Jul

Jibarra Moving Downtown

Upscale Mexican restaurant Jibarra is moving to The Depot complex downtown in “early Fall”. The restaurant’s current location will close on August 3 and convert to El Rodeo.

“I’ve been extremely impressed by the present and future plans for the downtown area; we obtained an excellent location, a space situated in the Historic Depot, and feel it has the makings to become a vibrant, contemporary Mexican restaurant,” owner Joel Ibarra explained.

The new restaurant will move away the existing chic, contemporary decor and go with a more industrial look. New City Design, which previously worked with Porter’s, Duck and Dumpling, and Fins, will handle the design.

I love what Jibarra is striving to be. The menu has disappeared from the website, but it is a restaurant aiming at difficult Mexican food similar to Rick Bayless’ and Rosa Mexicano’s (warning: music) cuisines. Jibarra will still offer dishes such at Conchinta Pibil (a Yucatecan specialty in which pork is marinated in sour oranges and annatto seeds) and Cabrito (a slow roasted young goat left on the bone that reaches fork tenderness), as well as their robust tequila menu.

My numerous experiences have been mostly hits, and Jibarra is an unequivocal asset to Raleigh. The new downtown location will be even better fit for their concept. I think this move officially marks North Raleigh as “Dead”.

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B. Evans

Great news. I was really impressed with Jibarra. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the location.
http://viridari.wordpress.com Magnus

It’s a little bit out of the spotlight in terms of location but still convenient to get to when downtown. Look forward to trying it out!
TSnow27604

Jibarra is right there with Second Empire as the best restaurants I have been to in Raleigh. And for dessert, you’ve got to try the avocado ice cream!
RaleighRob

This isn’t only great news for downtown but will probably benefit the company as well. They will literally be just down the road from the Convention Center (as well as adjoining hotels and Progress Energy Center).
Smart move.
http://www.cybergraph.com RayRay

Thrilled to have them downtown. Great restaurant. Parking concerns though (mixed blessing).
Voice of Reason

You say North Raleigh is dead. However, the demographics from their North Raleigh location are among the best in the Southeast. Avg. HH income, Median Home Value, Education Levels, availability of workforce, etc. Keep in mind that one customer from downtown would have to purchase four $200k condos to equal the levels of affluency of some of the North Raleigh customers living in $800k homes. They may live boring lives in North Raleigh when compared to the downtown vibrancy, but money talks, and money keeps people in business. Don’t forget that.
http://www.gogoraleigh.com/2008/09/22/el-rodeo-grill-brings-mid-mex-to-north-raleigh/ gogoraleigh.com» Blog Archive » El Rodeo Grill Brings Mid-Mex to North Raleigh

[...] the summer Joel Ibarra announced that he was packing up the Jibarra concept and taking it downtown. Ibarra owns the El Rodeo at Townridge Square, too, and decided to convert the old Jibarra space [...]

Posted by Dana on July 5, 2008 | Tags: Downtown, Food. | ( 7 ) Comments

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Jibarra Moving Downtown

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