Banbury town centre restaurant forms collaboration with late night bar to help each other through tough pandemic times

Ilja Abbatist outside her newly reopened restaurant Taquero, a Mexican street food venue

Ilja Abbatista, who opened her restaurant Taquero earlier this week on Sunday October 11, has launched the collaboration with the town centre business Rock the Atic.

She closed her other popular eatery, Little Amsterdam, in late July after the Covid-19 lockdown and reopened it as a Mexican street food restaurant.

The restaurant, open from 12 to 9pm, will be strictly takeaways and deliveries to start with due to the ongoing social distancing guidelines for the Covid-19 pandemic. She hopes to add a dine-in service at a later date.

Staff preparing food for customers at Taquero on West Bar Street, Banbury

Ms Abbatista originally opened Little Amsterdam in 2014, and the restaurant premises underwent a complete metamorphosis to give her customers a new and authentic experience.

She added: "We use fresh authentic ingredients. It will be very very different to what we were doing before. This will be a great place for people to go before going out for the evening."

Everything is different such as how she moved the kitchen downstairs and recreated a menu that could work for a fast paced burrito and taco bar.

People can expect to find popular Mexican style food such as nachos, quesadillas, burritos and tacos. She's also looking at offering alcoholic milk shakes along with some other cocktails in the future.

Taquero has teamed up with Rock the Atic, a light night bar in Butcher's Row of town to help each during the tough pandemic times

For more information about Taquero Banbury, including how to make orders online see their website here: https://www.taquero.co.uk/Ilja has launched a business collaboration with Rock the Atic, a late night bar in Butchers Row.

She said: "We want to allow people to order their food and it there. People can order online and we can deliver it there as well.

"We're just trying to find ways to be creative and to help each other out."

Rock the Atic plans to start keeping menus for Taquero Banbury inside their late night bar.

Ryan Mold, the owner of Rock the Atic, said: "With the curfew at 10 o'clock it's hit us hard. We're trying to rethink our business model. It's just bringing people in the door, and hopefully they'll stay."

Rock the Atic is now open earlier from 5 until the 10pm curfew on Fridays and Saturdays. They used to not open on some nights until 10pm and did not close until 3am.

They are now also offering more to do at the venue such as themed quiz nights. They will host a Friends TV show themed quiz night this Friday night (October 16) from 7pm.

They also host regular comedy nights. Rock the Atic also offers a delivery service for alcohol, cigarettes and crisps until 1am.

Ryan added: "I think we fall into the cracks (for government relief) because we're not a night club or pub. I do feel like there are a lot of venues that haven't been considered in the guidelines."