In a quixotic but charming coincidence, the founders of Memo’s Cuisine and Mubdie’s: A Creative Collective each landed in Isleton because of California’s often-deadly seasonal wildfires.
Memo recounts leaving the Sacramento area for some unrecalled destination in 2020. “Because of the terrible fires at that time, I had to take a detour,” he remembers. “That detour took me to Isleton. With its river, and the rolling hills in the area, it felt like home.” He gazes out of the wide windows of the 28-seat restaurant at the southern edge of the historic town. “You see that water tower right there? My grandmother’s house in Mexico had a water tower just like that.” Memo breaks into a broad smile as he thinks about his home in the Yucatan Peninsula.
With thirty years of experience in the restaurant business, Memo knew that he wanted to open a restaurant that might some day earn him a Michelin star. Having worked with the legendary chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless, Memo has seen first-hand every aspect of the professional kitchen from line cook to his current position as owner and executive chef. With his CEO Jorge Rodriguez, Memo personifies their Mission Statement: “Good to Great.”
He began renovation of the small, lovely building located at 501 Second Street in Isleton back in 2023. After nearly three years of tireless effort to achieve a certain aesthetic, he and Rodriguez opened in October 2025. Their menu spans the Latin culinary tradition, from Mexico to Colombia to anywhere that derives its culture from the deep roots of the Latin experience. He cites the friendliness of the small town, the comparative affordability, ample parking, and the nearness of highway traffic as elements that sold him on the restaurant’s location.
Two blocks down, at 47 Main Street, Corinne Corley remarks that fire also brought her to the Delta where she ultimately opened Mubdie’s: A Creative Collective, a shop that showcases Delta artists and artisans. In 2017, she began the wind-down of her established law practice in Kansas City. She put her 100-year-old airplane bungalow on the market, found a carpenter to build a tiny house on wheels, and turned her gaze westward, to California. “Back then, the only legal place you could park a THOW was an RV park,” she explains. “Everyone told me that Sonoma County would be my kind of place, so I found a park where I would have been the first non-RV, made a reservation, and started the painful process of downsizing.”
But the California wildfires again intervened. Sadly, the park at which she intended to situate herself burned in the Tubbs fire. Luckily, all of its residents escaped. The nearby RV park that provided new spots for them saw Corley’s name on the reservation list and called her. It turned out that he also came from Missouri and he decided to help her find somewhere else to live. He told her about Park Delta Bay RV & Tiny House Resort in the Delta. Puzzled, she asked, “The Delta? Isn’t that in Mississippi?”
She soon learned about the California Delta and came to visit. Driving over the Antioch Bridge reminded her of the two river towns of her Missouri life – St. Louis and Kansas City – and the Buffalo River of Arkansas where her son had been born. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this feels just like home!”
At the beginning of the pandemic, Corley and the management at Park Delta Bay looked for some way to promote local art and commerce even with everything closed for health reasons. They started the Sunday Market, where local artists and crafters could sell their wares at tables staged six feet apart, wearing masks. Corley, an attorney still fully admitted to the Missouri Bar but intentionally choosing not to get a California law license, works part-time at the Law Offices of Greta Jenkins in Rio Vista. “It’s a good gig,” she notes. “I keep my hand in the profession that I so love, but I’m not the boss anymore!”
As everything began to re-open after the worldwide health crisis waned, Corley, also a writer, had just arranged to put out an essay collection with her favorite small publisher, Write The Future! An imprint of Spartan Press in Kansas City, Missouri run by the venerable poet and bookstore owner Will Leathem. “I might have decided to open a store to have somewhere local to sell my books,” she jokes.
The artists and artisans whom she approached among those who sold at the Sunday Market did not feel comfortable with the narrow term “art collective”. Corley borrowed from her Kansas City roots to call it a “creative collective” so that the handcrafters would feel seen. Then she looked at her maternal grandmother’s Austrian heritage for a suitable name, but decided that the German word for “creative” would be too much of a mouthful. She messaged her son’s godmother in Beirut to ask the Arab word for “creative”, and settled on the masculine form of it, “Mubdie’s”. Another laugh: “At first, everyone wanted to say, “Muddy’s”, but I think they get it now!”
From ten artists at the original location, Mubdie’s has grown to 22 with several on a wait list. Sadly, two of their original artists have died, and a couple left to explore other pursuits. But the group counts among its members visual artists, including local photographer and bridge tender Demi Stewart; jewelry and candle-makers, notably hometown lady MaryAlice Tillisch; a woodworker; and fabric and yarn artists. “We have everything from a $1.00 bracelet made by a ten-year-old to a $1300 original acrylic painting done by a part-time pig farmer.” The shop also sells local honey by Boujikian Family Apiary.
Quite a few of the Mubdie’s cohorts have enjoyed dining at Memo’s after coming into Isleton to hang or stage new work. One such artist, Marianne Biner, struck up a conversation with Memo, and a new idea began to germinate. After several meetings over the good coffee served in the restaurant, a collaboration came to life. Starting with Labor Day Weekend, Mubdie’s visual artists will show their work at Memo’s. The pieces will be available for purchase on a “cash and carry” basis right from the walls. Customers wishing to purchase for credit or debit will be given contact information for the artist or Mubdie’s.
Fittingly, the first artist to show will be Rio Vista resident Rachel Warren, who sells her creative work under her new label of Rachel’s Casa de Colores. Celebrating her mother’s Guadalajara roots, Rachel often uses the bright colors and vivid themes of her mother’s homeland. Both Memo and Rachel point to the moon, sun, and stars as inspirational. A Mayan by heritage, Memo sees the sun, air, and water as life-giving. Rachel, for her part, said that “Every January, I start a new painting, even if I’m currently working on other pieces. And for the past 3 or 4 years these new pieces have been celestially themed. I’m fascinated with the moon and all of her phases.” One of her original works that will hang in Memo’s takes inspiration from her dear friend who lost his beloved life partner Pancho. Called “Pancho’s Moon”, the piece combines the comforting smile of the night orb with cheekbones modeled for Pancho’s own beautiful bone structure.
Mubdie’s will curate new art at Memo’s every two months. Customers who purchase a piece directly from the restaurant will also get a Customer Appreciation collab card, for a 10% discount on their next purchase in the shop. Memo, who sees himself as an artist working in the culinary world, eagerly embraced the chance to promote other local artists. “We are committed to this community,” he fervently remarked. “We believe in this place. It is good, now, but soon, it will be great.”
In addition to showing and selling local art, Mubdie’s also features workshops hosted by its artists. The next one is an ALO Boutque Body Scrub workshop on October 02nd. The shop will be open its regular hours for Labor Day Weekend, and on Saturday, September 05th, Mubdie’s founder Corinne Corley celebrates her 71st birthday with a sale and flash give-ways. And yes, there will be cookies – by local baker Robin Pack of The Tiny Bakeshop.
Memo’s is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. Mubdie’s is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and sits two doors down from Isleton Coffee Company. While at either location, be sure to look for a copy of the current Delta Life Magazine, so you can plan your tour of the area. For more information about Memo’s or to make a reservation, call 916-777-6366. Mubdie’s can be reached at 916-926-2896.
