Red Mesa files for bankruptcy, closes downtown location

A message appeared Tuesday morning on Red Mesa Cantina’s social media pages: After 16 years at the corner of 3^rd Street and 2^nd Avenue S., the popular Mexican restaurant has permanently closed.

Veytia Ventures LLC, which owns the restaurant and three others, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, listing assets of  $100,001 to $500,000, and liabilities of $1,000,001 to $10 million.

No explanation was given in the message for the abrupt closure, or the shuttering of the Red Mesa Event Spaces business, located on the upper floor of the red brick building.

“We are deeply grateful for every guest, couple, client, vendor, employee and friend who supported us throughout this journey,” the statement read. “Those these doors are closing, the memories created here will stay with us forever.”

Owned by St. Petersburg’s Veytia family, Veytia Ventures opened the Red Mesa Restaurant, on 4^th Street N., in 1995. In 2008, Red Mesa Cantina opened on 3rd Street.

In 2014, the company debuted the first Red Mesa Mercado, on 1st Avenue N. A second Mercado location opened in 2025 on Central Avenue.

The group also operated the Quatro Food Truck, in the EDGE District.

“There’s never a perfect time to open a restaurant,” manager Pete Veytia told the Catalyst in 2023. “You have to have the right opportunity in the economy, and a great amount of capital and labor – but it never works out like that. You try to check two or three boxes and when it happens, it happens.”

In 2023, Red Mesa Inc. and Veytia Ventures were forced to pay $190,000 in back wages and damages, after a US Department of Labor investigation confirmed the companies withheld wages to cover customers who skipped out on their bills, illegally charged employees for uniforms and denied some workers required minimum wage and full overtime pay.