When Cantina opened on Elliewood Avenue on Friday, July 17, owner Elizabeth Manatad still had paint on her arms. She’d been spending the previous two weeks since acquiring Martha’s Café from its most recent owners, Mike and Carrie Payne, giving the old blue house a face more fitting of its subtitle: “Taqueria & Watering Hole.” She has plans for still more updates—repairs to the brick patio in the near term; a more service-friendly redesign of Martha’s inverted L-shaped bar in the longer term, but with mere hours to spare, the initial refreshening work was done, much of it with her own stained hands: “A few customers asked me when we’d finished, and I said, ‘This morning!’” says Manatad.
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Elizabeth Manatad brings West Coast taqueria inspiration to Cantina, which she’s opened on Elliewood Avenue in the former home of Martha’s Cafe. |
A veteran of the local restaurant industry, the Hawaiian-born Manatad, former general manager of Bel Rio, says Cantina was inspired in style and menu by her favorite west coast taquerias, including Blue Water Taco in Seattle, which is best known and loved (by Restaurantarama, anyway) for its fish tacos. Cantina serves regular specials of those (on the day of Restaurantarama’s visit, it was mahi-mahi), as well as a regular line-up of made-to-order tacos, burritos, fajita wraps and salads in a choice of chicken, vegetable, tuna, mako shark, chipotle steak or shrimp.
With its fun and funky paint, goldfish in the bathroom (a legacy of Martha’s) and indoor-outdoor seating (with a capacity for 40-50, the patio actually seats more than the indoor dining rooms), Cantina gives off a laid-back vibe most identified with West Coach beach shacks. But a month ago, life was a bit more stressful. That was when Manatad was told by the Health Department that she’d have to bring the old place up to code.
“Martha’s had been around for, like, 30 years so it was grandfathered out of a lot of stuff.”
But the bureaucrats told Manatad that by giving the place a new name and concept, she’d have to get the old place up to snuff.
“I guess I have to call a plumber!” she tells us she said to herself (although, we speculate she must have uttered a few obscenities as well). In any case, she turned the place around quickly, and it’s already been hopping with music on the patio several nights a week. Christian Breeden played on opening night to a packed house.
Cantina is open for lunch and dinner until 2am Monday-Thursday and until 4am (for the post-bar hopping crowd) Fridays and Saturdays. Brunch is offered on Sundays.
From "crazy dog" to Chevy coup
Back in January, we told you that Brian Helleberg had put Il Cane Pazzo—his Italian-inspired spot in the old L’Avventura digs next to Vinegar Hill Theater—up for sale.
“I’m investigating whether someone might want to buy it,” he told Restaurantarama then, “but so far there hasn’t been the right fit. I may hold onto it and make some changes myself.”
Well, the right fit seems to have come along, and Helleberg has turned over the keys to new owners, who are reopening as El Camino. We’ll tell you more about that later. In the meantime, Helleberg is concentrating on his two Downtown Mall establishments, Fleurie and Petit Pois. The former is enjoying is first full summer season with a patio tables and the latter has expanded its hours to include Saturday lunch and Sunday brunch (e.g., poached Polyface eggs and sausages), which Helleberg prepares himself.
