[Editor’s note 06/11/2026: this article contains photographs from a comped meal]
Downtown Tucson’s Penca has expanded its hours and offerings this summer, launching a new lunch menu and a revamped happy hour program called Hora Feliz.
Penca’s new lunch menu covers a range of central Mexican staples, from lighter salads to heartier bowls and tacos. The Penca Bowl ($14) features poblano rice, black beans, corn, greens, avocado, toasted pepitas, pickled onions, and chipotle crema. Meanwhile, the Ensalada de Primavera ($16) brings together chopped butter lettuce, sugar snap peas, avocado, radish, mint, and a citrus vinaigrette.
For guests who prefer something more substantial, the Torta de Milanesa ($17) stacks a breaded ribeye steak with tomato, pickled onion, lettuce, and chipotle aioli on a house-made telera bread. Tacos ($7 each) include options like carne asada, guajalote (turkey), rajas y hongos, pescado, camaron, carnitas, and cabeza. All corn tortillas come made to order.
The lunch menu also carries a guacamole con salsas caseras ($16), a Pozole Blanco ($14), and chicharrones in two sizes ($7 small, $13 large). Several items carry vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free designations, reflecting the kitchen’s commitment to accommodating a range of diets. Guests can also add proteins like shrimp ($6), carne asada ($8), carnitas ($7), cabeza ($7), or hongos ($7) to any order.
The bar remains open during lunch, offering draft and bottled beers, tepache, and sangria alongside house-made non-alcoholic drinks like jamaica, prickly pear tea, horchata, limeade, and cola.
Penca’s Hora Feliz program runs from 3-5 p.m. and centers on a simple offer: pick three items for $33. Guests choose from cocktails, wine, and bocadillos (small bites), each priced individually at $13.
The cocktail list includes the Mezcalita, Diablo, Jardinero, Tepache & Beer, Bourbon & Tepache, and Mosquito. Wine selections span a sauvignon blanc, cinsault, rosé, bubbles, and an orange wine.
On the bocadillos side, Penca offers 10 options. Tetelas (two per order) come filled with avocado crema, chipotle crema, queso, braised mushrooms, cilantro, and squash blossoms.
Oysters (four per order) arrive with lime, lemon, pickles, and garnishes.
Other bocadillos include guacamole and salsas caseras, pozole, quesadillas (three per order) with queso Oaxaca, epazote, escabeche, and salsa verde, and tacos (two per order) with a full range of fillings including rajas y hongos, guajolote, pescado, camaron, carnitas, cabeza, and carne asada.
Additionally, chicharrones, ceviche with lime-cured fish, red onion, cucumber, serrano, and avocado, and an ensalada mixta with butter lettuce, green and white onion, red cabbage, nopales, cilantro, corn, avocado crema, and lime round out the bocadillos menu.
The pick-three format gives guests flexibility to mix and match across all three categories. A diner could pair two cocktails with a bocadillo, or combine a glass of wine with two small plates.
Penca opened in 2013 under owner Patricia Schwabe, who drew from her mother’s Mexico City kitchen to shape the restaurant’s culinary identity. The restaurant sits in a renovated historic space on Broadway Boulevard, near the bustling heart of downtown. Over the years, it has built a reputation for agave-forward cocktails, seasonal menus, and an approach to central Mexican cuisine that sets it apart from most options in southern Arizona.
Penca is located at 50 E. Broadway Blvd. in downtown Tucson. For hours, reservations, and menus, visit pencarestaurante.com or call (520) 203-7681. Follow Penca on Instagram.
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