Quick Take:
At the beginning of July, five-year-old Spanish restaurant Barceloneta in downtown Santa Cruz served its final meal. In a few weeks, owners Elan and Brett Emerson will open Ibiza in the space, a breakfast and lunch spot that they hope will reach Pacific Avenue’s busy daytime crowd of shoppers and workers, with a Mediterranean-inspired menu that’s “deliciously unfussy.”
After five years serving paella and Spanish tapas on the north end of Pacific Avenue, downtown Santa Cruz restaurant Barceloneta is undergoing a transformation. Later this summer, it will reopen as Ibiza, a breakfast and lunch spot, with a new menu inspired by the flavors of the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa.
The revision comes just a few weeks after another Santa Cruz restaurant similarly upended its concept. In June, 10-year-old West End Tap & Kitchen became Izakaya West End, after owners Quinn Cormier and Geoff Hargrave decided to refresh the American gastropub into a Japanese restaurant. Both metamorphoses indicate a willingness by the owners to adapt and evolve with market and consumer demands.
Barceloneta held its final service last week, and is currently closed. It will reopen as Ibiza, named after a Spanish island in the Mediterranean, in a few weeks, owners Brett and Elan Emerson say.
Two observations fueled the decision, they said. First, they wanted to move away from Barceloneta’s dinner service in favor of a format that would reach downtown Santa Cruz’s bustling daytime shopping, working and lunch crowd during the day. And, they wanted their restaurant to offer the foods that they crave.
“Ibiza’s informal and deliciously messy concept… we couldn’t stay away from it,” says Elan. “It’s a leap from what Barceloneta was doing, but every single dish hits at a really solid, grounded point that we feel will nourish the community.”
Downtown Santa Cruz is home to some of the city’s best dinner spots, but many are clustered toward the center of Pacific Avenue. Meanwhile, the northern end near the Clock Tower is full of people shopping and working during daytime hours, even during the week, but most of the surrounding businesses close at the end of the work day and there isn’t much to draw people to that end of town in the evenings. Open only at night, Barceloneta felt like a bit of an island, the Emersons say.
Aiming to harness the daytime energy, Ibiza will be a fast-casual restaurant, where guests order at a counter and their meal is delivered by a server on real plates, with real stemware and flatware. The bold menu is punctuated with assertive and alluring flavors from the Mediterranean region: tahini, pomegranate, smoky eggplant, olive oil and harissa. Ibiza’s lunch menu includes a pita sandwich with falafel, Moroccan-spiced chicken or roasted pork shoulder, flatbreads served with housemade dips and spreads, pita chip nachos with spiced ground beef, feta and tahini, and large salads, like the Barceloneta’s popular Ibiza Hippie salad with spiced yams, tabbouleh and crispy chickpeas.
On the breakfast menu, guests will find shakshuka, a poached egg simmered in a spiced tomato-pepper stew, and smoked salmon toast with labneh yogurt and crispy capers. Elan says she’s particularly excited about the kids menu, which has more than a half dozen options with options ranging from churro toast with cinnamon sugar and butter to a simple hummus platter and pita chip nachos. “We really want to accommodate everyone at every stage,” she says.
For dessert, guests can choose from a list that includes churros with dipping sauces, an olive oil brownie or vanilla soft serve with toppings like salted caramel, strawberry rose sauce, and chili crisp.
Ibiza will retain its full-service bar, and plans to offer cocktails that will pair with breakfast and lunch, like mimosas, an Aperol spritz and a Turkish coffee cocktail. It will also expand its sherry and vermouth selection and broaden the selection of local wines and beers.
The list of alcohol-free beverages includes homemade chai, Turkish coffee, fresh juices and mango lassis.
Ibiza will be open at least five days a week, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. When it reopens later this summer, the Emersons are looking forward to moving away from the formal service style of Barceloneta in favor of an unfussy, welcoming environment.
“We’ve always been a seasonal, vegetable, farmer’s market driven restaurant, but we wanted to take it and make a hybrid of all these things that we love with something that’s very approachable, affordable and satisfying,” says Elan.
1541 B Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. eatbarceloneta.com.