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Ken Foy heard the same criticisms when he opened Dante鈥檚 Fire just down the road in 2013.

Today, the two restaurants are anchors in a revival of a stretch of East Grant near North Tucson Boulevard that many had given up as a lost cause.

By the end of April, there will be six restaurants in the 2500 block of East Grant Road. The newest outposts of the national chain Snooze A.M. Eatery and the Phoenix-born wine cafe Postino, are slated to be open by then.

鈥淲e really want to rebrand it the new midtown,鈥� said Melissa Lal, president of Larsen Baker, which is developing the 12,000-plus-square-foot complex dubbed The Grant Modern, next door to Dante鈥檚 Fire at 2500 E. Grant Road, where both restaurants are being built.

Lal and other champions of the neighborhood see the area around Grant and Tucson Boulevard as the true midtown, with easy access from all ends of the city. That will only improve once the long-drawn, multi-million-dollar Grant Road Improvement Project, which will widen the road to six lanes with bike lanes between North Oracle and North Swan roads, is completed.

So far, Grant has been widened from Oracle Road to North Park Avenue, including redirecting left-turn lanes in an effort to improve traffic flow at busy intersections.

鈥淕rant Road is going to become a really nice street when it鈥檚 done,鈥� said Greg Furrier, a retail specialist with the commercial real estate company PICOR who is working on a couple of things for the area. None are at a stage that can be announced yet, he said.

Furrier, Lal and others point to Sam Fox鈥檚 Culinary Dropout as the catalyst for renewed interest in the area.

Fox, who launched his extraordinary restaurant career in Tucson more than 20 years ago and last summer sold his locally-born chain of boutique restaurants for a reported $308 million cash to the Cheesecake Factory, opened the behemoth Culinary Dropout at 2543 E. Grant Road at the former Grant Road Lumber in 2017. The 19,000-square-foot project that includes a sprawling 鈥測ard鈥� where diners can play corn hole, pingpong and foosball, a dining room, a bar and private dining areas, cost a reported $11 million 鈥� at the time Fox鈥檚 most expensive project.

鈥淪am Fox doing the Culinary Dropout was the game changer,鈥� said Nancy McClure with the commercial real estate agency CBRE. 鈥淎ny time Sam Fox does something he鈥檚 very deliberate in his decision-making. He really understands the restaurant business. But that particular brand he put there, it appeals to lots of demographics. I think a lot of them were saying, 鈥榃ow, that was interesting.鈥欌��

Picor鈥檚 Furrier said Dropout draws its customer base from throughout the city, including folks driving from the foothills and east side and students and employees of the University of 蜜聊直播 3 miles away. The proximity to the UA, he said, was deliberate on Fox鈥檚 part.

鈥淭o do Culinary Dropout you need a big piece of property and to be honest with you that was the biggest property in the proximity of the University of 蜜聊直播,鈥� he said.

Fox also built a retail plaza next to Dropout that is now home to an outpost of California-based LemonShark Poke, a fast-casual restaurant specializing in poke bowls that opened in November.

Lauren Bailey says it was Fox鈥檚 presence on Grant Road that convinced her to open her wine cafe Postino across the street in Larsen Baker鈥檚 The Grant Modern.

鈥淚 drove down there with Brian Frakes and it鈥檚 easy to see how it picks up a lot of people from different (areas),鈥� said Bailey, founder and CEO of Postino鈥檚 Phoenix-based parent company Upward Projects. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not too far from the university and it sits in the middle of these really cool neighborhoods.鈥�

Frakes company Common Bond Development is developing the Larsen Baker project that will house Postino and Snooze and developed Dropout for Fox.

Dante鈥檚 Fire鈥檚 Foy said the area looks far different from the Grant Road he moved into nearly seven years ago. At the time, the economy was still in the downturn from 2008. Grant Road Lumber was closed and a nearby church had been converted into a used car lot. That same year, Central Collision put up its sign on the building at 2550 E. Grant next to Kingfisher that had been home to auto shops since the 1940s.

There was an old strip mall with a hair stylist, carpet store and methadone clinic next door, which Larsen Baker eventually bought and tore down to make way for The Grant Modern, and all along Grant there were more boarded-up buildings than businesses, Foy recalled. Which is why when he told people he was planning to open a restaurant in the middle of the worst economic downturn in decades, at the beginning of a Tucson summer and in that neighborhood, they thought he was a bit nuts.

鈥淐all it too stupid to know better,鈥� he said with a laugh last week, the day after he served a $110-a-plate, six-course chef鈥檚 table dinner that included pan seared foie gras, smoked scallops, an oxtail consomme and grilled filet mignon for a group of 20 pharmaceutical executives.

With the addition of Culinary Dropout and the renewed interest in Grant Road, Foy seems to have gotten the last laugh on the naysayers.

鈥淲e鈥檙e about 15 or 20 minutes from everybody in Tucson,鈥� he said, noting that they are a short drive from downtown, the UA area and the foothills. 鈥淵ou can draw all of the demographics to right where we鈥檙e at and you can draw them without having to deal with, 鈥榃here do I park?鈥� It鈥檚 a draw without all the headaches.鈥�

Kingfisher鈥檚 Murphy said he鈥檚 happy to see the new restaurants moving in. It鈥檚 validation for his nearly 27 years on Grant Road, where he, Azersky and their longtime staff have built a reputation for their seafood menu and late-night dining.

鈥淚 think we have a good community presence and I think we have a lot of guests who have been with us a long time,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he guests 26 years ago, depending on where they were in their lives, they are now coming with their children and their children are now coming. There鈥檚 a legacy involved after a certain period of time where if you can stay up and at it, you see those returning guests.鈥�

The addition of Culinary Dropout brings new faces to his dining room. Often when the wait at the popular eatery is too long, customers cross the street and dine with him, he said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really excited about what鈥檚 going on in the area,鈥� added Larsen Baker鈥檚 Lal. 鈥淕eographically if you put a pin on a map of Tucson you hit the center of town (at Grant and Tucson Boulevard). We believe in the area. ... What you鈥檝e seen in terms of the results of Culinary Dropout and the restaurants that have opened nearby, it makes sense and people are responding to it.鈥�