Adiós to a campus favorite

Mark Alden Branch ’86

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Slices at Naples and burgers at the Yankee Doodle have been warmly eulogized in these pages. Now we must say goodbye to another campus spot, perhaps less celebrated but still dearly loved. Viva Zapata, the Park Street Mexican restaurant that served countless trays of nachos and pitchers of sangria to Yalies, closed in November after 46 years. When we asked alums on social media what they remembered about the place, the answers were both wry and sentimental. “Ha ha. No one remembers anything about their time at Viva’s!” replied Claire Kosloff ’01. Doug Hausladen ’04 replied: “I lived above there for six years. The sidewalk out front was a place for all of New Haven to mix (with all the joys and foibles that brings).” For Elizabeth Pitts ’86, it was “pitchers of iconic sangria with besties, then a walk home in the frigid snow that didn’t matter anymore.”