Iberia (six pix)

On my way home from work last nite I ventured into the Ironbound by staying on Jackson Street after the Jackson Street bridge from Harrison instead of turning right on Raymond Boulevard, then turned right on Ferry Street instead. Ferry Street has actual secondary street signs for "Portugal Avenue" at that point because of the large Portuguese-speaking community concentrated in the Ironbound, the largest outside Lusophone (Portuguese speaking) countries. In addition to Portugal-Portuguese, there are also people of Portuguese extraction and non-ancestrally Portuguese Brazilians in this part of Newark too. In time, we might expect them to move outward to other parts of the city. But for now, the Lusophone community remains an Ironbound community.
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Oddly, tho New York has its "Little Brazil" around West 46th Street, Newark's Lusophone community is apparently not known as "Little Portugal", "Little Lisbon", "Portugal Town", or anything like that, but is just a nameless part of the Ironbound. (By contrast, there are "Little Portugals" in Toronto, Ontario; San Jose, California; and Sydney, Australia.)
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There are lots of Portuguese businesses in the Ironbound, including Teixeira's Bakery, coffee shops, and some upscale restaurants. Perhaps the most famous of the restaurants is Iberia Peninsula Restaurant & Bar, which serves both Portuguese and Spanish food.

Tho the large lettering across the top suggests "bar" and "restaurant" are reversed, the round part of the sign on the left (not legible here) shows the name as "restaurant and bar". There are apparently two Iberia restaurants, one called simply Iberia (Tavern and Restaurant) at 80-84 Ferry Street, and Iberia Peninsula, at 63-69 Ferry Street. They share a website and a parking lot. Here's a closer view of the large, arched window of the Peninsula on the Ferry Street side.

(The grammar of the sign seems wrong: "comunidades" should take "todas".)
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I didn't realize there was a second restaurant, so don't have fotos of that but will look for it sometime.
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From the outside, the most remarkable thing about the Iberia restaurants is not the restaurants themselves but the main parking lot, diagonally across from the Peninsula, with its lites and designs against a simulated castle with crenelated battlements. It has an almost magical feel to it. Here's a view from the unremarkable second Iberia parking lot, directly opposite.

This second view from near the first gives some feel of the liveliness of the nitelife in the area.

Here's a closeup of the designs in lite on the building beyond. Some chunks are missing, including the face that should be below the chef's hat at center top. Compare the figure at center top of the Peninsula in the first foto above. The lettering between the U.S. and Portuguese flags below is supposed to say "Welcome to Iberia's". They should fix that.

And here's a view of the arch you drive thru to enter the lot.

I guess the Tavern is alongside that to the right. Oddly, I actually spoke briefly to a guy who worked in the parking lot and asked if the crenelated building beyond is where the restaurant is. He said no. I pointed to the Peninsula and asked if that was the restaurant, and he said yes. He said nothing about there being two. Hm.