As Kellie Morgan’s newest business venture — Morgan’s on Main — gains speed, the YoloEats owner will be making some changes at her very first restaurant.
Opening in 2011, Maria’s Cantina provides Woodlandlers with “typical Mexican cuisine with a little twist,” according to Morgan.
However, this menu is set to transform sometime in March.
“We are just trying to freshen it up a little bit,” Morgan said, noting more vegetarian and seafood options will soon be added. “We are far enough along now that we are able to launch it.”
Before Maria’s opened, the building — located at 306 Sixth St. — has seen its share of changes, from a church long ago to a different Mexican restaurant more recently.
When Morgan and her husband, Jeff, purchased the property, it took some time to decide what it would become.
“We were not sure what we were going to do with it,” Morgan said.
However, this state of limbo did not last long.
When the husband-and-wife team took the reins, they felt a Mexican restaurant was a good fit, although Maria’s menu would deviate a little from the norm.
“We wanted to bring a very fresh, in-house made menu to Woodland,” Morgan said. “We pride ourselves on everything and our chefs get to use their expertise to bring fun specials to the restaurant.”
The current menu includes classics such as fajitas, chile relleno, nachos and burritos as well as seared salmon salad, smokey chipotle quesadillas and other items.
A Woodland native and driller by trade, Jeff’s vision for the look of the restaurant came from a cinematic source — the 1966 Clint Eastwood film, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
“There is a scene in that movie where Clint Eastwood sits down in an adobe house, eating a plate of beans, a tortilla and a shot of whisky,” Morgan explained.
It was this image that inspired Maria’s decor and atmosphere, which models the feel of an aged Sonoran village home, complete with hand-carved furniture and wrought iron fixtures, Morgan added.
The name, however, came from an ongoing joke between the couple.
Being a Woodland resident for more than 30 years — Morgan always says she “married in” — Morgan has been mistaken for someone named Maria since she first moved to the area.
“It has gotten to the point where people are yelling off of street corners, shouting ‘Maria!’,” Morgan explained. “I must have a familiar face.”
As these cases of mistaken identity continued, Morgan and Jeff decided to name the restaurant Maria’s Cantina.
“We wanted to bring something different to town,” Morgan said. “We love this little restaurant and the purpose was never to take away from the old stables, but to add to our town.”
Now entering its fifth year, Morgan decided it was time to shake things up by adding to their menu.
Tasked with making these changes, Head Chef Billy Jeffries said it is his job to create a collection of new dishes.
“It’s pretty much all up to me,” Jeffries said. “We are not trying to reinvent the menu, we are trying to bring specialty items to the menu that are unique to us.”
A Davis resident, Jeffries has worked in the kitchen at Maria’s since its opening, starting out working in the pantry and doing prep work. He continued to get promotion after promotion, working his way up to the head chef post.
“This is the first restaurant job I’ve ever had,” Jeffries said, noting he was professionally trained, not classically trained through a culinary arts program.
As it stands now, Jeffries said a plate of two tacos is by far the most popular menu item.
“I think this is because we have really great selections and a plate of two tacos is a really low commitment,” he said.
Taco Tuesday specials provide an extra incentive for customers to order a pair of “Woodland Tacos.”
Before anything is added to the menu, it comes to customers as a special, to get an idea of its popularity.
But even before a special is placed on a plate, Jeffries, Morgan and other YoloEats officials have to taste it themselves.
“It’s going to be a big, big change,” Jeffries emphasized, noting a big shift to seafood selections.
This menu-testing phase is going to take place throughout the month, before anything is set in stone, or typed onto the Maria’s menu.
Even though he has been working at Maria’s for years, Jeffries admits he could not run the kitchen alone.
“I couldn’t do all that I do without the support of my sous chef and the crew,” he said. “It really takes all of us.”
One more recent example of this happened during the Woodland Tomato Festival where Jeffries and his “partner in crime” Jake Orzalli, a fellow Maria’s chef, showed off their culinary skills last August.
One of their items during the Top Tomato Chef competition was tomato ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, giving those who ate the treat what Orzalli called the “dragon breath effect.”
Although Maria’s took home third place in last year’s event, in year’s past — 2014 specifically — Maria’s won the competition, taking home first prize. Maria’s also won the festival’s Best Salsa at in 2013 and 2014.
Contact Sarah Dowling at 530-406-6231.
