La Catrina Chingona’s logo is a strong-armed woman with the skeletal face synonymous with Mexico’s Day of the Dead, also known as the Calavera Caterina, or “La Catrina” for short. (Janay Wright/The Bulletin)

La Catrina Chingona, a Mexican restaurant and tequila bar in Terrebonne, has been a long time coming.

Followers of the restaurant’s social media accounts have drooled over photos of meticulously crafted cocktails and dishes for over a year. Some commenters have become impatient, demanding to know when the grand opening will be. And sometimes, as the train lumbers past the restaurant building which was once a railway stop, the conductor yells out, “Are you open yet?” said Danielle Nogosek, co-owner of the restaurant.

At long last, the grand opening is just around the corner. La Catrina Chingona invites the public to attend its soft opening on Thursday and Friday, followed by a grand opening on July 1.

Nogosek, 30, was adamant that every dish on the menu was a “10 out of 10” before the restaurant opened.

At the helm of the restaurant’s all-woman team are Nogosek and Kayla Jeffrey, 63, who instantly clicked while working at a restaurant together.

“I saw how tenacious she was and how smart she was for as young as she was,” Jeffrey said of their partnership.

The restaurant has come together with the hard work of Nogosek, Jeffrey and Natasha Jackson, the restaurant’s general manager.

La Catrina Chingona will be the third restaurant for Nogosek and Jeffrey, who purchased the Pump House Bar & Grill and Brand 44 N in 2020, when Nogosek was 24. Both restaurants have received recognition from America’s Best Restaurants and positive feedback from customers in Central Oregon and beyond.

About a year after Brand 44 opened, customers urged them to open for dinner. The owners listened and got to work on a dinner menu. But something didn’t feel right, Nogosek said.

“It was midnight the night before we were supposed to open for dinner the next day and I looked at Kayla and said, ‘It doesn’t feel right. This wasn’t my vision. My vision was for this to be a breakfast and lunch restaurant. If we want to design our own dinner restaurant, we need to do something different,’” she said.

That something different is La Catrina Chingona.

Mexican cuisine elevated

Nogosek, a lifelong Terrebonne resident, felt called to shake up the culinary scene of her hometown. She

felt it was important to have a place for the community to be able to unwind and have a great evening without the need to travel to Bend or Redmond. The new restaurant combines innovative flavors predominantly influenced by Mexican cuisine, but also by Spain, the Philippines and others.

Nogosek has tasked her two head chefs, who hail from Mexico, with elevating the food they grew up with and adding a modern and creative twist.

The result is small plates like lobster tacos with yuzu, flaky empanadas, gambas al ajillo (a Spanish dish

which translates to ‘garlic shrimp’) and chilaquiles with Mexican gravy that reminds Nogosek of what she ate as a child.

Pretty in pink

Diners entering the restaurant will be greeted by the restaurant’s logo, a strong-armed woman inspired by Rosie the Riveter with the skeletal face synonymous with Mexico’s Day of the Dead, also known as the Calavera Caterina, or “La Catrina” for short.

The restaurant’s name was inspired by a conversation Nogosek had with a translator hired to translate between the English and Spanish-speaking staff.

“You remind me of a chingona,” Nogosek recalls her saying.

When she inquired about the meaning of the word, the woman replied, “It’s a strong, badass woman. Intelligent. Smart. That’s you guys.”

But before moving forward with the logo of the strong-armed woman illuminated in pink neon and the touches of pink that touch almost every corner of the restaurant, in painted benches, on the tables decorated by hand, overhead lighting and strips of wallpaper, Nogosek said she had doubts.

She phoned her mom to express her concerns and that it might be too much for some. Her mom assured her that her worries meant that she was moving in precisely the right direction.

Nogosek hopes to one day pass on La Catrina Chingona to one of her employees.

“I was given such a great opportunity. I want to be able to do that for somebody else one day. I look at my staff and I see people who are working hard and see people who put their heart and soul into things. I want to be able to give them that same option I had,” she said.

Details:

What: La Catrina Chingona

Location: 400 NW Smith Rock Way, Terrebonne

Contact: lacatrinachingona.com

Hours: 4 p.m.- close

Cuisine: Mexican, Cocktail bar