One of the places that friends had suggested we visit during our time in Santa Fe was a breakfast/lunch place that was well-known amongst the locals and tourists for their great food and their history. This restaurant may be the birthplace of the smothered burrito and is famous for their red and green chile sauces - even getting profiled on a national TV news program. This is our visit to Tia Sophia's in downtown Santa Fe.
The legacy of Tia Sophia's dates back to the 1930's when Tony and Sophia Maryol immigrated from the Greek island of Lesbos. Tony had relatives who ran a small cafe in Santa Fe and they eventually started out there. In the 1940's, Tony and Sophia moved to Albuquerque and ran a diner - Central Café - in the Atrisco neighborhood. Since many of their neighbors were Hispanic, Sophia learned how to make the New Mexican-native dishes and started to serve them in their diner. Sophia continued to run the restaurant into the early 70's when she retired.
Tony and Sophia had 6 kids and each one of them worked in the restaurant at one time or another. Oldest sister Georgia moved to Santa Fe about the time the family diner in Albuquerque closed up and eventually bought a down-trodden restaurant in downtown Santa Fe. Georgia's next oldest sibling, her brother Jim had begun to work at the family's restaurant in Albuquerque at the age of six and ended up following his sister to Santa Fe not long after she moved there.
With his wife Ann, Jim Maryol found a restaurant spot not too far from his sisters on San Francisco Street in downtown Santa Fe. Hoping to carry on the tradition of the foods his mother learned from their neighbors in the Atrisco barrio in Albuquerque, he used many of the recipes and came up with a few other ones. In 1975, Jim and Ann Maryol opened Tia Sophia's - Aunt Sophia's - as a homage to his mother's cooking.
Years later, Tia Sophia's moved across and down San Francisco Street to a larger space that they still use today. But it was a couple items served on their menu and their homemade chile sauces that garnered Tia Sophia's the attention of food enthusiasts long before there was such a thing.
When Jim Maryol was growing up in Albuquerque, he noticed some of the kids in his neighborhood taking a small tortilla shell, putting chorizo, scrambled eggs and potatoes on the tortilla, then rolling it up and walking to school eating it on the way. Jim Maryol took that idea and begun to sell breakfast burritos at Tia Sophia's from Day 1. Maryol was credited with being the first to offer breakfast burritos at his restaurant, but had to stop people short from saying he was the one who came up with breakfast burritos as he discovered them some 20 years earlier in his old neighborhood in Albuquerque.
But one thing a lot of people credit Jim Maryol for is the smothered burrito. He would take a large breakfast burrito and ladle either their house-made green chile or red chile sauces on top. Some people would like both sauces put on the burrito and waitress Martha Rotunno, who started at Tia Sophia's the first day it opened in 1975, coined the term "Christmas-style" for those who wanted their burritos - or any dish served with chile sauce - with both the green and red sauces.
"Christmas-style" chile caught on in Santa Fe and elsewhere across the southwest. But Tia Sophia's is widely regarded as the first to serve it that way. Their notoriety caught the attention of the food and travel networks and was also featured on a CBS Sunday Morning segment a year ago last December around the holiday season which featured Nick Maryol, Jim and Ann's son who took over the restaurant about 17 years ago.
(In the segment that you can see by clicking on the link, Nick Maryol says that it "rankles" him that people call it a sauce. I guess I don't know what to call it. A "gravy"? A "juice"? It's certainly not a salsa - or maybe it is. I don't know what you would classify it if you don't call it a sauce.)
We were somewhat lucky when we pulled up in front of Tia Sophia's located at 210 W. San Francisco St., an east-bound one-way street in downtown Santa Fe. (see map) A vehicle just up the street was pulling out of a parallel parking spot and we immediately jumped in the vacant spot.
On the outside of the adobe building was a historical plaque which said in the building Tia Sophia's is part of was once a jail that housed William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid. After Bonney was captured, he was held in the basement of the building from late December 1880 until he was moved to another jail in early April of 1881 for his trial. Bonney was then found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang. After he was moved to another prison to await his execution, Bonney escaped and was later killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, NM later that summer. I remarked that they probably should have just kept him in the jail in Santa Fe in the first place.
There was a small crowd waiting out in front of the restaurant when we got there. We were told at the stand just inside the door it may be a bit of a wait, but then a lady came up and said that they had a booth for two that suddenly opened up. It turned out that we were the only party of two that was waiting for a table at that time. We were led to a small wooden booth along the wall and given a couple menus. Festive turquoise dresses were tacked to the wall and multi-colored paper ornaments hung from the ceiling.
In the back of the restaurant was an open space for dining with two skylights allowing some sunlight to brighten up the room. More colorful decorations hung from the ceiling amidst the booths and tables in the back dining area.
Next to the booth where we sat was a small wood-top counter. About a half dozen high-backed metal chairs were lined up in front of the well-worn counter top. Even though it doesn't look that way in this photo, the counter was a popular place while we were there.
The breakfast items at Tia Sophia's included breakfast burritos with a choice of bacon, ham, sausage or bologna, omelets, cheese enchiladas, and Tia Sophia's handheld flour tortilla rolls with bacon, sausage or ham. Pancakes, French toast, and cereal were also available for breakfast. The Atrisco plate which featured two eggs any style with a bowl of green chile stew and a flour tortilla got my attention.
Every day, Tia Sophia's has a special on the menu. That day, the special was a Calebacita enchilada stuffed with squash, onions, corn and scrambled eggs and topped with Asadero cheese. Pinto beans came on the side with the Calebacita. And for good measure, my wife also wanted to try one of Tia Sophia's regular pancakes. She had her choice of the green or red chile - or our server offered it up "Christmas-style". My wife asked which of the two sauces were the more mild. Our server said that the red sauce was more mild. It turns out that both the green and red sauces had some kick to them, more than my wife expected. But once she got used to the spiciness of the sauce, she thoroughly enjoyed her eggs and veggies enchilada. And being somewhat of a pancake connoisseur, my wife also thought the pancake she had was very good. It was a thin-style pancake that she likes so much. But there was so much food in front of her, she wasn't able to finish it all. I did have a couple bites of her pancake and it was pretty good.
I went the simple route that day - primarily because I wasn't all that hungry - but the food at Tia Sophia's sounded great on the menu. I got the ham and cheese omelet and had them put the green sauce on the top. It was a simple omelet, nothing special, but the green sauce they have at Tia Sophia's was outstanding. It did have a bit of a spicy bite, but it wasn't anything that I thought was all that overpowering. A side of hash browns - New Mexican-style - came on the side. I was able to finish all of the omelet and two or three bites of the hash browns. Looking back, I wish I would have gotten the Atrisco breakfast with the eggs and a bowl of green chile stew. But the omelet was fine for what it was.
People were coming and going the whole time we were in Tia Sophia's. A larger group of people had congregated outside the restaurant waiting for a table by the time we left. We both thought it was fine, but not something that we would wait in line for if we were to go. As burnt out that we were on the green chile sauces at that point of our vacation, I have to say the green chile sauce at Tia Sophia's was very good. And we did get to visit and experience a somewhat famous restaurant. Sure, I'd recommend giving Tia Sophia's a try for an authentic New Mexican-style breakfast. But it wouldn't be on the top of my list to go back to if or when we get back to Santa Fe.
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