Business Profile: Iron Vine Tapas Bar and Restaurant, Peekskill
Photo credit: Neal Rentz
Peekskill resident Gabriel Arango opened the Iron Vine Tapas Bar and Restaurant in his city of residence in December 2014, the first eatery he has owned and operated.
But Arango’s passion for the restaurant business and restoring buildings began years before his establishment opened its doors. “I’ve helped managed a few other restaurants in Buffalo, New York in Utah (and) in New York City,” he said earlier this month.
Arango has been working in Peekskill for the past six years and moved to the city about two years ago. He said opening Iron Vine was in keeping with two of his loves.
“I wanted to do something different that could kind of combine both my passions,” he said. “I went to school for urban planning and art history. I did a concentration in historical architecture. And I had been spending a lot of time under my father (also named Gabriel Arango), who develops real estate. He works in old buildings here in the Hudson Valley and in White Plains.”
“There’s this incredible housing stock of old homes,” Arango said. He would go into the old buildings do to clean up and do general contracting work for his father’s company when he was growing up.
“We’d bring these homes back,” he recalled. “It was really rewarding seeing my father do that, seeing these old homes that had been abandoned for years and years just become fabulous again.”
While attending the University of Buffalo, Arango obtained a kitchen job, which included washing dishes and preparing foods for cooking. “My mother (Maria), was such a good cook growing up (in White Plains),” he said.
Arango helped to open three restaurants in Buffalo and then moved to Utah where he was a head chef at a ski resort.
The building that houses Iron Vine on Main Street was originally opened in 1862 as a meat market which sold roasts and deli meats and featured a hearth oven in the basement. Arango said his father has owned the building since 1970, but he did not see it for himself until 2010. “I fell in love with the building,” Arango said, noting the structure later housed a hair salon.
The restaurant features some of the brick from the meat market and the rest is recycled brick, Arango said. It took four years to transform the building into the current restaurant. During the renovation process Arango was working and also attending the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan.
Arango said he is responsible for preparing the desserts in his new eatery and he works closely with his chef, Raphael Robles, to prepare menus, which include 22 tapas and specials, which can be larger entrees. Arango said he developed his love of tapas while traveling to Spain with his family.
“I love the freedom it gave on a menu because it allowed a smaller menu without making it so limited,” he said. “I really didn’t want to have a huge kind of diner style menu.”
The tapas include many seafood choices at Iron Vine, which has 40 seats, plus a bar. “People like the option of having a couple small plates as opposed to just having one large entrée and really being able to try around the menu,” Arango said. “We really encourage people to share.”
The empanadas are a particular favorite among patrons and they have a different filling every day, Arango said.
The bar features 30 Spanish and Portuguese wines. “The bar is really the main stage here at Iron Vine,” Arango said. “We do a lot of fun culinary executions behind the bar.”
“I’m feeling pretty successful now because we’re doing something different and people are responding well,” he added. I think the next step would be to maybe expand the menu in a different direction.”
Iron Vine Tapas Bar and Restaurant is located at 992Main St. in Peekskill. For more information call 914-930-8507 or send an e-mail to ironvinepeekskill@gmail.com.
