Salsa’s Kicks Off Citywide Outdoor Dining Expansion

Fair Haven diners can now enjoy chicken flautas on the sidewalk-adjacent patio of Grand Avenue’s Salsa’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant a month earlier than usual, thanks to the city’s expansion of outdoor dining season — which will extend year-round for qualifying businesses.

Early Thursday afternoon, city officials joined Juana Ramirez, the owner of the 99 Grand Ave. restaurant, to celebrate the longtime culinary business’s recent growth — and to announce the newly available year-round permitting for eligible restaurants to set up outdoor dining spaces. 

The expansion allows for the city’s outdoor dining season to kick off April 1 this year, rather than previous years’ start date of May 1. And, instead of limiting outdoor dining options for restaurateurs during the colder months and ending the season on Nov. 30, qualifying restaurants can now apply to participate in an extended outdoor dining season program that will run from Dec. 1 to March 31 every year. 

Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre said on Thursday that the expansion came about due to community demands to have options to eat outdoors all year long. The outdoor dining program really picked up several years ago during the height of the pandemic as restaurants sought to encourage customers to dine out in a Covid-safe way. The interest in outdoor dining has remained strong since then.

Eyzaguirre noted that Salsa’s is an anchor business for the the Latino commercial district of Grand Avenue, which he said has over 100 businesses in just a one-mile stretch of the Fair Haven corridor. Over the last year, Salsa’s has expanded its restaurant to now include a bar area. 

During Thursday’s presser, Mayor Justin Elicker encouraged businesses all over the city that are interested in creating outdoor dining spaces to apply and see if they qualify. During the winter months qualifying businesses will be expected to abide by requirements to remove outdoor spaces and their furniture in advance of snow storms to allow for plowing. 

“Public safety is still paramount,” Eyzaguirre said. 

Elicker added that there are spots around the city that won’t qualify for outdoor dining areas due to being high traffic plow routes. 

Elicker thanked Ramirez for ​“coming to the community with ideas, a ton of energy, and skill” to improve neighborhoods. 

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller also thanked Ramirez for being a role model and ​“backbone” for the Fair Haven community for more than a decade. 

Miller described Salsa’s as one of the many reasons to visit Grand Avenues businesses, which range from clinics and barbershops to churches and the public library. 

“So if you’re looking for flan, smoothies, fresh bread, or a flu vaccine it’s all right here,” she said. She added that the neighborhood will soon relaunch its Fair Haven Day celebration on May 6. 

Grand Avenue Special Services District Executive Director Erick Gonzalez said he looks forward to supporting other businesses in the neighborhood to get outdoor dining spaces. He said the more people that invest in their neighborhoods, the more motivation it gives city youth to do the same. 

The city first launched its outdoor dining program during the pandemic as a way to support increased dining options for residents who preferred to stay outdoors during Covid’s peak. The program also helps increase capacity for restaurants with limited indoor dining areas. 

Outdoor dining options throughout the city have included repurposed parking spaces and sidewalks. In 2022, approximately 35 establishments participated in the city’soutdoor dining program.

Interested restaurants can learn more here.

The Thursday announcement of the outdoor dining season expansion coincides with New Haven Restaurant Week, which runs from April 16 through April 21. Twenty-four restaurants will participate in this year’s restaurant week by offering discounts on certain meals.

Salsa’s owner Juana Ramirez moved to New Haven from Mexico with plans to follow in her grandparents’ footsteps and own her own business.

At Thursday’s press conference Ramirez said her grandmother owned a small restaurant in Mexico that inspired her. In 2007, she opened Salsa’s by renting the commercial space beneath her apartment at 99 Grand Ave. A decade later Ramirez bought the building in 2018. 

As a result of the pandemic Salsa’s added outdoor seating in 2020 with the help of an infrastructure grant from the city’s ​“Together New Haven” re-open program. 

Currently Salsa’s is in the process of expanding into the neighboring retail space at 97 Grand Ave. 

Ramirez thanked the city, her family, and friend and Grand Avenue business owner Jobana Maldonado for supporting her over the past 16 years. 

City staff and community members enjoyed a bite to eat at Salsa’s after the Thursday presser. 

Salsa’s staff cooked up flautas, nachos, enchiladas for guests to enjoy indoors in the restaurant’s Mexican-themed dining room with walls decorated with art depicting Mexican landscapes and cooking traditions and colorful sombrero hats. Some also ate outdoors in the restaurant’s flag-and-balloon-decorated two-tabled patio where tunes like ​“O El O Yo” by Sarabanda could be heard playing inside.