Restaurateur Jeff Smedstad opened Elote Café, an upscale Mexican eatery serving regional fare and located in the old Kings Ransom Sedona Hotel, a year and a half ago.

That’s plenty of time for a restaurant to succeed or fail, but Smedstad didn’t expect success like this. Formerly one-half of the duo who established and ran Los Sombreros in Scottsdale for 12 years, Smedstad had solid restaurant experience but wasn’t necessarily prepared for the quirks that come with operating a business in Sedona—a market that depends heavily on tourism, has fewer vendors for fresh produce and ingredients and relies on a smaller workforce to staff positions that endure frequent turnover.

But Smedstad, who grew up in Chandler, Ariz., dreamed of moving to a small Arizona town and opening an eatery that served the kind of food he’d learned to prepare on extensive travels throughout Mexico, where he gathered the best recipes and preparation tips for fresh meats, moles and sauces. He said he wanted to see more sunrises and sunsets, too.

“I just really liked the idea of being in Sedona, offering great Mexican food,” he said. At the time, Smedstad was living in Atlanta and working for Fifth Group Restaurants when a friend called him about the location at the Kings Ransom. Smedstad flew out the next day, saw the space, and agreed to sign the lease even before examining the contract. He was that convinced.

At 39, Smedstad is a down-to-earth, accessible person who enjoys not only the quiet afternoon hours in the kitchen doing prep work but also the adrenaline rush of a busy night. Being in the “center of the hurricane,” he said, is “something I never get tired of.”

“I love to work with my hands and I love the creativity of it,” he added. “I like making people happy. It’s something you really can get off on.”

His General Manager, Josh McIver, who was hired six months ago as Elote’s first general manager and who has worked in restaurants most of his adult life, said: “I’ve never seen this kind of passion coming from a kitchen It flows from him down to the rest of the staff.”

Smedstad jokes that he got an early start in life, setting out on his own at age 17 and learning to cook in the Coast Guard. He later attended culinary school at Scottsdale Culinary Institute—back in the early days when there were just a handful of students per class.

Sedona, he said, welcomed him right away. He was invited to the “right” parties and felt embraced by a community that has a love/hate relationship with outsiders. Not having a large pool of potential staff, he trained newbies to his liking, including a first-time bartender who now is considered somewhat of a tequila expert.

Smedstad is “here more hours and does more work” than anyone else, said Corey Sheridan, the tequila expert who began working at Elote while attending massage therapy school in Cottonwood.

Seating 75 people, Elote Café is open for dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday. Smedstad said he’s “been able to pay all the bills doing that”—a luxury schedule for a restaurateur. He declines to give revenue figures.

To date the business has grown solely by word-of-mouth as Smedstad has eschewed aggressive marketing strategies, including making rounds to the hotel concierges, instead growing the way a European bistro might. Knowing the kind of sensibility that is likely to earn respect in a tight-knit community may be one of the reasons Smedstad has been welcomed into Sedona’s exclusivity.

In September he married a yoga instructor whom he met there. If that sounds like a typical metaphysical ending to a story like this, Smedstad still maintains that he does yoga “as little as possible” and, when he does, he calls it “stretching.”

Still, his lifestyle has adapted to the slower pace.

“If you can buy into it it’s really nice,” he said. “For me it’s been the perfect lifestyle.”

For more information, contact Elote Café at 928-203-0105 or visit www.elotecafe.com.