I dearly loved this place when I lived in C-U. Never had a bad meal, although sometimes it was marred with indifferent service of the "I am a hipster working in the hippest restaurant in town! What, you want me to DO WORK?" type.
Brunch was awesome; a lot cheaper than dinner so my impoverished self could get a fix when mom and dad weren't paying. The beer bread, yes, and the masa boat, yes! And at the time they opened, renovating a decrepit downtown location to expose the brick walls and original tin ceilings was a new idea. They kickstarted a great trend. Downtown Champaign wouldn't be what it is today without Radio Maria. I remember going to that space to pick out wallpaper with my mom and dad back in the 80's. Radio Maria is a vast improvement.