Gazpacho Restaurant officially closed Sunday after more than three decades in Durango.
One of the restaurant’s owners, Brennan McManamon, said the restaurant was unable to pay its rent, and damages caused by nearby construction depleted reserve funds.
Missing rent payments to the building’s owner, Arias-Abshagen LLC, was the main driver behind the business shuttering, McManamon said.
“Despite our efforts, we were unable to reach an agreement with them regarding the past-due rent, which ultimately led to the closure,” he told The Durango Herald in an email.
McManamon warned of a possible closure in October. He said the restaurant owed the city more than $14,000 in sales taxes and that the yearslong construction on a dual-branded hotel across the street was causing not only costly damages to the restaurant’s site, but also a noticeable decline in business.
The overdue sales taxes were eventually paid in full, but impacts from the construction persisted, and ultimately contributed to the closure, McManamon said.
“Over the three years we occupied the space, our business was heavily impacted by road closures caused by the hotel construction, along with multiple plumbing issues directly related to that work,” he said in an email. “We covered all of those repairs at our own expense.”
Gazpacho, located at 431 East Second Ave., opened in 1991, and was originally owned by James Arias. His son, Matt Arias, took over operations in 2012 after the death of his father. In 2023, he sold the establishment to three employees – McManamon, his brother Shane McManamon and Sadie Christensen.
McManamon said the restaurant donated all of its remaining food to Manna soup kitchen and gave leftover to-go silverware, boxes, cups and other supplies to local restaurants.
“We love (the community) deeply,” he said. “They (people who visited the restaurant) weren’t just customers – they were family. … We helped everyone we possibly could, for as long as we could.”
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