Bringing Baja North: An Interview with the Founders of SOL Mexican Cocina

By Ed Avis

Editor’s Note: SOL Mexican Cocina was founded 10 years ago with the idea of bringing the taste of Baja north of the border. Today the restaurant has four locations: two in California, one in Scottsdale, Arizona and one in Denver. In this interview with the founders – Matt Baumayr, Rich Howland and Deborah Schneider -- we learn how they fell in love with Baja and turned that passion into a successful restaurant concept.

What gave you the idea to launch SOL?

Matt Baumayr: It started probably a dozen years ago on a lot of surf trips down the coast of Baja. I was living in San Diego at the time and nearly every other weekend Rich and I traveled down the coast and along the way fell in love with a lot of different parts of Baja, including the taco stands and the mariscos stands in the markets. And also the timelessness of Mexico, the charm, the warmth, the hospitality, the relaxed pace. So, we decided we wanted to open up a restaurant together to properly honor what we were seeing down there.

So how did that idea become SOL Mexican Cocina?

Baumayr: Rich and I had worked together for years in another restaurant, but our background was more in operations and high-energy bars. So we did a lot of research and found this incredible cookbook put together by an incredible chef, Deborah Schneider, who turned out to live in very close proximity to us. That book was “Baja Cooking on the Edge.” We saw that not only did this woman understand Baja, she understood it to a level that far surpassed ours and that there was a whole spectrum of colors that we hadn't even had a chance to see yet.

Chef Deb, do you remember meeting Rich and Matt?

Deborah Schneider: Well, I was sitting at my desk one day and I got this phone call from this very enthusiastic man, Matt, who said he found my book “Baja Cooking on the Edge.”  and would love to meet with me to talk about consulting on some of my ideas. And I was ridiculously excited at the prospect, even though I'm pretty cautious about talking to anybody about doing restaurants, having seen so many come and go. I agreed to meet them, and we just really hit it off.

What happened next?

Rich Howland: Well there still was a very big part missing, which is the financial side. Where the puzzle came together was when we approached Mike Mastro (whose family owns successful steak house concepts) and gave him a business plan. He loved the idea and believed that there was enough of a unique difference in what we were pursuing that this would be a great concept for them to get involved with. We were able to launch the first location in Newport Beach in 2009. This coming July 15th will mark 10 years!

So you launched in the middle of the Recession. How did things go at that first location?

Howland: Well, the tough economy made for some really savvy consumers. Of course, we thought it would be an immediate success, and although it opened strong, it wasn’t doing the sales we hoped for. We had to make some changes.

Such as?

Howland: In the beginning, Chef Deb did not want to a burrito on our menu. But when we opened the restaurant people were complaining there were no burritos on the menu. Eventually, Chef came around and said, "OK, if we're going to put a burrito on the menu, we're going to make it the best damn burrito we can and, we're going to blow them away with something pretty unique and special."

Chef Deb, we’ve talked about how Rich and Matt fell in love with Baja, but what about you?

Schneider: When I first came to San Diego, I met a young man that I later married who happened to surf in Mexico. So, my introduction to Mexico came through crossing the border in Tijuana and finding our way to surf spots, eating at roadside stands, cooking on the beach. And then when I started cooking in San Diego professionally, everyone in the kitchen with me was Mexican. My fellow cooks and later the people that worked for me came from all over Mexico and were very nostalgic about their food. So, the second part of my education was learning about regional Mexican cooking and realizing how distinctive each area in Mexico was. Culturally, I fell in love with the food. As opposed to being born into it, I fell in love. That's my story.

Tell us about developing the menu for SOL.

Schneider: Well, my concept was to bring what I perceived to be real Baja cuisine to the table in the United States. And to me, that means fresh, it means authentic flavors, it means an emphasis on seafood. And really, the immediacy of experience that you get from stopping at a place and having a cocktail made in front of you at a stand, or a taco made in front of you at a stand. (Click here for Schneider’s recipe for Passionfruit Créme Brulee.)

            But like we discussed with the burrito, we also had to meet some expectations. For example, people don’t eat chips and salsa in Mexico like we do here, so I said, “I don’t want to do chips and salsa.” And everyone came unglued! So I decided OK, but we’ll do it differently. We take whole corn tostadas, fry them, and dust them with two kinds of ground chiles that we toast and grind ourselves with pepitas and sea salt. We pair the whole tostadas – not chips – with a charred tomato salsa and a black bean dip. I like to think that when you're looking at our tostadas and salsa, you're looking at SOL in a nutshell. It looks different, it's not what you expected, the flavors are going to be amazing, and you have to pick up that tostada and break it. And to me that's like a commitment to the meal, you're buying in to who we are. And when I say that SOL is different you get it right from the minute the tostadas hit the table.

Do you have a signature dish?

Schneider: I would say our specialty tacos distinguished us immediately. And the one that distinguished us the most was a taco that I call “the vampiro.” Now, there are many kinds of vampiro -- our vampiro is a double corn tortilla that I fill with serrano chili, cheese, and green onions. We toast it until it's sort of half crunchy, and then it gets guacamole, carne asada, chipotle salsa, cotija cheese and cilantro. It’s a winner.

What else has contributed to SOL’s success?

Baumayr: I think a key element of our success has been the feeling that "Hey, we're going to do it and we're going to do it right. We're going to make people feel as if they are in Mexico." This means the fantastic menu Deb has developed, the drink program from our director of beverage, Colin Pflugradt, and the beautiful build-out. We want our customers to enjoy the same spirit of Mexico that inspired this plan.

What does the future hold?

Baumayr: We've never been under pressure to open a certain amount of stores too fast. We want to find the right locations, find the right neighborhoods that we want to be in, and continue to evolve our brand as the cuisine evolves, as the neighborhoods evolve. That's been a lot of fun.

Schneider: I would really like to drill even deeper conceptually. Now there's enough “modern Mexican” that people are comfortable with it. I think we can push the boundaries -- that's my culinary goal.