Ursa is a 3,300-square-foot fine-dining restaurant in downtown Tucson, Arizona, owned by chef Aaron Lopez and June Chee, his wife and business partner. Its tasting menu celebrates the ingredients and foodways of the Sonoran Desert.
The idea for Ursa took shape during a month-long road trip through the deserts of the Southwest. As they foraged along the way, Lopez and Chee added their finds to a mood board and discussed the menu, pace of service, and atmosphere. Both grew up in desert communities and wanted the restaurant to showcase what the landscape could provide. During a stop in Joshua Tree, the concept came into focus. Sitting around a campfire and searching for a name, they looked up and saw Ursa Major, also known as the Great Bear. “It just felt right, like it was an omen,” says Lopez.
Guests hear that origin story at the end of the meal, when they are served a toasted marshmallow infused with creosote. After rainfall, the desert shrub releases an earthy, clean, and medicinal aroma reminiscent of wintergreen.
The meal begins with another nod to Lopez’s past: a tiny, pineapple-shaped barrel cactus fruit brushed with chiltepin XO sauce. As a child, his grandfather, Hector, gathered the fruit, often getting pricked and scratched by the cactus spines. The fruit was then made into candy. Lopez uses the dish to honor his grandfather, who first taught him about the desert’s wild foods.
The menu draws heavily on wild ingredients native to the region, including surprisingly sweet mesquite pods, jojoba seeds with a pleasantly bitter almond flavor, nopal, and palo verde seeds reminiscent of edamame. Lopez forages almost daily, and his work is informed by local Indigenous communities, farmers, and foragers. “We're still building our database of knowledge,” he says. “Everything we think we know is so primitive compared to what we can know tomorrow.”
Ursa connects family memories with Lopez’s ongoing study of desert ingredients, presenting them through a contemporary tasting menu. For him, the restaurant remains a process of discovery. “I was born and raised in the desert and lived most of my life here,” he says. “And I'm still just getting a grip on it.”
