The old Sonic on Duval Mine Road sat empty for two years, its angled carports sheltering nothing but the occasional roadrunner with somewhere to be. As of last Tuesday it shelters Birriería Los Nogales, and the Valley's lunch calculus has changed.
The Fuentes family ran a weekend birria stand in Hermosillo for eleven years before relocating; their consommé is the color of a monsoon sunset and approximately as dramatic. Order the quesabirria and you receive three tacos griddled to a lacquered crisp, a styrofoam cup of the good stuff, and a stack of napkins that constitutes fair warning.
“We looked at the drive-thru and thought, why fight it,” said Marisol Fuentes, who runs the window while her father runs the pots. The former order board now lists exactly nine items. The speaker, she confirmed, survives, “though sometimes you can hear the birria in the background, which we consider advertising.”
On a Thursday visit the line formed by 11:05. By 11:40 it included two landscaping crews, a table of retirees on bicycles, and a sheriff's deputy whose order suggested prior visits. The tortillas are made in what was once, per Marisol, “the roller-skate room,” a sentence this desk chose not to investigate further for fear it would stop being true.
The menu's only editorial flourish appears at the bottom, in small type: “fajitas — say it however you like.” The Fuentes family, new in town, has clearly read the papers.
Verdict: go. Go at 11. The consommé does not last, and neither will the parking.
Teo Andrade edits the Food section and got consommé on this column's first draft.