Another sad loss for Toronto's restaurant industry -- Maiz, a popular Latin restaurant with locations around the city, has announced the permanent closure of their Queen location less than two years after opening.
The unfortunate announcement about the closure of Maiz Arepa Bar at 490 Queen St. was made on May 2 on their Instagram account.
"During this pandemic, we chose not to increase our prices and keep our quality as always," they said in their post, "but unfortunately, our restaurant has not been approved for many of the government support and it's almost impossible to keep running it out of our pocket with all the current restrictions."
The Queen location, which used to be home to Arepa Cafe, opened its doors back in June 2019. This was the fourth local for Maiz, which quickly expanded during the last four years.
Back on April 3, Fernando Sequeda, owner and chef of Maiz, shared on Instagram his discontent on the lack of support provided by the government during the pandemic. In the post, Sequeda shared that Maiz was denied a grant and that their Roncevalles local didn't receive approval for CaféTO.
Despite the bad news, they will continue operating in their two other Maiz locations at 3230 Yonge St. and 2901 Dundas St. W, and Raza at 403 Roncesvalles Ave.
