New Haven Independent

“Temple Street is now turned into a neighborhood,” declared Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. as he led reporters Friday through a string of restaurants spanning a range of flavors, prices and hours.

Near to the Green, a Mexican restaurant with a four-hour happy hour will be opening in May. Cocina Mexican Grill will feature no-frills Mexican food. “We keep it simple, we keep it cheap, and it works,” said co-owner Sonny Desai.

Across the street, in a corner of the Chapel Square Mall next to the Omni Hotel, a boarded-up storefront will be transformed into a Spanish tapas bar serving over 200 wines. The owner, Argentinian Sasa Mahr-Batuz, already owns four other Barcelona wine bars in the state. He’s clearing space inside for a large bar, fireplace and wine room. In typical Spanish style, food will be served until midnight.

“It’s really food-driven,” he said. “We just happen to have 35 wines by the glass.” Barcelona will open in the fall.

Kudeta is elegant with a sushi bar, a blend of Asian flavors and a high-concept French designer who has modeled the interior after the restaurant’s namesake, the French “coup d’etat,” meaning an overthrow of government. Butterflies in a central glass piece (pictured) are the souls of the dead rising up. Glittering discs on the walls are bullet holes.

Owner Elaine Chao plans to bring a workforce of 40 into the space. She’s set an opening date of April 12. “I always liked New Haven — the feel; to walk down the street makes you happy,” said Chao, who lives in Weston. Her 6,000 square foot restaurant will join a row of eateries lining up across from the Criterion Cinema.

Like Bella’s Downtown Market Café, a high-end restaurant and market that opened last fall. The store serves brunch all day and vies for the pre-theater crowd on weekends.

Next door, the more down-to-earth, wing-serving Diner 21 opened in January. Also on that strip, the Safari Caffeine Lounge, a gourmet Morroccan coffee shop, will open in mid-April.

The new business has been catalyzed in part by the Criterion Cinemas, which opened in late 2004 with five screens. Co-owners Charley Moss and Ben Moss (Ben is pictured, left, next to Mayor DeStefano) plan to add two screens by late spring.

“The Criterion is to this side of town what the Shubert and the Rep are to Chapel Street,” said DeStefano, applauding the theater as a destination spot. When the Coliseum is torn down and the old Macy’s and Malley’s department-store sites make way for Gateway Community College, he expects a “large, vibrant suburban population” to add to the district’s foot traffic. Ultimately he’d like to “grow downtown closer to the train station.”