The name comes from manager and head cook Marisol. Plans to renovate the upstairs, possibly for apartments.
By Amanda Eike, Storm Late Times Pilot
Mar y Sol is Storm Lake’s latest restaurant, at the corner of Lake Avenue and West Railroad Street, formerly Ying’s Kitchen. After a soft opening on Sunday, June 29 with nearly 100 people in attendance, the new owners plan to start slow with a limited menu and minimal staff, and expand over time.
The name “Mar y Sol,” which means “sea and sun” in Spanish, is a play on the name of manager and head cook, Marisol, whose lifelong dream has been to open a restaurant. Before this, she worked as a medical provider for Hope Haven.
“I’m very happy to see my dream come true,” said Marisol, dancing out of the kitchen to the overhead music. She credits her friends and family with helping her dream become a reality.
Marisol’s son Omar Visairo—a production engineer at a major oil company in Carlsbad, New Mexico—is the official owner of the building, splitting his time between Carlsbad and Storm Lake to oversee the restaurant’s startup. Visairo’s sisters, Maria Cedillo and Lupita Delacruz (of Alta and Aurelia) help with the restaurant’s operations. This is the family’s first small business venture.
Marisol’s family originally hails from Oaxaca, Mexico—which makes their menu stand out from other local Mexican restaurants. Based in the indigenous culture of southern Mexico, Mar y Sol’s recipes have a uniquely southern flare, “less Americanized” as Visairo describes.
He hopes the community will sense his mother’s passion for cooking in her attention to detail and the flavor variations she adds to traditional meals like mole, pozole, picaditas, and tinga—a chicken based dish in red sauce served on a tostada. Marisol also makes her own tortilla chips.
The staff will continue to rotate their featured dishes as they receive feedback from their patrons about their favorite menu items.
To prepare for their opening, they deep-cleaned the restaurant and re-painted the dark green walls light blue and white, with gold trim, and brought in plants to open up the space. They also took down the boats that hung from the ceiling since the Boathouse days. “I almost died,” laughed Aaron Lizardo, Cedillo’s partner, who helped remove them.
They still have work to do on the outside of the building, with plans to renovate the upstairs, possibly for apartments. Once they establish their footing with the restaurant, Marisol hopes to host karaoke and Lotería—a traditional Mexican game similar to bingo.
“Everybody is welcome here,” said Marisol.
As they work out their official hours of business, they’ll be open most days 10 a.m. – 8 p.m, with later hours on Fridays and Saturdays. Mar y Sol is closed on Tuesdays.
See the full gallery of pictures below!
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