WHAT DO TORTILLA COASTERS, green-chile-infused olive oil, and sopaipilla-shaped candles have in common? They’re all handcrafted by New Mexican artisans and available at the Brotique 505 shops, in Albuquerque and Las Vegas.
Expect a riot of familiar items, including Los Poblanos lavender soap, New Mexico Piñon Coffee, and 505 Southwestern salsas. “You’re also going to find things you’d probably never find anywhere else,” says co-owner Marka Garcia. “But they all celebrate New Mexico pride.”
The inspiration for Brotique 505 incubated out of state. When Marka’s brother, Eric Garcia, moved to Colorado for a job, he was blown away by the residents’ zeal for locally made products. Why don’t we have that in New Mexico? he wondered. After Eric moved back to New Mexico, he and Marka opened a 250-square-foot shipping container space on the second level of Albuquerque’s Green Jeans Farmery food hall. They expanded with a Brotique 505 in Las Vegas’s Historic Serf Theatre Hall in 2019 and added a second Duke City outpost last year, in the Tin Can Alley food hall.
“We’re seeing a lot more people taking pride in where they came from,” Marka says. “The state is full of creatives now. That’s what we’re all about: telling their stories.”
In addition to carrying goods by makers from Silver City to Tucumcari, Brotique 505 has its own line of T-shirts featuring only–in–New Mexico expressions like bueno, bye and all sick. Other fan favorites include cartographer Tom Lamb’s tea towels, and burrito koozies by the husband-wife duo at Seraparito Supply Co.
“ ‘Buy local’ is the real enchilada here,” Marka says.
Shop Brotique 505 at locations in Albuquerque and Las Vegas or online. See what’s new on Instagram @brotique505.