Construction is currently underway on an Irma’s Tacos, Craft Beer & Tequila Bar located at 3080 Fruitville Commons Blvd in Sarasota, with plans to open late spring, early summer, 2023 according to Tommy Villani, managing partner of Irma’s parent company, OTW Restaurant Group.
“We’re really excited to open our second location,” Villani tells What Now Tampa. “This will be our first restaurant in Sarasota, with everything else right now kind of in Venice. So we’re really looking forward to bringing what we feel like is a very fun concept to an area that strongly embraces this type of restaurant/venue.”
Since opening its flagship location in Venice in 2020, Irma’s has earned a stellar reputation for its kitchen helmed by Executive Chef Mike Leopold – who also oversees OTW’s namesake brewpub, Off the Wagon – as well its extensive list of more than 100 tequilas and mezcals.
Villani describes it as a “kind of upscale but casual environment with craft beer and, what we call, craft tacos – a chef-driven menu, made fresh daily, with no frozen products.”
That menu features a whopping 35 tacos split into five groups, including Old World Tacos, Tex-Mex Tacos, Seafood Tacos, Specialty Tacos, and Vegan Tacos, all of which can also be served bowl-style.
Despite how well Irma’s has done in Venice’s Wellen Park neighborhood, Villani thinks it could do even better in Fruitville, given that the area is “developing quickly…with a whole bunch of new communities popping up,” and that “there’s definitely a need for restaurants and drinking establishments in the area.”
As such, Villani says the team is “really excited to become a part of the community and show people a new type of experience.”
The origins of Irma’s Tacos, Craft Beer & Tequila Bar dates back to 2017, when Hurricane Irma tore through the area, drastically diminishing Off the Wagon’s ability to operate at full capacity. In fact, all the restaurant could serve was tacos.
Nevertheless, that fateful turn of events solidified the future of the taco brand, with Villani telling the Herald-Tribune in a 2020 interview, “I think we served about 500 people that day. We were slammed — every seat in the dining room, every seat in the bar was full. That was something that really propelled Off the Wagon and helped us within the community as far as our reputation.”
