Patrons of a popular Morgan Hill restaurant will have to wait a
little longer to once again enjoy the Sinaloa Cafe
’s Mexican treats and margaritas, as owner Steve Peña was forced
to halt kitchen renovations to the restaurant’s temporary location
downtown.
Patrons of a popular Morgan Hill restaurant will have to wait a little longer to once again enjoy the Sinaloa Cafe’s Mexican treats and margaritas, as owner Steve Peña was forced to halt kitchen renovations to the restaurant’s temporary location downtown.
The Peña family hopes to open the restaurant at 17535 Monterey Road in the next two months.
The renovation work at the former Maurizio’s restaurant between First Street and Main Avenue was red-tagged by the city on Oct. 23. The Peña family is leasing the property from Maurizio Cutrignelli, who is developing a new and smaller restaurant on East First Street.
According to Community Development Director David Bischoff, the Peñas did not submit an applications for permits before starting work on the kitchen.
Although other paperwork was completed for the city and the county, Steve Peña, son of the founder, Adolpho, and his widow, Mary, said Friday, the kitchen renovation plans were not.
“We got a little ahead of ourselves,” he said.
Work was already under way to enlarge the kitchen. Peña said the former Sinaloa building had two kitchens to more efficiently handle the busy periods, and he wanted to expand the one existing kitchen in the former Maurizio’s for the same reason.
Bischoff said the family did file an application for the kitchen work on Oct. 24 after discussion with the city.
Larry Ford, city chief building official, said his department has reviewed the plans and is waiting for word from Planning and Public Works departments on their reviews.
The fire department sent their comments in on Friday.
“It should only take two or three more (working) days,” Bischoff said Friday.
At that point the plans and comments will be returned to Peña and he will be responsible for making any needed changes and resubmitting them to the city.
The original Sinaloa Café, opened in 1960 by Adolpho Peña, was destroyed during an early morning fire in the kitchen on June 29, 2002. The 100-year old building that housed the original restaurant at 19210 Monterey Road at Peebles Avenue was destroyed, as well as its contents. The family managed to save a portrait of Adolpho, who died in November 1999. After his death, the café was run by his widow, Mary, and her three children, including Rosalie Peña, who was killed in a car accident in August.
Ford said the family is not working with an architect for the kitchen renovations in the temporary location but with a kitchen consultant from Manteca.
Once the corrected plans are returned to the building department, Ford said, they will be sent only to departments that had concerns. Any department that was content with the original plans would not see them again.
“We will try to turn it around quickly,” Bischoff said. If the corrections are approved by everyone, a permit will be issued and construction on the Sinaloa kitchen can continue.
“We are ready,” Peña said Friday. “We’re at the starting line waiting for them to pull the trigger.”
Morgan Hill architect Jeff King drew initial plans for a new building to replace the original building on the Monterey Road site. On Oct. 13, the Peña family requested a three-year time extension for the architectural and site plan and conditional use permit on the property.
“Unfortunately, it is taking us longer than anticipated to assemble funding for the project,” Peña said in a letter to the city planning division. “Because of this, and specifically the band requirement to show income in order to obtain favorable terms, we have decided to relocate our restaurant to an existing downtown location while we work to resolve the funding issues.”
The extension request is on the agenda for the city’s Architectural Review Board meeting Thursday.
Staff Writer Carol Holzgrafe contributed to this story.
