The married team of Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz, who opened the hit Mediterranean spot Dalida in the Presidio in 2023, have now revealed details about their second project, which we first learned about earlier in the year.
The new restaurant in the former Ella's American Kitchen space in Presidio Heights will, as we surmised from a liquor license transfer in April, be called Maria Isabel — and these are the names of Laura Ozyilmaz's chef sister (Maria), and her mother (Isabel). And we correctly guessed in April that this second restaurant will focus on Laura's Mexican heritage, after the couple's first efforts, both at Dalida and before that Noosh, focused on the Turkish roots of husband Sayat.
Maria Isabel's menu will be all about "bridging the Pacific coast of Mexico with that of California," according to a release, and it will also be about bridging the two ends of the Mexican west coast, where Laura's parents each hail from. She was born in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, home to Acapulco, which is known for its seafood and tropical flavors and it's where her mother's side of the family is from, while her father is from Sinaloa, which is known both for seafood dishes like aguachile, and for rich pork dishes.
Laura's father’s rootswill bring meat dishes to the menu like machaca and chilorio — a dish of slow-braised, pulled pork that is then fried in an aromatic red chili sauce.
The chef says she also wants to highlight some of the less commonly seen dishes from Guerrero that she grew up eating, like pulpo enamorado — a mayonnaise-based octopus salad — and the sweet corn-stuffed tamales known as tamales de elote. There will also be a version of ceviche acapulqueño, which features tomatoes and olives.
And of course there will be house-made tortillas with nixtamalized corn.
It's not clear how the menu will work in terms of a la carte and prix fixe options, but we can expect a fairly upscale experience at the 56-seat restaurant — with decor that is divided into two sections, reflecting the spirits of Laura's sister and mother, one side "lively and bright," the other more "grounded" and "anchored by earthy browns and greens."
Beverages will include cocktails drawing on Mexican flavors and spirits from Consulting Bar Director Evan Williams, and featuring less common agave spirits in the mix like bacanora and raicilla. The wine program will also highlight Mexico's wine regions in Baja and Querétaro.
As Laura tells the Chronicle, she feels "this is the right time to open something [Mexican] that feels a little more elevated — not necessarily elevated like Californios, Michelin-starred, but elevating the culture itself."
We don't yet have photos of the space, but the Ozyilmazes say they expect to be open in February 2026.
If you have not dined at Dalida, you may know Laura Ozyilmaz from her stint on Top Chef two years ago, in which she made it to the final four chefs.
Before coming to San Francisco and launching their pop-up Istanbul Modern, the couple each built chef pedigrees at some of the world's top restaurants, before and after meeting at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York. Laura worked at Café Boulud and the acclaimed Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain, and then had jobs in New York at Del Posto and Eleven Madison Park. Meanwhile Sayat worked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Le Bernardin before coming to Napa to work at the CIA's restaurant CIA at Copia.
Maria Isabel - 500 Presidio Avenue - Opening February 2026
Previously: Husband-and-Wife Team Behind Presidio Restaurant Dalida Are Expanding Into Presidio Heights
