As I opened the door to the Santa Maria Tamale Shop near the corner of Betteravia and Blosser roads, I simultaneously spotted a grinning Chef Rick Manson behind the counter and smelled familiar aromas that should take longtime customers back in time.
I was transported back to “the good ol’ days” when Manson served up signatures like coconut beer shrimp, gumbo, blackened seafood, broccoli slaw, and his famous jalapeño-cheese rolls for 22 years at Chef Rick’s Ultimately Fine Foods in Orcutt.
More recently, during his year and a half as executive chef at the Far Western Tavern, Manson’s flair for “up-tempo American cooking” appeared mostly in starters and specials on the steakhouse’s menu.
His unexpected exit in January came as a surprise for most.
“I wouldn’t want to say that the Far Western Tavern stifled any creativity but … ,” Manson said, trailing off.
“It was a bridge to where I’m going,” he added, preferring to stay positive and talk about his future.
So how did Manson wind up at a tamale shop in the Santa Maria Vintners Park on South Blosser Road?
“I thought, ‘My next step, I just needed a simple kitchen—one that is inspected by the health department, to do my catering out of—to just start there,’” he said.
Manson has catered under the name Chef Rick’s Ultimately Fine Catering for decades. In recent weeks, he’s created gourmet delights for wine industry friends at Costa de Oro, Eberle, CORE, and Foxen, just to name a few clients.
Then in mid-February, he had the idea to “go public” again and prepare takeout lunches, too.
Manson printed up a menu listing more than a dozen of Chef Rick’s signature dishes, including Archie’s New Orleans-style barbequed shrimp with hot soppin’ bread ($10), New Mexican corn-crusted chicken fingers ($8), roasted garlic soup with creole croutons ($5), sweet corn chowder served over a green corn and cheese tamale ($6), Yucatan chicken, lime, and tortilla soup ($6), Dicky’s seafood and smoked sausage gumbo ($7), Cathy’s barbequed chopped chicken salad ($10), Dr. Double “E’s” grilled fish, shrimp, and scallop tacos ($12), Joe Prandini’s grilled vegetarian “hero” sandwich ($8), grilled chicken, avocado, and bacon club ($9), smoked turkey “burrito” ($9), Creole shrimp, chicken, and Andouille smoked sausage jambalaya pasta ($11), and Georgia sweet potato muffins and jalapeño-cheese rolls ($10 per dozen).
Manson’s social-media-savvy 16-year-old son, Burk, announced it on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And hungry customers came a-calling.
“The response—I was taken aback,” Manson said appreciatively.
“Everyone that comes in has an old favorite that they want me to put on [the menu.] There’s not that much room back there [in the kitchen],” he explained.
There are three tables in the small shop for customers to sit and enjoy their food, but most people take their food to go.
(And in my opinion, Chef Rick’s flavorful food tastes great whether it’s served on fine china or Styrofoam.)
If there’s one quality Chef Rick has always celebrated, it’s funkiness. And the modest warehouse space in an industrial park certainly qualifies as funky.
“It is! It’s a new definition. Isn’t that just wonderful?” Manson said sincerely. “It’s the food. I would go to a place that I knew had good food no matter where it was!”
Obviously others agree.
Longtime fan Nancy Stewart has enjoyed Chef Rick’s culinary creations for 25 years, even before he had his own restaurant.
“I love everything he makes, especially the garlic soup,” Stewart told me when I spotted her at the tamale shop in late February.
A friend told her that Manson was serving lunches, “and then I saw on his Facebook page that he was here and I said, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta go right now,’” Stewart said.
“I’m just so blessed and grateful for all those wonderful customers who have welcomed me with their enthusiasm and support, and they seem so thrilled to have Chef Rick’s food again,” Manson added. “And I’m touched! I’m humbled and ready to go!”
This might not be fancy. It’s not what he’ll do forever—Manson admits that he might do these takeout lunches for only a few more weeks, maybe more. But it feels right, right now.
“Now, I’m in a great place. I feel this is what I do. This is who I am. This is my expression to the world. These are my talents that I can more easily express,” he admitted.
“I feel this is where I should be. Where it’s leading? I’m not quite sure. But I know that it’s where I need to be,” Manson said. “I’m following a path. It’s exciting to be here and live in this moment and see where it’s going to go.”
Sun food and wine columnist Wendy Thies Sell believes spring is a perfect time for new beginnings. E-mail her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 14-21, 2013.