Se?ora Arepa moves Venezuelan-style restaurant to new, larger location. Where to find it

The 15-foot bull covered in faux grass hovering over a brightly decorated patio should be just enough to catch your attention.

That’s what Se?ora Arepa was going for with its new location in St. Matthews, which opened on Aug. 22 and replaced the eatery's former spot behind La Bodeguita De Mima in NuLu.

The Venezuelan restaurant, one of several concepts from the Olé Restaurant Group, opened in 2021 at 721 E. Market. As the eatery was located behind Olé’s La Bodeguita, and the two restaurants shared a patio, Senora Arepa’s entrance turned out to be less visible to street traffic, said the group’s co-owner Rick Moir.

“You’d really need to know where you were looking for,” he said. “It was kind of off the beaten path.”

Even so, patrons found it. Se?ora Arepa, which serves a variety of Venezuelan fare from arepas, cornmeal cakes, to cachapas, Venezuelan corn pancakes, proved “very, very busy,” Moir said.

“For being kind of hidden, it was doing well,” he said. “We wanted the restaurant to have its own identity.”

Over the last year and a half, Moir and his business partners discussed a move from the original location in NuLu to somewhere that would offer more space for Senora Arepa to grow. They landed on 117 St. Matthews Ave., the former site of Quills Coffee and Steel City Pops. The NuLu location closed in early August.

The new space offers more seating, space for live music on weekends, and a patio with a capacity of about 60 people. Plus, both the indoor and outdoor spaces, connected by garage doors, are full of colorful decor, plants and neon signs.

“It’s really bright, upbeat and vibrant. It feels like you’re going out of town,” Moir said. “We want people to totally kick back and pretend they’re on the beach somewhere.”

Another change for the new location? Instead of ordering at the counter, restaurant-goers will get table service, which will allow more discussion about the variety of menu items, said Moir.

“We’re really excited about the move,” he said. “And everyone seems to be really enjoying it.”

People also seem to be enjoying the sight of the decorative bull, which Moir said has already made a splash on social media.

“Since day one, people have stopped and taken photos with it,” he said. “Everybody who sees it wants a photo with it.”

Reach food and dining reporter Amanda Hancock at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Se?ora Arepa Venezuelan restaurant moves from NuLu to St. Matthews