The Essex Junction location of El Gato Cantina is back. Four months after it closed to move to South Burlington, the biz has reopened at 4 Park Street — albeit in a slimmed-down form.
Owner Javier Zirko told Seven Days that he had signed a lease on the former Silver Palace location on Williston Road, but “contractors and inspectors kept finding issues with the building structure and systems.” South Burlington’s fire marshal informed Zirko that the building — which has been vacant since the long-running pan-Asian restaurant closed in 2022 — would require major repairs to operate legally.
“After receiving no response from the landlord, we decided to pull out of the deal,” Zirko said. While he’s still looking at other South Burlington options, he reopened in Essex Junction “due to funds lost during the attempted move and the general economic pressures on local businesses,” he said.
The restaurant’s new concept, El Bar, offers limited dining service. The “sports cantina” has a full bar, pool table, darts and other bar games. Regular events include comedy shows, open mic nights, DJ sets, drag shows and karaoke, Zirko said. A smaller staff serves a simplified menu, including new items such as tamales and chiles rellenos.
Plans for the former Lincoln Inn building to be torn down prompted El Gato’s initial end-of-May closure. Zirko said there’s still no timeline for its demolition, but he expects to receive 90 days’ notice.
Zirko also operates the El Gato Cantina Food Truck and two brick-and-mortar locations in Jeffersonville: a year-round restaurant and bar at 208 Main Street and a seasonal spot in the FunZone 2.0 building at Smugglers’ Notch, which will reopen for ski season in mid-December.
The original print version of this article was headlined “El Gato Cantina Reopens as El Bar in Essex Junction”
This article appears in The Tech Issue • 2026.
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