Popular Eatery To Close Location In Wethersfield

WETHERSFIELD, CT — El Pollo Guapo, a popular “fast casual” rotisserie chicken restaurant, will be relocating from its Wethersfield location to Newington by the end of the month, the owners announced on Monday.

El Pollo Guapo will close its location at 1866 Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield at the end of the month and open at 1044 Main Street in Newington at the beginning of September, according to a post on its Facebook page.

The owners wrote in the post, “we just can’t contain our excitement to still be so close to our Wethersfield footprint while contributing to the amazing town of Newington!”

Newington Mayor Beth DelBuono welcomed El Pollo Guapo to town in the comments section under the Facebook post.

“This makes me SOOOO HAPPY!” DelBuono wrote. “Glad to welcome this business to our Newington community! I am a long time customer and LOVE the food, especially the brussel sprouts. So yummy!!! WELCOME TO NEWINGTON!”

A letter posted to the El Pollo Guapo website, and signed by owners Heather and Roy Riedl, gave more details on the decision to leave the Wethersfield location after five years.

“As many of our regulars know we opened this location and concept on a shoestring and a dream,” the letter reads. “We frequently joke that this restaurant location is held together by duct tape and hard work. As young business owners we were so grateful to the family of Atlas Tile that took a chance on us and trusted us to rent their space, when point blank we were fully under qualified to even financially take a risk like that. We have been so lucky to be embraced and loved by the Town of Wethersfield and all the people passing through who tried us out. Thank you!

“As many have seen and asked about- what’s next? It has been widely advertised that our building has changed hands in the past year and there will be many big, big changes to it over here. While we considered staying in this location for some time, we ultimately could not make the situation work while also being able to live through the build out and maintain normalcy for our awesome team and patrons. We have always also loved the relationships and feel we have been able to build with other local businesses in our locations as opposed to being sandwiched within huge national tenants.

“Long story short, we’re relocating! We are so lucky to have found and been accepted to rent an amazing store front in Newington Center. Our new address will be 1044 Main Street, in the old Craftbird and Wings Over location.

“We are so excited to stay close to our Wethersfield footprint and stay within a small community centered location. In addition, this move gives our business a serious glow-up! We will be in a beautiful new location, have amazing air conditioning and all new stuff. Excited for the upgrade is the understatement of the century! We sure hope you will skip on over to our new location for your favorite rotisserie chicken goodness and friendly service.

“As always we can’t thank our people enough for supporting our small business and the amazing team of professionals we have working with us. We are so excited to welcome you into our new space!”

For more information, visit the El Pollo Guapo website here and on Facebook here.