Tito & Pep

Vongerichten’s massive influence notwithstanding, Martinez would be the first to tell you that his grandmother, whom he calls “an amazing cook,” was his biggest culinary mentor. She routinely brought the family together for pig roasts and holiday tamale-making, and Martinez grew up cooking with her, never dreaming he’d own his own restaurant one day.

A trip to New York in 2001 opened Martinez’s eyes to a bigger culinary landscape. Not long after, he moved there and started working for Vongerichten, traveling the world to help open restaurants in other countries as Vongerichten expanded his empire. When burnout set in, Martinez moved on. To “decompress,” he worked for a string of other restaurants, including Oak Creek Brewery in Sedona and Hacienda del Sol in Tucson. Fine dining may be in his DNA, but he’s done it all, and his range of experience informs his straightforward but sophisticated cooking style.

Although Martinez’s menu leans heavily on his Mexican heritage — for proof, look no further than the queso fundido, hamachi aguachile and steak skewers with chipotle-tomatillo salsa — his globally influenced food moves beyond that restrictive definition. “It’s not Mexican, it’s Tucsonan,” the restaurant’s website declares, a statement that reflects a profound sense of place and what Martinez considers Tucson’s multicultural identity.

Many ingredients are cooked on an open hearth fueled with mesquite wood, which lends char and smoky flavor to everything from grilled trout with guajillo chiles to heirloom tomato salad with charred corn. The huevos rancheros are otherworldly, thanks to tomatoes, onions and garlic blistered on top of the grill or set in the embers. Pastries, baked in-house daily and served warm with house-made pineapple-orange marmalade, are shockingly good, too, yet bargain priced at $10.

“We don’t open any cans,” Martinez says, which speaks volumes about his ethos and partly explains the abundance of good press he’s earned. In 2022, The New York Times named Tito & Pep one of its top 50 restaurants of the year; that same year, Martinez became a semifinalist for the James Beard “Best Chef: Southwest” award. It’s all very flattering and great for business, but the accolades don’t change who Martinez fundamentally is: the guy who roasts chiles every morning for a “transportive” zip back in time to his grandmother’s kitchen.