Danbury Restaurant To Be Latest Coronavirus Casualty

DANBURY, CT — A Danbury tapas bar is the latest coronavirus casualty.

Ibiza Tapas, a fixture at 93 Mill Plain Road for the past decade, will shutter permanently on Wednesday, after nearly a year of declining revenues due to pandemic restrictions.

Co-owner Laura Arias said that her other restaurant, Ibiza Kitchen at 76 King Street in Chappaqua, NY, will remain in business, and will be honoring Ibiza Tapas gift cards.

"Our sales dropped at least 75 percent," said Arias, a native of Columbia. When the restaurant was allowed to reopen for outside dining, it simply did not have enough space to make it work. She said the establishment came close to making a comeback when coronavirus restraints were loosened, and she was allowed to fill her dining room up to 75 percent. The death knell sounded when the regulations were ratcheted back to 50 percent.

"Ibiza Tapas was never a place for takeout," Arias told Patch. Ambiance was a key component of the restaurant's success, she explained, and most of the dishes on the menu simply did not travel well enough to make a takeout business viable.

Her Chappaqua location, open for just two years, remains afloat because "the landlord is helping us with rent," Arias said. Ibiza Kitchen also has a large patio to accommodate outdoor dining — three times the size of its counterpart in Danbury.

Arias, who operates the restaurants with her husband, has also debuted a new venture, Spain At Home. The online store offers specialty foods from Spain, including quince paste, flan, and stuffed piquillo peppers. Local delivery in Danbury, as well as curbside pickup at Ibiza Kitchen and domestic and international shipping, is available.

"I was able to create all these good relationships with my vendors for products from Spain," Arias said, and is reasoning she can leverage those relationships, and a loyal clientele from two restaurants, into an online business.

This article originally appeared on the Danbury Patch