Iconic, much-loved burger stand is in danger of closing
By Cathalena E. Burch
cburch@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.27.2008
Jennifer Noel is flattered that Shari's First Ave. Drive-in snagged top burger honors among Caliente readers. But the compliments might not be enough to save the iconic eatery that she has owned since last April.
The 443-square-foot building that houses Shari's is on the market. There's no guarantee whoever buys it will continue leasing it to Noel and her husband for Shari's.
"I would hate to be the one to close down Shari's," Noel said last week.
The building's owner, Joseph Giuffre, put it and an adjacent vacant lot on the market six months ago for an asking price of $320,000. He has owned the building for 13 years. Before that, he rented it for five years while he owned and ran Shari's.
"I've had it for so long. It's just time to sell," said Giuffre, who hopes whoever buys the building will continue to operate Shari's.
Shari's has defined Tucson's fast-food community for generations. It started as an ice cream stand in 1955, then became a burger drive-in called June's in 1957, Giuffre said. He couldn't recall June's last name, but Giuffre said June's husband, Craig, slapped his name on the business a few years later. Shari Bartol bought it around 1979 and changed the name again, said Giuffre.
When Giuffre bought it in 1990 from Bartol, he kept the name and the formula: made-to-order burgers dressed with chopped lettuce and onions and dill pickle slices.
"We just had fresh meat, fresh lettuce. Everything that went on a sandwich came in that morning," he recalled. "It's been since the early days a mom-and-pop place. It's survived the influx of a lot of McDonald's."
Noel and her husband, Jeff, bought the restaurant for $30,000 last April as an investment. They had a friend managing it while Jennifer Noel stayed home with their two young children and her husband sold insurance.
But the friend ended up running the burger stand almost into the ground, Noel said, and she took over in January. Business has begun to turn around.
"We had to struggle to rebuild it. A lot of people thought we had closed last July," she said, admitting the couple contemplated closing the business several times. "But now we're starting to show profits so we want to stay open.
"If someone wants to buy it from me and move it, that would be an option," she added. "If someone wants to buy the building and even then buy us out, that would be fine, too. I just don't want to see it die."
Neither does Giuffre. But business is business, and if a buyer wants to level the building for a parking lot or used-car dealership, Shari's will be no longer.
"It would pain me," he said. "But in business, you don't marry a building. . . . I would hope the buyer would have business savvy to say, 'Wow, this piece of land is making me money every day.' . . . If someone takes it over and buys the name Shari's from Jeff and Jennifer, they immediately have X number of dollars a day walking up to their front window. There's an intrinsic value there."
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