by Lynn Cline on
A TRAIL OF LITTLE GREEN men leads us to Tia Sophia’s Roswell. The Santa Fe restaurant’s satellite location, which opened in April, already seems right at home in the UFO Capital of the World’s downtown historic district. Two friendly extraterrestrials—Huevos Juancheros, who sits on a bench, and his alien amor, Sweet Sopaipilla, who stands nearby—greet us outside.
Inside, rustic wooden tables, ristras, wagon-wheel chandeliers, and other decor pay tribute to traditional New Mexico style. Delicious scents of chile, sopaipillas, and carne adovada fill the air, continuing the culinary path Nick Maryol’s parents, Ann and Jim, started in 1975. Named after Nick’s Greek immigrant grandmother who ran Central Café in Albuquerque, Tia Sophia’s claims that Jim was the first restaurateur to put a breakfast burrito on the menu and that waitress Martha Rotunno coined the phrase “Christmas” for a combo of red and green chile.
The New Mexican cuisine my husband, Kyle, and I order—breakfast enchiladas with scrambled eggs, bacon, and a side of shredded hash browns, and huevos rancheros over easy on a blue corn tortilla topped with cheese and Christmas—is out of this world. “We hoped to bring something new to Roswell,” says Nick, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Vanessa. “It’s been great so far.”
But good food wasn’t the only motivation for the Maryols’ expansion to Roswell. Their daughter, Courtenay Worthen, son-in-law, Bryan, and three grandchildren live in the southeastern New Mexico city. “The idea of owning my own property enticed me,” Nick says of the former La Gran Victoria restaurant building that now houses Tia Sophia’s.
The vision of a second restaurant sparked over brunch with their daughter’s family last fall, when Nick spotted a vacant building nearby. After that initial location was deemed unsuitable for a restaurant, they learned that La Gran Victoria’s owners were looking to sell. “It’s a cute little spot,” Nick says. Renovations took just a month as Vanessa transformed the orange and yellow interior with shades of white, sage, and terra-cotta and redecorated the dining rooms.
Worthen serves as manager, and Nick oversees the kitchen, blending family traditions with new inventions. “We make as much in-house as possible,” he says. That includes house-made sopaipillas and daily specials like the Roswell Plate, a thin-cut black Angus steak paired with a chile relleno or a cheese enchilada smothered in chile. Nick’s favorite dish goes back to basics—a breakfast burrito with house-made chorizo topped with an egg—and continues the family’s restaurant tradition in a new location. “I wish my grandmother could see it,” he says.