For almost 50 years, the Rodriguez family has been serving up some of the city’s best Mexican food at the Hacienda. Now that the next generation of the family is taking the reigns, they wanted to open a fast-casual version of the original restaurant to serve on-the-go lunchtime guests. Same quality and some of the same dishes as Dad’s restaurant, but in an efficient Subway-style environment to get guests in-and-out quickly, with the idea to expand to multiple locations.

Our client leased a tiny 1400-sf former Quizno’s in the middle of Clayton, a spot that would provide plenty of lunchtime traffic. Working with the Rodriguez family and their branding agency, it was our job to accommodate all of the specialized kitchen equipment (a tortilla press and griddle; a high-temp “melter”), give Mayana a branded experience, and squeeze as many seats into the restaurant as possible. To streamline the entire process, SPACE designed and built the project for single-source delivery.

To keep construction costs to a minimum, we kept the kitchen, line and bathrooms in the original spots. Working around that footprint, we fit 17 seated guests with another three standing at a curved bar-height dining rail at the curved wall. Unlike other fast-casual Mexican restaurants, the Rodriguez family wanted Mayana to feature a mix of modern and traditional Mexican design. The restaurant’s signature luchador face was embedded in a high-performance graphic floor as a statement piece at the entry. Paired with traditional chairs, lantern lights and rustic wood accents, the result is a warm, modern Mexican restaurant.