DANBURY — The owner of El Taco Loco — a popular food truck specializing in authentic Mexican cuisine — was preparing to open a restaurant of the same name at 317 Main St., but a missing key component threw a wrench in the brick-and-mortar plans.
“The space doesn’t have a hood for the grill or fryer,” a spokesperson from the family-run food truck business said. “Unfortunately, we were not able to use alternative methods or install a hood as we had planned, which is why we couldn’t move forward.”
The restaurant plans fell through, but the food truck can still be found at 346 Main St. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, according to a post on its Instagram page.
As for 317 Main St., a search for an occupant is underway.
The roughly 1,600-square-foot commercial space on the corner of Main and Crosby streets has been vacant since June, when ItadakiMÀS — a Japanese-Latin restaurant that Mothership Bakery & Café owner Anna Llanos opened in 2021 — closed after a year in business.
Before ItadakiMÀS, it had been occupied by a Subway for decades before the sandwich shop closed its doors in late 2019.
Mark Nolan, one of the owners of the 317 Main St. building, says its central business district location makes it a desirable piece of real estate — and with El Taco Loco no longer moving in, the goal is to “find a tenant that will enhance the downtown.”
The property is located across the street from the 374-unit Kennedy Flats complex and within walking distance of the bus station, Kennedy Park, popular Mothership Bakery & Café, the incoming Brookview West Apartments and a proposed four-story office building for Savings Bank of Danbury.
“We’re looking for somebody to complement the area and what goes on with Mothership and other eateries nearby,” Nolan said.
Within a week of putting a for-lease sign in the window of the commercial space, Nolan said he received about 10 calls from people interested in moving in.
“We’ve had a lot of interest,” he said. “There have been different people that have come forward with (proposals ranging from) eateries to convenience stores.”
As Nolan works to find a new tenant for 317 Main St., Danbury is nearing completion on its 2022 Plan of Conservation and Development — a 10-year master plan for housing and commercial development, with one of the concentration areas being the city’s downtown.
A task force of city leaders has spent two years working on the 200-page plan, which is expected to be adopted by the Danbury City Council following a public hearing in December.
