks of intense work. Gary had to rebuild strength, balance and movement while facing uncertainty about what recovery would ultimately look like. Although he continues to live with significant physical limitations, he is walking again and gradually returning to the work and community he loves.

Gary credits his wife, friends, colleagues and the entire Flores Concepts family for helping carry him through the most difficult chapter of his life.

Resilience, Community and Giving Back

Gary’s story is not simply about professional success or physical recovery. It is about the people who create opportunities, the communities that support local businesses, and the responsibility to return that support whenever possible.

From a teenager searching for stability to a mentor and community leader, Gary has never forgotten the people who helped him take the next step.

Listen to this inspiring Tucson story, then experience the hospitality Gary helped shape by visiting Charro Steak & Del Rey, Monica and the Flores family’s El Charro Café restaurants. Make an evening of it in downtown Tucson, ride the Sun Link streetcar and support the local restaurants that continue to invest in our community.

Gary Hickey | A Tucson Story of Resilience, Kindness, and Community

Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Repeated words, verbal filler, and incomplete false starts have been removed, while the substance, sequence, and character of the original conversation have been preserved.

Chapter 1: A Happy Accident

00:00

Tom Heath:
Welcome back to another episode of Life Along the Streetcar, where we focus on the things happening in Tucson’s urban core, which we define from A Mountain to the University of Arizona.

We cover the social, cultural, and economic issues impacting the urban core or radiating out from it. We do that by talking to the people who are in the know and making things happen.

Today is a perfect example. I think those of you listening will recognize that we have restaurant royalty here in the studio. We’ve got Chef Gary Hickey.

Chef, welcome in.

Gary Hickey:
Thanks, Tom. Thanks for having me.

Tom:
This is exciting. It’s hard to find people talking about restaurants in Tucson without your name somehow coming up.

You’ve been doing this for 32 years?

Gary:
Thirty-two years.

Tom:
So you’re just starting to figure it out?

Gary:
Just getting my feet wet. Just figuring it out.

Tom:
Thirty-two years ago, how did you get involved? Was this always going to be your future, or was it an accident?

Gary:
It was a happy accident.

I was actually an at-risk youth. I was a homeless teenager.

Tom:
I didn’t know that.

Gary:
I was part of the very first year of Youth On Their Own. I was in the organization’s first class.

I had to drop out of high school. I was living in a wash near River Road. Some friends of mine—and actually my football coach—reached out to Youth On Their Own.

My coach told them, “This program is working. I don’t know if you can get in touch with Gary, but maybe you can get him back in school and help him get a job.”

I became part of that first class. I went back to school, ended up sleeping on my buddy’s couch, and got a job.

Chapter 2: Finding a Home in the Kitchen

01:43

Gary:
How long have you been in Tucson?

Tom:
I moved here in 1993.

Gary:
Then it was probably still there. There was a little Greek restaurant on Sixth Street, right across from the stadium, called Marathon.

Tom:
Oh, yeah.

Gary:
I became friends with that family. They paid me under the table. I got all the hummus and gyros I could take home, and they paid me about $50 a day.

I started washing dishes and doing prep work.

When I turned 16, I got a job at a little deli and sandwich shop downtown, where Scott & Co. is now.

It was run by a great family. They were amazing.

From there, some friends of mine were working at Keaton’s in the Foothills. That was my first real restaurant job.

I loved it. It was chaos and fire, and people were yelling. Those were the 1990s, so it was a little crazy.

I fell in love with it.

I started as a prep cook and worked my way up until I became a kitchen manager. That was also where I met Sam, and I worked for him off and on for years.

Tom:
Sam Fox, with Fox Restaurant Concepts?

Gary:
Yeah.

Sam and Bob became partners, and we opened Metropolitan Grill.

Tom:
I think that’s where I first became familiar with your name.

Gary:
That restaurant cranked out numbers. In Tucson, I had never seen anything like it. It was a powerhouse of a restaurant.

We had 24-hour prep crews. Everything was made from scratch.

Tom:
And you were running that?

Gary:
There were four kitchen managers at that point.

The celebrity chef thing hadn’t really hit the market yet. We were still just working.

There wasn’t really a chef moniker. Obviously, there was Gino’s and Chef Carlotta, but we didn’t think of ourselves as “chef chefs.” That wasn’t really a thing then.

I think Bobby Flay was still on QVC in the mornings before the Food Network really took off.

Chapter 3: Learning the Business of Restaurants

03:53

Tom:
What time frame was this?

Gary:
It was from roughly 1993 to 2000. I was with Sam off and on, and when the companies merged, I stayed on with Bob.

They bought Keaton’s again and turned it into a second location of one of their concepts. I was involved throughout that process.

Then I had the opportunity to travel and got a job with P.F. Chang’s. They moved me to Phoenix.

I started as a sous chef and quickly moved up into a culinary partner role. I was their youngest culinary partner at the time, at 24.

Tom:
What does culinary partner mean?

Gary:
They essentially give ownership to the general manager and executive chef.

You buy in with a certain amount of money, and you receive a percentage of the bottom line. It makes you more responsible for the restaurant.

Texas Roadhouse uses a similar model. It was really the Fleming’s model—Paul Fleming created it—but a lot of successful restaurants use it.

It gives ownership to the people who are actually working in the restaurant and helps make them successful.

My restaurant eventually became a training store. Any managers coming through the company would come through my store, which was on Mill Avenue in Tempe.

My team also became a training team. We would fly out and help open restaurants.

I learned so much about business acumen and the fundamentals of opening and running a restaurant.

I think P.F. Chang’s had about 27 or 28 restaurants when I started. There were around 107 when I left.

Tom:
It surprises me that there were so few at the time. It seems like every major city has one now.

Gary:
They do. And then Cheesecake Factory would usually follow right behind them.

Tom:
They saw that it worked. P.F. Chang’s was the canary in the coal mine.

One of the things I wanted to discuss is that there are chefs in this town with tremendous culinary skills. But you seem to transcend that and also understand the business side.

Is that where it came from?

Gary:
One hundred percent.

They made sure we understood that we had an investment in the restaurant and in the brand. They wanted us involved in everything.

All the culinary partners would go to the corporate office. We might be in a meeting with Paul Fleming trying to decide what the takeout cups were going to look like.

You would wonder why the chefs had to be involved in that. But it was great because you learned about marketing and all the other parts of the business.

Tom:
Every chef I’ve talked to can tell me, to a very precise degree, the food cost and labor cost of something.

But sometimes you ask them about marketing, and they just stop.

“Marketing? What do you mean? You just put out a good plate.”

Gary:
Exactly.

Chapter 4: Discovering Hospitality Beyond the Kitchen

07:10

Tom:
You’ve been involved more recently with Carlotta and the Flores family. How did that come about?

Gary:
My mother became sick in 2006, so I moved back to Tucson.

I took a step back. I needed to spend time with my family and make sure my mom was okay.

I stepped out of the kitchen and went back to work for Sam as a server and bartender.

Tom:
Wow. That was a complete change of focus.

Gary:
It was, but I feel like that experience gives me an edge now.

I got to see hospitality differently. I already knew a lot about it, but during the time I had been away, Sam had created a huge and successful hospitality program.

Everything about it was amazing, and it echoed a lot of what we had done at P.F. Chang’s.

I fell in love with it.

I started forming connections with the guests who came into the restaurant. The next thing you knew, some of those people were coming to my wedding. They became involved in my life.

I had never had that in the kitchen.

The only time you usually talked to a guest from the kitchen was to say, “I’m sorry your steak was overcooked. Let me get you another one. Can I bring you a salad while you wait?”

Tom:
“Would you like to come to my wedding?”

Gary:
Right. Exactly.

I loved that part of hospitality.

I worked at North, then moved on to Montana Avenue. I was there for a while, but eventually they changed the brand to Zinburger. It wasn’t really what I was looking for in terms of food, and it wasn’t the right fit.

I had an opportunity to go back and work with Bob McMahon. They were looking for someone to oversee the bar.

I started working with that company again. Ray Flores and Bob shared office space, so their corporate offices were together.

It made sense. They could share rent, human resources, accounts payable, and other administrative functions.

One day, the general manager was gone, and suddenly I was the general manager. Then the chef was gone, and suddenly I was both the chef and general manager.

I had good people working under me, and the arrangement worked well.

Later, I had an opportunity to work with Brian Metzger and open Poppy Kitchen and Jackson Tavern.

Chapter 5: Closing One Chapter and Meeting the Flores Family

10:29

Gary:
My girlfriend at the time—who is now my wife, Amber—still worked at McMahon’s.

She called me in a panic and said, “They’re locking the doors and taking the paintings off the walls.”

I told her, “Okay, relax. Take the money out of the cash register, put it in your purse, and leave.”

They had finally come in to collect what Bob owed in taxes.

It was a sad day. I loved that restaurant. We had a lot of good times there.

I was there when it first opened in the late 1990s, and then I came back full circle. I was sad that it ended that way, and I was sad for Bob.

Ray and Bob had shared those corporate offices, so I would see Ray there. I would also see Carlotta in the hallways. We were always cordial.

Ray would ask me, “We have this going on. What do you think about this?”

He jokes now that it was my five-year interview.

I was working at Poppy, and eventually that didn’t work out.

Ray was very upfront with me. He said, “I don’t really have a role for you. I have my mom, and we already have this team.”

At that point, I didn’t understand the commissary, how deeply the family was embedded in the community, or how amazing they were as a family.

But I got to know them.

Ray told me he could offer me a position working in service. It wasn’t necessarily groundbreaking culinary work, but it would give us a place to start and see what developed.

There was never a plan for what came next. There was certainly no plan to open a restaurant every year for the next 10 years.

Tom:
At that point, they were primarily El Charro Café. They didn’t yet have the wholesale business or all the other concepts.

Then you came on board, and at some point they decided to expand. What was the first launch?

Chapter 6: Building Charro Steak

12:47

Gary:
The first launch was Charro Steak.

It was crazy because I came from P.F. Chang’s, where we had general contractors and detailed schedules. You weren’t allowed into the building until a certain day. You couldn’t touch something until a certain date, and you couldn’t cook until you had the proper approvals.

That’s great for a publicly held company.

But at Charro Steak, we were hanging ceiling fans, stripping the floors, painting, and doing the work ourselves.

Everything you see in Charro Steak was a family affair. We were in there every day.

Tom:
This was the first location downtown?

Gary:
Yes.

The funny thing is that we built much of the menu around the prickly pear meatballs.

We knew we wanted the space, but we didn’t know what we were going to put there. We had no idea it was going to become a steakhouse.

We knew a few other restaurateurs were looking at the space, so we invited the landlord, Ross Rulney, to lunch at El Charro downtown.

We gave him a very broad idea of the food we planned to make.

One day, while we were working, Carlotta ordered albóndigas soup. She wasn’t feeling well and only wanted the broth.

She handed me the meatballs and said, “You can have these.”

I went into the back, put barbecue sauce on them, and started eating them.

Ray asked, “What are you doing?”

I told him, “You have to try these.”

That became the first menu item.

We joke that the meatballs and the pork chop are the reason we have Charro Steak.

Chapter 7: Learning from Carlotta Flores

14:34

Tom:
You opened this restaurant while working with an icon in Carlotta Flores.

At this point, she has spent more than 50 years running El Charro, a restaurant known around the world for Mexican cuisine. That clearly influenced what you were doing at Charro Steak.

What was it like working with her in the kitchen?

Gary:
She’s a force.

She’s still involved in the daily work.

It was amazing working with her every day in the kitchen. Her attention to detail, her commitment to tradition, and her insistence that everything be correct really resonated with me as a chef.

I grew up here in Tucson, and getting to learn about the regional cuisines of Mexico from her has been incredible.

Learning from her has been awesome. She and Ray are a force.

Some of my chef friends said, “You’re going to work at El Charro?”

I told them, “You don’t even know.”

They didn’t understand the depth of skill involved in creating something as unique as the Flores family has created.

Tom:
From the outside, it looks as though you’ve become part of the Flores family.

You can see the respect they have for you, and you can see it coming back in the other direction.

Recently, I saw a post from Ray. I initially missed the headline, but the video showed you in rehabilitation and struggling to walk.

The emotion Ray expressed made it clear that you were like a brother to him.

Can you share what happened?

Chapter 8: The Day Everything Changed

17:02

Gary:
It’s funny you say that.

Ray always says we fight like brothers because we are like brothers.

I think that’s a sign of a good business relationship. You have to be able to let everything out, then get back to work and make sure you’re taking care of the guests. That’s the main focus.

January 9 was the day everything changed.

I woke up on what seemed like a regular Friday. I got ready for work and took a shower.

After 32 years in kitchens, you have aches. Your back and neck hurt, and you have arthritis in your hands.

Amber had found some stretches for me. She said, “Try these.”

I did the routine, jumped in the shower, and started getting ready for work.

My leg suddenly felt like it had fallen asleep. It was strange, but the sensation went away.

Amber asked if I was all right. I told her it just felt a little tingly.

It was payroll day, so I drove from my house to our corporate office on 18th Street.

I got out of the car with no problem and spent some time talking with our human resources director.

Then my foot and ankles began to feel as though they were swollen, but they weren’t. It was the strangest feeling. It’s hard to explain.

I told her, “I don’t know. Amber made me do these stretches.”

When I left, I had to walk down a bank of six or seven steep steps outside the office.

I got to the bottom, and my left leg completely gave out from underneath me.

I caught myself and thought, “That’s weird.”

I still didn’t think much of it.

You can ask anyone in the restaurant industry—or probably most men. We don’t take care of ourselves until it becomes abundantly obvious that something is wrong.

I drove to the restaurant.

By the time I arrived, I felt like I was wearing a wet suit that was wet and three sizes too small. I couldn’t breathe.

I thought I was having a heart attack.

I drove myself from Charro Steak to Banner – University Medical Center.

Tom:
You drove yourself?

Gary:
Yeah.

Tom:
You couldn’t make it down the stairs, but you drove yourself?

Gary:
At that point, my right leg was still working.

Tom:
That’s all you need—one leg.

Gary:
Right.

I called Amber and said, “I don’t know what’s going on. I’m driving to Banner. I feel like I can’t breathe, and my legs feel weird.”

She was at work and was understandably panicking.

By the time I got to Banner, I was completely paralyzed from the chest down. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything.

Amber was watching my location through the Life360 app. She told me, “Just park the car and honk the horn.”

I was still trying to find a parking space. She said, “Just pull up front.”

A security guard eventually came outside and asked what was wrong.

I told her, “I can’t walk. I need a wheelchair or something.”

It took two people to pull me out of the car. They parked the car for me, and I was taken for an emergency CT scan and MRI.

They found nothing.

At one point, they thought I might be faking it to get drugs.

By then, my wife had arrived. We sat in the hallway at Banner for 18 hours before they found me a room.

A second MRI and CT scan still showed nothing.

They said, “We don’t know what’s wrong with you.”

I couldn’t move my legs. The only way I could get around was with assistance.

Chapter 9: A Diagnosis and an Uncertain Future

21:17

Gary:
On the third or fourth day, a friend of ours who owns Rescue Me Wellness became involved. She is also one of Ray’s business partners.

By that point, the doctors had performed a spinal tap and taken a large amount of fluid. They still couldn’t determine what was wrong.

Eventually, they designated it as a stroke isolated near my T5 vertebra.

There was so much inflammation that it had cut off the normal flow of spinal fluid through that region. Everything below it went completely numb.

I developed transverse myelitis, which is acute swelling of the spinal cord.

They put me on a round of steroids.

I was in the hospital for about a week. They told me, “We don’t have a clear diagnosis or a straightforward treatment to give you.”

Then they sent me to inpatient rehabilitation.

They said the best thing I could do was learn how to walk again.

I was in inpatient rehab for eight weeks.

I arrived fairly late on the night I was transferred. During the intake and evaluation, they had a whiteboard with all my information on it.

One of the questions was, “What are your goals?”

I said, “I’m going to walk out of here.”

Tom:
You were completely paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and you said, “I’m going to walk out of here.”

Gary:
They said, “Okay.”

It was intense.

I trained for three hours a day, five days a week.

Before this, I could barely make it to the gym for an hour a week.

With a spinal cord injury, you can lose proprioception, which is your awareness of where your body is positioned.

Right now, I’m sitting here, but it can feel like I’m on a boat. I don’t completely have that sense of where I am.

The doctors still don’t understand why I can walk, because I still have no feeling in my legs.

They say, “We have no idea how you’re walking.”

Chapter 10: Learning to Walk and Returning to Work

23:50

Tom:
A video was posted a couple of months ago showing you walking.

Now you’re back. You have a cane, but you’re wearing your Charro Steak shirt and you’re back in the restaurant world.

Maybe you aren’t at 100%, but you’re working.

Gary:
Here and there.

I get about four hours a day before I completely run out of energy.

Depending on how hard I push, I might be finished the next day. My legs simply won’t work.

Tom:
But you can’t stay away.

Gary:
What are you going to do? The show must go on.

Tom:
I was surprised when I saw the news because I hadn’t heard anything.

Gary:
We kept it fairly quiet.

We didn’t want to put everything out there. We like to keep things as close to us as possible.

Tom:
Especially when you didn’t know what was happening.

Gary:
Exactly.

We didn’t have a diagnosis. We didn’t know how long it would last.

As soon as the news aired, everything became intense.

People in our inner circle had already been reaching out. Others wanted to do stories or organize things for me.

Sometimes that can be almost more exhausting than simply lying in bed.

But I appreciate everyone’s well wishes and the amount of support I’ve received.

We always say it takes a village. I couldn’t have done it without my people.

Tom:
The other side of this is that you discovered you weren’t just a number or a position within an organization. You were part of it.

Gary:
I couldn’t be more grateful for the family and for Ray and Carlotta’s support.

Everybody at Flores Concepts has been absolutely amazing. I don’t even know how to fully express it.

Chapter 11: The Growth of Flores Concepts

26:08

Tom:
Let’s talk about Flores Concepts as we begin to wrap up.

More than 100 years ago, Monica Flin was scraping together pennies and working with a Chinese grocery store to gather enough ingredients to prepare meals.

Now there is this restaurant dynasty—Flores Concepts—spreading into many different concepts and venues.

Downtown, you have a particularly strong presence. What’s happening?

Gary:
Monica may be the greatest departure from El Charro that we could have imagined.

The original idea was an open-air concept. City Park was supposed to become a huge food hall with 16 to 18 vendors. Upstairs would be the bar, and there is still bowling alley infrastructure under the floor.

Tom:
The bowling alley infrastructure is still there?

Gary:
Yes. They built over it because it was all concrete. They had to build over the lanes.

The food hall idea was gradually whittled down.

Honestly, I think it was fortunate that it became smaller. I’m not sure Tucson would have understood or supported the full food-hall model as much as we wanted it to.

People probably would have understood the nightlife and bar component.

But managing 16 operators in one room is difficult. Everyone has different opinions about how things should be run.

Monica has been amazing and has been well received.

I think it’s a great little hood ornament for downtown.

Tom:
It appeals to many different tastes.

You can go inside and find many different things. There’s the outdoor atmosphere and the beautiful Joe Pagac mural.

It’s also right next to our studio, so I get to spend a lot of time there.

Then you have Charro Steak and Charro Del Rey. At this point, are those almost one restaurant?

Gary:
Operationally, they are close, although they remain separate LLCs.

Before COVID, they were more distinct.

When we reopened, we struggled with whether we should keep both spaces.

We eventually realized we didn’t know who might move in next to us. We couldn’t control who our neighbor would be.

We said, “Let’s not give up the space. Let’s make it work.”

We took the top items, created the menu, and made the concepts work together.

A lot of people don’t understand the history of the Del Rey space. It had briefly been a sandwich shop, and they had spent a lot of money on the build-out.

They had to apply to the historical society to add the little patio. They also cut the openings in the walls because the interior had originally been separate spaces.

Those archways were extremely expensive.

Today, the two restaurants complement each other.

Some guests love sitting in Del Rey because it is quiet and romantic.

Other guests want Charro Steak because it is smoky and feels like a steakhouse.

We captured the best of both worlds within the building.

Chapter 12: Christmas in July

30:01

Tom:
This episode will air in mid-July.

I don’t want to put you on the spot, but you usually hold Christmas in July. Is that happening?

Gary:
We will have Christmas in July this year on July 24 and 25.

It will include buy-one, get-one gift cards.

Tom:
That’s difficult to beat.

Chapter 13: The Challenges of Downtown Dining

30:22

Tom:
We’ve covered so many things, but I want to talk about downtown restaurants.

Tucson is now known for great restaurants throughout the city. You also have a Charro Steak location in northwest Tucson and multiple El Charro Café locations.

Is operating a steakhouse downtown different from operating one on Oracle Road?

Gary:
Yes.

Everything is different—from getting deliveries on time to trash pickup, oil disposal, and, obviously, parking.

Tom:
Your diners like to park?

Gary:
They like to come downtown, get out of the car, and eat.

We are fortunate to have the parking lot next to Del Rey. We don’t get it for free; it’s included in our rent.

But it only has about 20 spaces, and the restaurant might serve 250 people.

On a full night, parking is hard.

The AC Marriott garage was supposed to be an affordable option, but it isn’t always affordable. Some private lots charge $26 on a Friday night.

Private parking has become expensive.

I have to give credit to Park Tucson because the city could simply raise its prices and say, “It costs $12 to park downtown, just like Phoenix.”

But we’re not Phoenix.

Some private lots charge $11 to park at lunch. If four people arrive in separate cars, they have spent $44 just to park.

The streetcar is great.

I always tell people, “Park at the Mercado and make a night of it.”

We have a streetcar stop right in front of Monica, and another right in front of Charro Steak.

Tom:
The garages are usually around $5 or $6.

Part of the challenge is education. Metered spaces and city garages are relatively inexpensive, but people need to know where to find them.

The dedicated spaces give you an advantage, even though there still aren’t enough on a busy night.

Chapter 14: New Opportunities and an Interrupted Expansion

32:56

Tom:
What’s on the horizon?

Is there anything you can share? Are you taking over another location and opening a disco?

Gary:
When opportunities come up, Ray jumps on them.

He’s the real-estate and lease guy. He always says, “You handle the food. I’ll take care of the leases.”

Of course, he is also always involved with the food.

When the right opportunity comes, we look at it.

We were considering a location in Phoenix, but then I was injured, and we had to walk away from it.

Tom:
Those darn stretches.

Gary:
Those darn stretches.

Chapter 15: Giving Back to Tucson

33:23

Tom:
One last thing I want to touch on is your community impact.

I didn’t fully understand your personal history before this conversation, and now it helps explain your commitment to some of the organizations you support.

You’ve also brought youth groups into Charro Steak for programs that are almost like camps.

It’s meaningful to see.

Gary:
I appreciate that.

You have to give back. You can’t take it with you. There’s no U-Haul at the cemetery.

Giving back to the community is one of the biggest things I’ve learned from working with the Flores family over the past 10 or 11 years.

The community supports us.

People say, “You’re opening another restaurant? How are you going to do that? Aren’t you stealing business from yourselves?”

But the community comes out and supports us.

They also give us feedback—some of it good and some of it just opinions.

But we listen, adapt, and always try to put the community at the forefront.

We take care of our guests, and our guests are the community.

Chapter 16: Closing the Conversation

34:32

Tom:
I think that’s a great place to end.

I really appreciate you spending time with us.

You are well known within Tucson’s restaurant industry and throughout the community for many things that go far beyond the kitchen.

My guest has been Gary Hickey, who has been involved with many different concepts but is perhaps best known today for his work with Charro Steak and Charro Del Rey.

Gary, this has been fascinating. I really appreciate your time.

Gary:
Thanks for having me.

Tom:
I hope you tune in every Sunday for another episode of Life Along the Streetcar.

Each week, we cover the things happening within Tucson’s urban core, from A Mountain to the University of Arizona.

We open and close every show with music from Ryanhood, and we appreciate their support and permission to use their song “Dillinger Days.”

This show also would not happen without James Portis, our executive producer, who puts everything together behind the scenes.

My name is Tom Heath. I’m your host.

It is a privilege to sit down with the amazing people who are making things happen in Tucson.

Please tune in every Sunday for another episode.

Until next time, stay curious, Tucson.