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It’s all about corn at Redwood City’s newest eatery, Maizz. Find it in a cup, on a stick, in a bowl of ramen and even baked into cheesecake.
“Maíz means corn, so all our dishes are about corn,” said co-owner Rodrigo Gonzalez.
Maizz held its grand opening Saturday, Oct. 12, with a classic car show and live mariachi. It was a celebration years in the making – brothers and co-owners Rodrigo and Ever Gonzalez began construction on Maizz back in 2018, a process partially dragged out because of the pandemic. Maizz is the brothers’ debut in the food and beverage industry, with the inspiration coming from street corn vendors.
“Have you seen the corn guy on the street (who is) pushing the cart?” Rodrigo Gonzalez said. “They only have two different styles of corn: corn on the stick and corn in the cup. So (Maizz is) pretty much the same concept, but we have a place (where) you can visit us with your family.”
The eatery has indoor and outdoor seating, and the menu currently features 11 corn-forward options, with additional rotating monthly menu options. Maizz is not a full-service restaurant; it’s more of a snack shop and quick lunch spot.
“We’re more about our cravings,” Rodrigo Gonzalez said.
In addition to corn cart classics such as the elote cup and elote stick, find more unique items like the elote ribs ($10.99), which are grilled with butter and lime, and the elote marranada ($10.25), which is corn on the cob topped with cotija cheese, mayo, lime and Valentina hot sauce. Dishes like the elote cup, elote stick, elote Maruchan and elote marranada ($9.99-12.99) come with a choice of two toppings, including chips (Hot Cheetos, Takis, Ruffles, Crunchy Cheetos or Doritos) and peanuts (japones, spicy, regular or mixed).
For a lunch option, Rodrigo Gonzalez recommends the elote bowl ($18.88) with corn, pollo asada or carne asada, chips of your choice, mayo, lime, cotija cheese and queso amarillo. For a sweet treat, Maizz offers both an elote cheesecake and elote cake ($7.25) with your choice of dulce de leche, Nutella and/or condensed milk. Drinks include multiple flavors of agua frescas ($6) made in-house with fresh fruit and cafe de olla ($4.25), a traditional Mexican coffee drink also made in-house.
Rodrigo Gonzalez came up with the idea of Maizz in 2016. At the time, he was an electrical contractor and his brother was a general contractor. He noticed that while there were street corn vendors, there weren’t any brick and mortar eateries in the Bay Area focusing on corn.
“From the place that we’re coming in central Mexico, Michoacán, they have all this, and we kind of miss it,” he said.
Together with his brother and their mom, Rodrigo Gonzalez began developing Maizz’s recipes. He said customers are already asking to purchase some of the salsas, particularly Maizz’s salsa macha, separate from the dishes, so he’ll likely begin to sell jars of salsa as well.
Rodrigo Gonzalez and his brother hope to expand the business all over the Bay Area and possibly into Southern California.
“Everybody likes corn,” he said. “On every barbecue, I’m pretty sure from any culture, they have corn. So if they really want to taste something different that they don’t even know that it exists, probably, they have to stop by and check it out.”
Maizz, 851 El Camino Real, Redwood City; Instagram: @maizz.co_. Open Tuesday to Sunday noon to 8 p.m.
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