Bringing a modern twist to a traditional Mexican design and cuisine
By Clay Imports
Hellertown is a small, family-oriented community in Northampton County, Pennsylvania; the perfect place to visit if you want to wind down. The town seamlessly blends natural attractions with a vibrant social scene and a downtown area that is home to incredible small businesses. One of these gems is La Maya, a Mexican Modern Cuisine and cocktail lounge, born from years of experience in the restaurant industry and a desire to create something new and exciting. We had the chance to speak with the owner and the design duo about their experience building La Maya and how it brings a groovy style to Pennsylvania.
- The Idea Behind La Maya
- The Design of La Maya
- The Clay Imports Tiles in La Maya
- The La Maya experience
The Idea Behind La Maya
CJ Moyer is the creative director & owner of Moyer Design Co., a design and marketing agency for the Food and Beverage industry. After working for other spaces, he decided to open one on his own, Presley's Cocktail Bar. The experience was so positive and thrilling that he decided to team up with Rogelio Romero to start La Maya.
CJ Moyer,
Rogelio Romero
“The idea came in stages. We started small and allowed the concept to build itself up. After doing a crazy amount of R&D we landed on the concept for La Maya.” The concept is inspired by adding a modern twist to a typical Mexican restaurant. The looks aim to be reminiscent of the riviera of the Mexican península: the summer dishes of this restaurant are heavily influenced by the ones you can find in places like Tulum and Cancun.
La Maya wants to be a staple in any visit to Hellertown, a place that continues to push creativity in Mexican cuisine. And as such, the architecture of the new place had to be on the same level. Luckily for us, we have been chosen to achieve the vision CJ and Rogelio had.
"This was a really good learning experience for me, and I am proud of myself for handling it the way I had. Advice is good, but learning for yourself is even better."
The Design of La Maya
CJ and Rogelio had a very clear idea of the ambience they wanted to create in the restaurant: “We wanted to find a happy medium between traditional Mexico and fun and funky. We used a lot of heavy bold greens, textures, tiles, and imagery to bring a fun experience. The feeling is warm, welcoming, and cozy”.
Enter April and Gabrielle Wilson, a mother-daughter design duo and the creative heads behind La Maya. Their design firm, Locust Bloom, specializes in creating environments “with the intention of curating environments that make people want to stay a while, making something to think about”. However, they had never designed a restaurant from scratch before. CJ, known for working with genuine people, immediately knew that they would create a wonderful space together.
The goal was simple: to create an unforgettable space. Fortunately, April and Gabriele pretty much had a white canvas to create, experiment, do and redo at will: “We tested every technique of transformation from painting a psychedelic mural, to wallpapering, to excessively tiling, to wainscoting, to testing another wallpaper, to applying vinyl, to adding and deducting walls, to painting all over it again [...] but each decision we made was deeply thoughtful, tested, questioned, reimagined, and ultimately loved as a team before executing the final vision.
"Your eyes dance around, sitting in the space, gathering something new in each spot you dine. During a possible lull in conversation, there will always be a starter to aid nearby."
The Clay Imports tiles in La Maya
"After ordering numerous samples from various tile vendors, we realized that Clay Imports had everything we needed! April and Gabrielle approached us to tile the space and our tiles are featured in 3 spaces: The main dining room, the bathroom, and the walling of some of the spaces.
First, the floors. They decided to use our Smooth Satin Saltillo tiles for the main area and use our spring vocho tiles to divide the bar. The bar is also crowned with our glazed thin brick forest tiles, creating an elegant yet inviting environment that seeks to emulate the rainforest of the Mayan Riviera.
Of course, one of the challenges this line brought was to even the level of the tiles. Saltillo tiles are thicker than the tiles they decided to use. As the designers put it: “We wanted the tile to feel organic in nature and not be a perfectly clean layout. In trying to accomplish this feat, we did the thinnest possible non-sand blackish green grout, and used raw edges. Mitering the edges to create an angle and using grout covered the sharpness of the edge but also gave it more of a natural finish, if you will.”
Handmade tiles exhibit natural variations, which are inherent traits of natural materials like Terracotta. These variations in color, texture and sheen are not defects but rather a natural part of the product. We highly recommend ordering samples before making a final purchase to confirm and appreciate these natural variations in each tile.
"The paneled wood accent wall met the edge of the green tile on the bar as well as the smooth satin on the floor. Together, it accomplished the look we were going for, without having to use grout or filler where the wood met the tile ~ on both the bar and the floor."
The restaurant has an interior space they decided to call the “Queen’s room,” coated in a deep raspberry, the walls and ceiling butt heads with that saturation and reveal a dustier, peachy-rose. To bring more privacy to this area, they decided to use our breeze blocks to create a barrier wall and privacy area adjacent to the hallway entrance to the bathroom and the back of kitchen area.
But one of our favorite uses of the Clay Imports tiles in La Maya is definitely the bathroom. “We wanted the bathroom to talk to the rest of the space by mixing organic with more linear patterns in a maximalist way without mimicking all the other spaces within the restaurant.” They decided to use 3 similar earth tones of our recycled clay tiles (Confetti, Americano, Barro) and arrange them in a non conventional way to create a fantastic look with a pretty layout.
"Honestly, we fell in love with so many colors at Clay Imports, it was difficult to select only 3 for the sink space!"
"We built a wall to frame out the sink area and showcase the tile/sink/and wall-mounted faucet. We became a tad obsessed with the gridding and color blocking, and wanted the vibe to feel retro yet fresh at the same time."
The La Maya Experience
CJ knows that design is a key part of a restaurant, what they call the Wow factor: “Our next generation of diners aren’t going to settle for half assed designed restaurants. People are looking for an experience, and part of that experience is to be had by the way you feel when you walk through our doors.” And La Maya is the perfect place to achieve this: everything has been planned in order to bring a whole new experience and the Clay Imports Mexican tiles are one of the many little pieces that contribute to the overall design.
This project was fantastic and we couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. We would like to thank CJ and Rogelio for sharing the after and before material, and April and Gabrielle for their insight in design. You can visit La Maya instagram feed to know more about their promotions and their fantastic vibe and you can get in touch with Locust Bloom if you are interested in finding the perfect designer for your project. And remember, if you have any questions or require more information, reach out to us at contact@clayimports.com.
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