Bio - Dennis Sirrine

Dennis Sirrine was born on December 15th, 1951 in Mesa, Arizona. Being the oldest of six children, he led a normal life growing up during the 50's and 60's. He started piano lesson when he was seven years old and continued lessons through his senior year in high school.

During high school, he organized and played in a 9 piece rock and roll band, playing keyboards and singing lead for most of those years. His group was extremely popular in the Phoenix area during the late 60's and early 70's and also did a few concerts at Disneyland in California, and traveled extensively in Arizona and Southern California.

After High School, he served a two year mission for his church during the years of 1971 and 1972. His mission took him to New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and parts of Massachuset. His mission was hard, but rewarding at the same time, and he met a lot of great people that touched his life.

Four months after his mission, he married his sweetheart, Lizabeth Standage on May 18th, 1973. He and Liz had dated for about a year before Dennis left on his mission, and then picked right back up when he got home off his mission.

Right after they got settled into married life together, they both enrolled in a two year culinary curriculum at Mesa Community College. It was here that they both embraced the artistic forms of cooking, and set the stage for them to open a restaurant twenty years into the future.

After culinary school though, Dennis spent the next twenty years in the construction industry, designing and building large custom homes in the Phoenix area, along with homes in Los Angeles and San Diego California. Most of the passion to build homes comes from the artist talents that he was blessed with, as well as seeing his mother and father build speculative homes for profit during his younger years.

Through the first twenty years of his married life, Dennis developed many skills in the construction industry. He has personally mastered all of the trades it takes to build a house from the ground up; such as concrete, framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, cabinet making, finish carpentry, roofing, tile installation, stain glass, stucco and hardwood floors. Are all trades that Dennis has performed in the construction of his homes over the past twenty years.

And besides the construction trades, Dennis has also developed many architectural skills associated with the many hours he has spent designing and drawing his own homes. He also received his real estate license during this time to assist him in selling the homes he built.

But after twenty years of building and riding out the waves of three recessions, the creative side of cooking started to take over Dennis. So he and his wife started taking trips to Mexico in hopes of getting some great ideas for a Mexican restaurant that they wanted to start.

After one year of extensive traveling throughout Mexico, trying to find the perfect recipes, and another six months or so trying out these recipes on family and friends, they finally opened their dream,
"Rosa's Mexican Grill" Rosa's Mexican Grill was opened on July 28, 1991 in a small 900 square-foot space doing mostly take out. Over an eight year run, Rosa's Mexican Grill was expanded four times and became an extremely popular sit down restaurant in the East Valley, winning numerous awards and earning a solid reputation with the media. But Rosa's Mexican Grill could grow no further, and with other great ideas and recipes that could only be done in a bigger, better place, they sold Rosa's in 1999 and built a brand new restaurant in northeast Mesa.

Dennis called upon his architectural skills and designed an incredible Mexican Hacienda style restaurant and then put his construction skills to the test, as he and five other craftsman built this magnificent restaurant in northeast Mesa. Rancho de Tia Rosa rose out of the ground that was previously occupied by horses grazing on natural grass, to become one of the most beautiful Mexican restaurant in the Southwest. And Dennis named this restaurant after his grandmother who was the inspiration in his quest for incredible Mexican food.

If not at his new restaurant (which occupies most of Dennis' time), he is traveling with his wife and children throughout the United States, searching out the many different foods available here in this country, and seeking out some great food item that he might be able to incorporate into his restaurant.

And even though Dennis was an avid sports participant and outdoorsman during his earlier years, a serious accident in 1983, which almost cost him his live, has slowed him down a lot when it comes to those two passions. He can still enjoy waterskiing and swimming, but in all other sporting events, he is just a spectator.

He still enjoys all kinds of music, and loves making beautiful stain glass windows which he learned while living in Los Angeles during the late 70's. And he is also an avid G scale model railroading fanatic and is currently constructing an incredible outdoor layout in his back yard. He hopes to have it done around the end of summer.

Dennis currently live in Mesa, Arizona, only a mile from the restaurant, with his wife Liz and six of their eight children. His goal for the restaurant at this stage of it's existence, is to become well known on a national basis. They have hired a publicist here in the Phoenix area to assist them in this goal.

"My wife and I have poured our heart and soul into this restaurant so all who come to enjoy this place will leave with a smile on their face and the memory of an incredible place to eat and spend time with friends and family".
Dennis R. Sirrine    Chef / Owner
Rancho de Tia Rosa