James Beard-recognized husband-and-wife restaurateurs Lizzeth Martínez and Francisco Estrada introduce their most personal concept yet
SAN ANTONIO — Santonia Cantina, a new restaurant from Lizzeth Martínez and Francisco Estrada, the husband-and-wife team behind Naco Mexican, is coming soon to Pearl. Santonia is the couple’s take on a borderland cantina, built around the food, drinks, culture, and hospitality that connect Northern Mexico and South Texas. The tagline says it plainly: North Mexican. South Texan. No Rules.
Martínez and Estrada aren’t calling Santonia Mexican, Tex-Mex, or contemporary Mexican. To them, it belongs to a region with its own identity, one shaped by generations of movement, exchange, and shared traditions. The border, as they see it, was never a physical division or a line on a map. It’s a culture that starts kilometers before the Rio Grande and keeps going for miles past the bridge into Texas. Food, language, music, and family blend along the way until it’s hard to say where one side ends and the other begins.
“For us, the border isn’t a line you cross; it’s a culture you live in. It begins long before you reach the bridge and stays with you long after you’ve crossed it,” said Martínez. “Santonia is very personal to us because it comes from the region that shaped who we are. Growing up between Northern Mexico and South Texas, we never saw those influences as separate. They were simply part of everyday life. Santonia gives us the freedom to celebrate that culture in a way that feels current, fun, and completely our own.”
The Food
The menu is bold, approachable, and meant to be shared. It pulls from cantina culture, Northern Mexican cooking, South Texas flavors, street food, and the family recipes Martínez and Estrada cook when friends come over. Think cantina bites: craveable, generous plates made for the middle of the table and a cold drink within reach. Guests can expect pork shanks, tacos filled with ribeye and other carefully chosen cuts of meat, an oversized crispy shrimp flauta, Santonia’s cantina potato crisps, ceviches and botanas, flour-tortilla tostadas, guacamole with brisket chicharrón, frijoles puercos, queso fundido, pozole, fideo, and other dishes rooted in the borderlands.
The kitchen isn’t interested in rules about what Mexican food or Texas food is supposed to be. The question is simpler: Does it belong to our story, and is it delicious?
The Bar
The bar runs on the same philosophy. Original cocktails draw on ingredients and flavors tied to Northern Mexico, South Texas, and the landscapes around the borderlands: sotol, mezcal, tequila, tuna roja, mezquite, pecan, damiana, avocado leaf, grapefruit, piloncillo, roasted corn, chile, and coffee. Food and cocktails are being developed together as one story. And because Santonia is a cantina first, the bar sits at the center of it all: social, loud in the right way, and easy to settle into for a while.
“The borderlands have always been a place of exchange, of food, music, traditions, and ideas,” said Estrada. “With Santonia, we want to celebrate that richness without putting rules around it. We want it to feel like a true cantina: great food, great drinks, great energy, and a place where people want to stay.”
Credit: Jomando
The Santonia Experience
Santonia is meant to feel like it belongs to San Antonio. Lively without being exclusive. Design-forward without being precious. Serious about food and drinks without taking itself too seriously. Open for lunch, dinner, and cocktails, it’s the kind of place where you stop in for a drink and a botana, share dinner with friends, catch the game on the patio, celebrate something big, or stay a lot longer than you planned. At its heart, Santonia is about hospitality, conversation, food, drinks, and sobremesa.
The name was chosen to feel familiar without being literal. It carries a sense of place and personality and quietly echoes San Antonio, the city where the couple’s restaurant story took root. Martínez and Estrada wanted a name that could become its own character (warm, memorable, a little unexpected) rather than one that tells guests what kind of restaurant they’re walking into. As the couple puts it: “Meet me at Santonia.”
"Liz and Francisco cook from the heart," said Ryan Howard, Managing Director of Potluck. "Santonia will be a window into their story, one that everyone is invited to peek into. Theirs is a story of food, culture and love. I can't think of a better place to tell a story like that than Pearl."
From a Food Truck to Pearl
Santonia marks the next chapter in a story that began in 2017, when Martínez and Estrada moved to San Antonio after building their lives and careers in Mexico and launched Naco Mexican as a food truck. The truck gave the couple room to develop their culinary voice and connect directly with San Antonio diners, and it became the foundation for a permanent restaurant concept that has since drawn attention from Texas Monthly, Netflix’s Taco Chronicles, Food Network and Forbes.
Growth has come with a commitment to the community that supported them. Through collaborations with the San Antonio Food Bank and other local organizations, the couple has supported efforts that have provided more than 200,000 meals to people experiencing food insecurity. Their work has also taken them beyond Texas, representing San Antonio internationally through the city’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. In 2026, both Martínez and Estrada were James Beard Award semifinalists for Best Chef: Texas.
Santonia is not Naco 2.0. It brings together everything the couple has learned from Mexico City and Nuevo Laredo, the food truck, Naco, international culinary exchanges, community work and years of cooking in San Antonio. Opening at Pearl, which has played a significant role in San Antonio’s rise as a culinary destination, Santonia adds another perspective to that story: the voice of the borderlands. San Antonio’s identity cannot be separated from its relationship with Mexico, particularly Northern Mexico, and Santonia gives Martínez and Estrada the opportunity to explore that relationship in a way that is personal, current and rooted in their own experiences. It is both an evolution and a homecoming. It is not about choosing between Mexico and Texas; it is about celebrating everything that exists in between.
For updates, follow @santoniacantina on Instagram or visit www.santoniacantina.com.
About Santonia Cantina
Santonia Cantina is Lizzeth Martínez and Francisco Estrada’s interpretation of a borderland cantina, coming soon to Pearl in San Antonio, Texas. Created by the husband-and-wife team behind Naco Mexican, Santonia celebrates the living culture shared by Northern Mexico and South Texas through bold, shareable food, original cocktails built on regional ingredients, and the convivial spirit of a cantina. North Mexican. South Texan. No Rules. Follow @santoniacantina on Instagram for more details.
About Lizzeth Martínez
Lizzeth Martínez is a chef, restaurateur, entrepreneur and culinary ambassador whose work reflects the cultural connection between Northern Mexico and South Texas. Born in Laredo, Texas, and raised in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Martínez grew up experiencing the border not as a dividing line but as one interconnected community. She studied interior design at the University of Texas at San Antonio before pursuing culinary studies in Monterrey, Mexico, and Mexico City, where her early professional experience included Delicias Bosques, a bakery and catering business. After returning to San Antonio, she and her husband and business partner, Francisco Estrada, launched Naco Mexican as a food truck and grew it into a recognized San Antonio restaurant brand. Martínez was named a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas, and her work has been featured by Netflix, Food Network, Texas Monthly and Forbes. She has represented San Antonio through its UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation in culinary exchanges and international events, is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier, and remains active in initiatives supporting San Antonio’s culinary community. With Santonia, Martínez brings together her culinary background, border upbringing, hospitality experience and design sensibility in the most personal expression of her career to date.
About Francisco Estrada
Francisco Estrada is a chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur, and co-founder of Naco Mexican and Santonia Cantina. Originally from Mexico City, Estrada’s path to hospitality began outside the professional kitchen. Formerly one of Mexico’s federal crime lawyers, he ultimately chose to pursue a career centered on food, hospitality and entrepreneurship. Together with Martínez, Estrada helped build Naco Mexican from a food truck into an established San Antonio restaurant concept. His approach is grounded in Mexican tradition while remaining open to the influences that emerge naturally from living and cooking in South Texas. At Santonia, his perspective anchors the restaurant in the convivial spirit of a cantina: generous food, strong flavors, good drinks, music, conversation and an atmosphere where guests are encouraged to stay.
About Potluck
Potluck is a San Antonio-based hospitality company and private equity fund with a focused investment thesis around experiential businesses, primarily in the hospitality sector. Potluck’s portfolio features acclaimed concepts at Pearl in San Antonio including Best Quality Daughter, Brasserie Mon Chou Chou, The Boiler House, Ladino, Full Goods Diner, WonderSlice Pizza, Food Hall at Bottling Department, and Stable Hall. Guided by a vision to be a cultivator of extraordinary experiential concepts in hospitality where all participants can flourish, Potluck is dedicated to fostering innovative dining, vibrant community spaces, and a positive workplace culture that celebrates the rich history and diversity of San Antonio and South Texas. Learn more at potlucktx.com.
About Pearl
Pearl is a dynamic destination in San Antonio, built on the site of the former historic Pearl Brewery along the banks of the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River Walk. The neighborhood’s architectural gems—like the original 1894 brewhouse and stable—are home to the MICHELIN Two-Key and Five Diamond-rated Hotel Emma and Stable Hall, a standout live music venue. At the heart of Pearl, Pullman Market features acclaimed culinary concepts including two MICHELIN-starred restaurants. As a driving force for San Antonio’s hospitality, culinary, and cultural scene, Pearl welcomes more than 5 million visitors a year to experience unique culinary concepts, distinct retail, nationally recognized weekend markets, vibrant residential communities, innovative office tenants, and the San Antonio campus of the Culinary Institute of America. Learn more at atpearl.com.