The acclaimed Condado fine-dining restaurant and its adjoining Marabar lounge will close after September 5 and reopen September 29, giving the culinary team a scheduled break before returning for the fall season.
One of Condado’s best-known restaurants is preparing for a temporary September closure.
1919 Restaurant at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel will close beginning September 6 and reopen September 29, according to the restaurant’s official website. Marabar by 1919, the hotel’s champagne, caviar and small-plates lounge connected to the restaurant, will close for the same period.
The hotel describes the shutdown as a scheduled break for the restaurant team rather than a renovation or permanent closure. With 1919 normally open Tuesday through Saturday, its final dinner service before the break will be Saturday, September 5, followed by a little more than three weeks off before service resumes Tuesday, September 29.
The temporary closure does not extend to the Condado Vanderbilt as a whole. The hotel continues to advertise September programming at several of its other food and beverage venues, including Ola Oceanfront Bistro, STK and Tacos & Tequila.
The break comes during a period of change at 1919, which entered a new culinary chapter late last year with the appointment of Ciarán Elliott as executive chef. Elliott took over the kitchen after a career that included several prominent Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and New York before he relocated to Puerto Rico in 2020.
Born in York and raised in Dublin, Elliott began his career at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in Ireland and later worked at Arzak, Akelarre, Frantzén, Hertog Jan and Chapter One. He joined Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York in 2015 and eventually became a sous chef before moving to Puerto Rico, where he co-founded the Old San Juan wine bar and chef’s counter Pio Pio.
Since assuming leadership at 1919, Elliott has been reshaping the restaurant’s fine-dining format while maintaining its emphasis on Puerto Rican ingredients and seasonality. Earlier this year, 1919 expanded its à la carte options alongside its traditional tasting-menu experience, giving diners more flexibility in how they approach the restaurant.
The restaurant also received Wine Spectator’s Best of Award of Excellence in 2025 for its wine program.
Named for the year the Condado Vanderbilt originally opened, 1919 remains the hotel’s signature fine-dining restaurant at 1055 Ashford Avenue. Its current regular hours are 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Marabar, located within 1919, offers small plates along with cocktails, wines, champagne and caviar in a more relaxed setting overlooking the Atlantic. It normally operates Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
For diners hoping to visit before the September break, reservations remain available through the restaurant’s final week of service. The restaurant’s standing Early Indulgence offer — two complimentary glasses of wine paired with chef-selected canapés between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., with the purchase of an entrée per person — remains available Tuesday through Saturday through that final week.
Both 1919 and Marabar are scheduled to return September 29.
Related coverage: Condado Daily continues to follow restaurant openings, closings, chef changes and other dining developments along Ashford Avenue and throughout Condado.
Sources: Condado Vanderbilt Hotel, PRWeb, Metro Puerto Rico
