Wildcat fans have a new downtown spot to call home

Tucson’s downtown entertainment district has a new gathering place for University of Arizona fans, just as students return and the fall sports calendar gets underway. Block A Sports Bar & Grill opened Monday, Aug. 10, at 345 E. Congress St., giving residents, students, alumni and visitors a large new venue for watching Wildcats games and other sporting events. The opening comes a little more than a week before the University of Arizona’s return to school and less than a month before Arizona football hosts Northern Arizona University in its home opener on Sept. 6.

The 6,000 square foot restaurant is designed around sports viewing, with University of Arizona games expected to appear on every screen in the main dining room. The centerpiece is a curved, 24 foot LED wall, joined by an LED jumbotron above the bar. Customers who prefer to sit outside can watch on a 20 foot LED video wall installed on the 3,000 square foot patio. That outdoor area has a MistAmerica cooling system and automated shutters intended to block the late afternoon sun, features that could be especially useful during Tucson’s warmer months.

Owner Grant Krueger said the timing is important because the restaurant is opening shortly before both college football and the National Football League season. His Union Hospitality Group owns and operates Block A, along with Union Public House, Reforma Modern Mexican, Mezcal & Tequila and Proof Artisanal Pizza at St. Philip’s Plaza, as well as the Maverick King of Clubs country nightclub on East Tanque Verde Road. Krueger said he is looking forward to students returning and to the broader sports season, which will give the new restaurant a steady series of major events soon after opening.

Block A has access to tickets for all four major professional sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and the NFL. It also has college sports packages. The video walls and multiple screens allow staff to show several games at the same time, a setup intended to appeal to customers who want to follow different contests during busy sports days. Krueger described the game watching experience as a central feature of the business, particularly on Sundays when multiple NFL games are played simultaneously.

The restaurant’s scratch kitchen remains open until midnight and offers food ranging from shareable snacks to full meals. The menu includes chicken wings, fish tacos, loaded fries and ahi poke nachos finished with sriracha aioli and avocado crema. Guests can also order burgers, chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches and salads. Detroit style pizza is another major part of the menu, including a Wildcat version topped with pepperoni, sausage, prosciutto, bacon and whipped ricotta. Other entrees include fish and chips, dill salmon, steak and pesto primavera.

The project took longer to complete than Krueger originally expected. When he announced the plans last November, he hoped to open in time for March Madness. The building permits were not received until April, however, and the construction involved complicated electrical work for the large LED displays. The building is also a multilevel property that shares some walls with neighboring businesses, adding to the challenges of the renovation. Union Hospitality Group took over the building last October, several months after Hi-Fi Kitchen & Cocktail closed in February 2025 following 11 years in downtown Tucson.

The company invested $2.7 million in the project. Rio Nuevo, Tucson’s downtown redevelopment district, agreed to reimburse as much as $400,000, according to Rio Nuevo documents. While waiting for permits, Krueger also worked to bring Plaza Centro into the Downtown Tucson Partnership. The plaza, located at Congress Street and North Fourth Avenue, was built in 2012 but had not been included in the partnership’s boundaries, which were established in 1998. To add the plaza, about a dozen property owners had to agree to participate, including accepting an increase in property taxes. By July, Block A and its neighbors had joined the partnership.

The Downtown Tucson Partnership oversees a 54 block business improvement district and provides services including street cleaning, safety patrols, economic development and marketing. Block A’s arrival adds another business to that downtown network and gives the Congress Street area a sports focused destination. It is also the second downtown sports bar, following the Board Room Sports Loft & Bar on the second floor of Batch at 118 E. Congress St., which opened in January. Together, the two venues offer downtown customers more choices for watching games, meeting friends and spending time in the district before or after other activities.

Block A is open from 3 p.m. to midnight Mondays through Wednesdays, until 2 a.m. Thursdays, and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays through Sundays. Its opening schedule allows for afternoon and evening service during the workweek, along with earlier access on weekends. For Wildcats fans, the new venue arrives at a particularly active point in Tucson’s calendar, with students returning, football season approaching and the Sept. 6 home opener providing one of the first major opportunities to test the restaurant’s game day setup.