MEMPHIS AT THE SANTORA

Impressed with the success and community impact of the original Memphis Café in Costa Mesa, the City of Santa Ana approached The Memphis Group in 2000 to open a location in the creative heart of Santa Ana’s historic downtown. As part of a redevelopment project in the Artists Village district, the city asked The Memphis Group to adapt a portion of the once-legendary Santora Building into a restaurant by adding its signature, revitalizing touch.

 Opened in 2002, Memphis at the Santora blends traditional Southern and contemporary American classics into flavorful renditions of American comfort food. With a larger kitchen than its sister. Memphis Café in Costa Mesa, the restaurant’s menu covers a wider range of Southern specialties, including buttermilk fried chicken, and a garlic-marinated and grilled center-cut pork chop. drizzled with a balsamic dried-cherry reduction

 On the registrar of historic landmarks and perhaps the most beautiful edifice in downtown Santa Ana, the 1929 Santora Building is done in a rare Spanish Colonial revival style known as Cherrigueresque. With its elegant gated lobby entrance, terrazzo floors and grand double staircase, the building represented the height of luxury and was home to retail shops on the ground floor with a speakeasy/jazz club on the basement level. Its most well known tenant, Danigers Tea Room, was an under the radar hot spot for Hollywood movie stars in the 1920s and ‘30s.

 The Memphis at the Santora interior was designed by the award-winning San Francisco-based architectural firm (ZACK/ de VITO ARCHITECTURE). Experienced in tenant improvements within historic structures, (ZACK/ de VITO ARCHITECTURE) was able to merge modern and classical aesthetics, while preserving the historical integrity of this adaptive reuse project. The restaurant’s interior has a sophisticated, metropolitan, yet approachable charm similar to the many eclectic restaurants sprinkled throughout San Francisco’s neighborhood enclaves. Historic elements include a reclaimed turn of last century wood floor, arched iron clad windows, and original terrazzo entryways, which merge beautifully with more modern elements, such as exposed duct work, a colorful palette of orange, rust and olive, globe lights and super graphic interior pop art lettering.

Patrons can enjoy alfresco dining on a 35-seat patio, along with an up-close view of downtown Santa Ana’s revitalized energy, stores, restaurants, bars, arts and culture.