Las Cazuelas closes (updated)

Update on February 17: Miguel Quezada, one of the owners of Las Cazuelas, said that the restaurant’s closure is only temporary. He is not sure yet when it will reopen.

Las Cazuelas restaurant has closed after less than a year in business.

The restaurant, located in the Mount Zephyr area at 8368 Richmond Highway (see map), has been closed since at least last week. It had opened in February 2019.

Attempts to reach a person affiliated with Las Cazuelas were unsuccessful as of publication.

While it’s unclear exactly why Las Cazuelas closed, the Richmond Highway widening project was likely to force it to close in the near future. Per maps on the VDOT website, the restaurant sits right in the path of the widening project, which will add a third lane to each side of the roadway as well as dedicated bike lanes and a pedestrian sidewalk.

The entire Las Cazuelas property is projected to be acquired by VDOT during the project’s right-of-way acquisition process, which is scheduled to begin in mid-2020. The building will need to be demolished to make room for the new road configuration.

Fairfax County property records also show that the property went through a private sale last year prior. An LLC named J S1 purchased the property for $860,000 in July from Luigi Tonizzo, who was the longtime owner of Mike’s Italian Restaurant, which operated on the site until 2011.