After 22 years of serving tourist and fellow New Yorkers Tex-Mexican cuisine,
Gonzalez y Gonzalez will be closing down. After all its years within the city,
the establishment will close down with a final fiesta featuring four bands that
will serve up to seven hour of salsa music next Monday. The popular venue opened
back in 1989 and made local a name for itself by serving food and live
performance of local salsa bands to the community without the cost of cover
charge. What’s to fill its space, none other than another fast food chain to
fill a spot with history and notoriety.
When asked about Gonzalez y Gonzalez shutting down, Sounni de Fonetnay, a 14
year veteran general manager of the establishment, describes how personal the
closing of the eatery is since, “a lot of people worked there for a very long
time, so it’s, like everyone is a family.” Aside from the family bonds struck by
its workers, the disappearance will also impact salsa band stationed in New
York. “We’ve been very integral in the salsa music scene in New York,” says de
Fontenay when talking about the salsa bands he booked for the venue.
Member of a band, Zon del Barrio, who’s scheduled to perform at Monday’s
closing, Aurora Flores agrees with de Fontenay and adds how great the venue was
in giving bands, “a chance. You could play there at least one time. If people
liked it, you kept on playing.” Flores’ band first played Gonzalez y Gonzalez
back in 2004 and accredits the establishment giving her band their first break.
Aside from giving them their start, Flores acknowledges the relationship
developed between the two and kindness felt within the venue that provided
musicians with two-drink tickets and food when hungry.
The restaurant is closing down after losing it lease and its building owner of
the building at 625 Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker Sts, had problems
with bankruptcy and foreclosure. Eventually the building was brought out by
Chipotle Mexican Grill, and the chain is expected to take over the front half of
the building where Gonzalez y Gonzalez now stands. According to de Fontenay, the
50 to 60 employees are being placed in some restaurants around New York City via
ARK Restaurants ownership. Flores says it all when reading about this sad ending
when she says, “It was a great place, it’s very sad there’s no other place like
that in New York right now.”
Gonzalez y Gonzalez will be shutting its doors this upcoming Monday, January
31st with four local salsa bands, Hector Montalvo y su Salsa Major, Grupp Latin
Vibe, Zon del Barrio, and Willie Villegas y Entre Amigos. The four bands will be
playing salsa music all night as Gonzalez y Gonzalez bids its farewell to the
big apple. Best wishes to all the employees who graced the establishment, and
best wishes that one day it may return and claim its spot if that would be at
all possible.
