From Runway to Restaurateur: The Creative Reinvention of Maria Rodriguez

By the time Maria Rodriguez opened the door to El Nuevo Mexicano, she had already lived a dozen lives. Fashion designer. Filmmaker. Weaver. Artist. Daughter of Chicago’s southwest side. Each role stitched into the next, until one day she found herself running a kitchen rather than a runway.

Today, her restaurant sits quietly on Clark Street in Lakeview, a neighborhood where her life seems to have come full circle. Next door? A thrift store where, just recently, a woman stumbled across one of Maria’s early sweaters. Woven beige and brown, handmade, still bearing the label: “Maria Rodriguez, Chicago.”

This is how the story surfaced again. A Curious City podcast listener found the sweater. The podcast tracked the label. The trail led right to the same spot where she grabs her Friday margaritas, Maria Rodriguez‘s restaurant.

But this isn’t a story about coincidence. It’s about creative instinct, relentless reinvention, and knowing when to close one chapter so another can begin.

Chicago’s Forgotten Fashion Icon

Maria Rodriguez was one of the best names in Chicago fashion in the ’80s. Her designs, pieces full of texture, layering, and handmade weaves, turned the eyes of buyers of legendary shops, like Ultimo on Oak Street. From a converted basement of a Victorian home, she ran her operation and later moved to a full-scale production house on Elston and Webster.

Though a self-taught designer, Maria’s life in fashion was not by choice but accidental. When she was asked to have coffee by a neighbor, a yarn store was offered as a destination. Fifteen minutes down the line, Maria came out holding a loom and a mission. Within a few weeks, her hand-brushed scarves were selling like hot cakes in boutiques. Several months later, she was designing entire outfits. When Women’s Wear Daily published the now-legendary “Chicago 21” profile on her, Maria Rodriguez had already established a brand.

Her lines were purchased by the stores of Marshall Field’s to New York boutiques. Even Oprah donned one of her jumpers on-screen.

But success brought weight. At her peak, she managed a team of 60 employees, maintaining production cycles and managing cash flows. She had also become a mother. The balance began to shift.

“I started shrinking it down,” she says. “And then at some point, I decided I needed to take the sabbatical.”

So she walked away.

A New Canvas of Film, Food, and Family

After fashion, Maria Rodriguez ventured into film. She went to school, learned to shoot and edit video, as well as worked with Chicago dance groups. Creativity, again, wasn’t the issue. Stability was.

Then, in 2004, her uncle died. He was the owner of El Nuevo Mexicano for decades. Maria saw a chance, one that resonated with what she had always loved, hosting, making, telling stories.

Maria Rodriguez acquired the restaurant from his estate and made it her right from the outset. “I love to cook. I love to entertain. This is an ideal place for it. It just clicked,” she says.

She revamped the menu, taking the lard out of classic dishes, offering vegan options way before “plant-based” became a buzzword. Mole without meat? Sopa Azteca without cream? It worked. El Nuevo Mexicano established itself as a frequent haunt for the locals, particularly those with a yearning for nostalgia with a conscience.

Even now, she experiments with ingredients the way she once played with yarns and textiles. “It’s the process,” she says. “You take raw materials and fine-tune them so it makes sense. There’s a flow to it that tells a story.”

Craft Never Leaves You

Maria Rodriguez may not have a fashion label anymore, but the designer in her never disappeared. She still helps friends style their wardrobes. Still gets frustrated at the racks in department stores. Still looks for that “missing piece”, the one item no one else thought to make.

“I’m always thinking about form, balance, color,” she says. “Whether I’m plating food or setting a table or looking at a jacket, it’s the same eye.”

And what does she miss most about the fashion world? Not the chaos. Not the deadlines. “The storytelling,” she says. “That part I still do. I just tell it with food now.”

From shoulder pads to enchiladas, Maria Rodriguez has built a career on creative fearlessness. Whether designing for the runway or the dining room, she works with care, culture, and clarity. The medium changed. The mission stayed the same.

“Start with the raw. Shape it into something meaningful. Share it.” That’s her art. Always has been.