James & Niel's Latin Cafe

[DoctorTaco]

I was in there at lunch a month or so ago. Pretty good food. Dead. Absolutely no customers except my party, and we were there 45 minutes during prime lunch hours.

This may be turning into one of those "cursed" restaurant locations. Which is odd because Joey's survives and they are on the same block.

[metro]

Anyone know what's going on with James and Niel's? they haven't been open since Christmas.

Wow, interesting.

I just called their number and there is no answer.

Hopefully, they are just taking a post-holidays break. I know La Brasa is still open and operating.

I know that James posted on their FB page back around November that he had been forced out of the business.... It was like two days after their sign went up on the building.

Yeah, it's now known as just Niel's Latin Cafe.

This all sounds ominous. No posts on Twitter or Facebook in a while.

I was in there at lunch a month or so ago. Pretty good food. Dead. Absolutely no customers except my party, and we were there 45 minutes during prime lunch hours.

This may be turning into one of those "cursed" restaurant locations. Which is odd because Joey's survives and they are on the same block.

Here's what I know, I thought I posted this quite awhile back. There were originally 3 partners in this operation, one of which is James Vu, the money behind the popular La Brasa and to a lesser extent, James & Niel's Latin Cafe, they also have another popular Latin restaurant here in the metro, but the name escapes me (I want to say Zarate's) but can't remember if that is correct or not. Anyhow from what I've heard from reputable sources, James got into a disagreement with the other two partners, and literally overnight cut ties with Niel and the other partner; thus the bulk of funding for this place was cut off. He also gave them just a few days to change the name to Niel's Latin Cafe and drop the James off, as well as set up a new Facebook and other social media profiles. I want to say this happened back in mid to late November.

Since we office very close, myself and several colleagues attempted to go there for lunch Monday and again today, but the doors were locked. The lights were on as were the TV's which have their digital menu. The place looked like it normally does, minus no people or food out. Not sure if they know it will be a very slow week due to the holidays and wicked cold weather, or they ran out of credit with vendors or what? I'd really hate to see this operation go under as the food is excellent; I think they have a good shot of making the long-haul if someone can supply them capital during this critical upstart period while the district works through growing pains. Otherwise, that really only leaves Joey's Pizza as the only viable lunch spot, as The Paramount has an odd food menu, and most of us that work in the district don't like their food. I'd really like to see Chip Fudge the district Godfather, primary land owner and owner of their building which includes CMR main offices, which is the bulk of employees in the district take a financial stake in the restaurant, as I mentioned before, they have a good shot of making the long-haul.

[derby]

For Lease sign went up on their space last week. Furniture has not been removed.

[Roger S]

Yep... I noticed it for the first time Friday afternoon.

Hopefully someone else goes in there soon with something good. It was handy to walk a block to grab some tasty lunch.

[Martin]

that's sad... the food was pretty good the one time that i went. however, i felt that they didn't exactly have their game together. i wanted to try their roasted chicken but just wanted one piece to go with the tacos that i had ordered. when asking how much one piece would cost, they looked at me like i was speaking greek or something. -M

[Pete]

That's got to be one of the shortest restaurant runs in history.

Especially disappointing given the somewhat unique food concept.

[Roger S]

I've been seeing some activity in this building recently. Not sure if it's the former tenants clearing their stuff out or someone new getting ready to re-open.

Sure hope it is the latter.

[Roger S]

Noticed the signage on this building has been changed to - Caeii's Sweets, Eats, & More

[DammitDan]

Caeli's (pronounced "Chaylee's") opened today. I had the meatball sub, which was okay. Here's the menu:

[DammitDan]

I don't know how to fix the image rotation, btw.

[edcrunk]

That's got to be one of the shortest restaurant runs in history.

Especially disappointing given the somewhat unique food concept.

Yeah, it was. The argument they got in was due to James' partner taking food from La Brasa, which he was a chef at, and using it for their cafe.