(Victoria Aspen) The view from Xetava Tapas+Bar in Ivins. The bar is the primary tapas-dedicated institution in southwest Utah.

Ivins • Because the solar units and the temperatures drop at Kayenta Artwork Village, the exercise at this small resort neighborhood, 11 miles west of St. George, begins heating up.

Regardless of the mercury hovering close to the century mark, a stream of automobiles flows to the world’s latest watering gap and culinary hotspot simply off Freeway 91. Welcome to Xetava Tapas+Bar, southwest Utah’s first tapa bar, which opened earlier this month and has been stuffed to capability ever since.

Watching the purchasers pour by the doorways is a heady expertise for house owners Greg and Rachel Federman, very similar to the draft beers they serve on faucet. It’s particularly gratifying, they stated, as a result of they began within the restaurant enterprise from the bottom up and make just about every little thing on the menu — sans the alcohol — from scratch.

As patrons of the bar inform it, the foods and drinks are top-notch.

“That is rattling good,” stated Los Angeles resident Cory Michaels, who opted to strive the bar whereas visiting mates in Santa Clara. “The meals and workers listed below are on par with the most effective tapa bars I’ve been to in Las Vegas or California.”

The ambiance isn’t unhealthy, both. The Crimson Cliffs, seen by the bar’s home windows, are beautiful. The teddy bear cholla cactus, Joshua bushes and different flora within the close by arboretum animate guests. And the fauna, as Bob and Lisa Glines just lately famous over tapas and cocktails, isn’t unhealthy both.

“We’re sitting right here searching the window and watching a roadrunner eat a lizard,” Lisa stated. “We completely love the desert.”

What’s extra, the workers are already on a first-name foundation with lots of the clients, who’re additionally regulars on the Federmans’ adjoining restaurant, the Xetava Cafe. Hell, Greg Federman famous, many patrons even have names for the roadrunners and crows wandering outdoors the bar and thru the village.

(Greg Federman) Greg and Rachel Federman, house owners of Xetava Tapas+Bar in Ivins.

Large Apple to culinary desert oasis

Whereas Kayenta isn’t distant sufficient to really feel like the top of the earth, it initially appeared that strategy to Federman, who at one time was making a residing in Manhattan as knowledgeable photographer.

“After which 9/11 occurred,” Federman stated. “Town was so unhappy that I simply couldn’t perform.”

To flee the heartache, Federman moved to California, however couldn’t image doing business pictures centered on swimwear. After a brief stint as a fireman in New Mexico, Federman moved to St. George in 2004 and began finding out to develop into a paramedic, which shortly misplaced its attraction.

One prospect, although, was extra alluring. Federman started frequenting the Jazzy Java, a small St. George espresso store on Bluff Avenue, every Sunday.

“I wasn’t spiritual, and the focus of non secular folks within the space was excessive,” he recalled, “so I assumed my finest likelihood of assembly somebody … was going to a espresso store on Sundays — and that’s the place I met Rachel.”

The couple married seven years later and have been an merchandise ever since.

Final beer rites and rattlesnakes

In 2006, Greg and Rachel purchased a New Age present store that doubled as a espresso store from Daniel Pettegrew. The couple saved the pueblo-styled retailer’s kiva design, carved doorways and cupboards, and big stone centerpiece, however bought every little thing else and gutted and renovated the place.

After they opened what they dubbed Xetava Cafe, they began out with two toaster ovens, a small waffle maker, an outside grill and one part-time worker. Whereas Federman had expertise managing a restaurant, he had by no means owned one — and the training curve was steep. It took 5 years for the restaurant to show a revenue.

“We had been basically broke,” Federman stated. “Rachel and I had been residing on 20 grand a yr … However we had been working a lot, we didn’t notice how loopy it was to do what we had been attempting to do.”

As cash-strapped as they had been, the pair made a superb staff. Greg was the large image man, whereas Rachel was extra centered on day-to-day issues and ensuring the service and meals they provided had been constantly prime quality.

By plowing what little revenue they made again into the restaurant, they had been in a position to develop. Quickly, they obtained a beer and wine license, simply in time to satisfy an aged Kayenta resident’s final request.

“He stated, ‘Earlier than my dying day, I need to get a beer on this place,’” Federman stated. “We had been in a position to make that occur. His final breaths had been loved having a beer along with his mates in our restaurant. He then stepped outdoors, fell over and died.”

(Victoria Aspen) Xetava Tapas+Bar in Ivins.

Fortuitously, nobody consuming at Xetava has paid the last word worth, though a snake got here out of a eating room vent on one event and, one other time, a rattlesnake dropped from an umbrella onto a desk, sending diners scrambling.

In 2011, thanks partly to a fundraiser that netted $30,000 from space artists and shoppers, the Federmans had been in a position to construct a kitchen and add a eating room with a wood flooring. Within the ensuing years, the trickle of consumers grew right into a torrent and the menu selections and workers grew to accommodate them.

COVID and the ‘Nice Resignation’

In 2019, the Federmans made preparations to buy the constructing subsequent to their restaurant from developer Terry Martin for about $1.5 million. Alas, the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier than they may get began on getting the tapa bar up and working. It was tough sufficient to maintain their current restaurant open.

Throughout the spring of 2020, Xetava Cafe was pressured to close down for seven weeks. To assist struggling restaurant employees, Greg and Rachel launched a fundraiser that took in additional than $28,000. When the cafe lastly reopened, a person Federman talked to that day known as later to say he examined constructive for COVID. Federman quarantined within the household storage till he acquired the all-clear from well being officers.

Additional exacerbating issues, in the course of the ensuing labor disaster generally known as “The Nice Resignation,” many workers had been afraid to return again to work. The restaurant went down to 3 kitchen workers in 2021, inflicting the couple to contemplate closing the restaurant.

“We obtained to the purpose the place Rachel instructed me, ‘If you wish to shut, don’t do it. Let’s construct this again up, and in the event you nonetheless really feel that manner when [the restaurant] goes properly once more, then you possibly can shut it.’ ”

Finally, with everybody — together with the house owners — taking turns cooking and doing the opposite chores, the disaster eased. At this time, in line with chef Ben Dinsmore, there are about 30 staffers who divide their time between the Xetava Cafe and Xetava Tapas+ Bar, and enterprise is brisk and getting busier.

Retaining it contemporary

To attract clients to the tapas bar, Greg and Rachel have included a contemporary, eclectic inside design they name “Industrial Zen,” which contains metal, rock and different components with aged lighting, softer materials and an assortment of paraphernalia — together with vintage cameras on cabinets and stools with bicycle pedals that act as perches for the patrons’ ft.

It’s the meals and sense of camaraderie, although, that the Federmans hope will hold clients coming again. The bar has its personal separate menu and entrance. Just like the older adjoining cafe, every little thing on the menu is made contemporary and domestically sourced when attainable. Seafood is flown in inside 48 hours of being pulled from the water. And Rachel, an avid gardener, incorporates sage and native homegrown components in making tinctures and syrups for the cocktails.

(Victoria Aspen) A group of meals at Xetava Tapas+Bar in Ivins.

As for the menu, it’s made up of recipes dreamed up by everybody on the restaurant, together with clients. At present, a number of the extra well-liked choices embrace indignant mussels, Thai nachos and avenue corn quesadillas. There’s additionally a charcuterie board, consisting of cured meats and craft cheeses, with candied walnuts, selfmade berry jam, contemporary berries, honeycomb and crostini.

In addition to cocktails and draft beers, the bar carries Utah craft beers and an assortment of high-quality wines. One other — this one nonalcoholic — is Royden Lemonade. Named after artist Royden Card, the lemonade is a refreshing mixture of ice, vanilla, coconut and mint and has attracted legions of followers and rave evaluations on Tripadvisor.

Xetava Tapas+Bar doesn’t skimp on desserts, both. Most of the selfmade truffles, pies and different confections come courtesy of Denise Terensinki, whose husband, Jorma, co-manages the restaurant.

Nonetheless, Dinsmore stated, one of the integral components for the bar’s recipe for fulfillment is the Federmans.

“Greg and Rachel are superb house owners,” he stated. “They’re the correct amount of hands-on and hands-off — there while you want them and never while you don’t. And it’s enjoyable to have the ability to sit down with them for roundtable discussions to create our menu, as a substitute of all of the meals gadgets being on me.”

For Ivins retirees Rod and Susan Hardin, the good meals, attentive service and laid-back ambiance hold them coming again and bringing their mates with them.

“At this level in our lives, life is about relationships and experiences,” Susan stated. “We love not having to drive to St. George for a median meal. We’d somewhat come right here, have an expertise and an awesome meal.”