Santa Barbara’s Fresh New Catch Is Santa Playa Mariscos

Sometimes, all it takes is a love of tacos and a dream. That’s how Jonathan “Yona” Estrada got his start, opening Yona Redz in the 500 block of State Street five months deep into the pandemic. Now, four years later, he’s got a second restaurant — Santa Playa Mariscos — and a new location for both at 1230 State Street.

Hailing the seven blocks as a great move, Estrada claims, “In the 500 block, people would go down for fun and then stop by for food, but here, people gravitate for the food.” Currently, you can order from the classic Yona Redz menu — especially those sloppily delicious birria quesotacos with consommé — or from the new seafood-focused Santa Playa Mariscos menu offering fresh catch straight from the Santa Barbara Fish Market.

Estrada hopes Yona Redz will be in its own space — that’s Suite A at the address, Santa Playa is Suite C, and you could get your nails done between the two — by the end of the first quarter of 2025. Thinking about how opening businesses tends to go in town, he admits, “You can have a plan, but … .”

As with Yona Redz, Santa Playa Mariscos grew out of Estrada’s own fondness for certain foods. Discussing his love of the seafood dishes found in Ensenada, Nayarit, and Sinaloa, Mexico, he says, “I reckon these weren’t items on menus at Santa Barbara restaurants — I had to travel out of town for them.” And then he decided he should make them right here. That’s everything from beer-battered, deep-fried Baja fish tacos to crisp ceviches to zippy aguachiles to the show-stopping mojarra frita — the catch of the day, slit and stuffed with garlic, deep-fried, and brought to your table like an edible, crunchy trophy from the deep.

Estrada has no problem being a trendsetter in Santa Barbara. He tells the tale of recently eating at a food truck that offered a “Yona taco special” clearly modeled on his birria quesotacos and took it as an honor. “Hey, go for it,” he says, “That’s what made me create the kind of life I wanted to live. To me, it’s inspiring.” On the other hand, he isn’t sad to leave behind the slow proliferation of street food vendors on lower State Street. He says, “First, it was hot dogs, but then it was people selling aguas frescas and tacos, same as our menu.” He’s happy the Arts District doesn’t have such issues but surmises, “It’s probably just a matter of time.”

Of course, Estrada himself started his food career making tacos in backyards on Santa Barbara’s Westside, where he grew up. An Instagram video made his food go viral and led to lines in driveways, and then a popup gig at Casa Blanca after it closed. The landlord of that spot, Ray Mahboob, offered Estrada the 532 State Street location, and Yona Redz was born. “Now I’m an owner, chef, operator of two restaurants,” he beams. “I learn very quickly.”

One of those lessons, he points out, is “You can’t really budget in a restaurant — you have to spend money to make money. But it comes like second nature to me; it doesn’t feel like work.” That’s a good thing, as staffing is as ever an issue in a post-COVID labor world. It’s not a rare evening that Estrada is your cashier, cook, busser, and the person hoping to get a second to post some social media to draw in more crowds. Luckily, his Yona Redz clients trust his ways in the kitchen, and his long roots in town mean, he says, that “a lot of my old teachers and schoolmates come in and support me. It’s amazing.”

No doubt they are toasting him with coctels (seafood cocktails, but there is beer too) such as Vuelve a la Vida, an extravagant combo of shrimp, octopus, scallop, and oysters. The menu is big on oysters. Or diving into the bubbling-as-it-hits-the-table Molcajete a la Cucaracha — which dares you to translate it literally — a peppery pot of shrimp, octopus, clams, mussels, and snow crab legs in a kicky deviled sauce.

It’s all about the pleasure of serving up the cuisine he adores. “Yes, I make a better living than when I was a maintenance worker, but I’m not going to get rich,” Estrada sums up. “I’m doing what I love, riding that wave until I can no longer do it anymore.”

Santa Playa Mariscos is located at 1230 State Street, Suite C, and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. See santaplayasb.com.