The restaurant La Posta de Mesilla is currently celebrating its 85th anniversary. Scott Brocato recently visited the iconic restaurant to learn more about why La Posta has remained so popular since opening in September of 1939.
The sights and sounds of tropical birds are some of the first things you see and hear when you enter the colorful lobby of La Posta de Mesilla. Owner Tom Hutchinson knows them all, including an African Grey named Jack.
“I can be in a lobby full of people, and this bird will know I’m here,” he said. “And he’ll—she or he, we’re not quite sure—will move around her cage, following me, waiting for me to come over and say hi. Like right now.”
Much like Jack, Hutchinson moves around to greet La Posta’s many customers during this busy weekday lunchtime. The restaurant is currently celebrating its 85th anniversary, officially opening on September 16, 1939 by the great-aunt of Hutchinson’s wife, Jerean.
“A young lady by name of Katy Griggs, she's about 25 years old, approached her uncle Edgar back in 1939 about opening a taco joint on the northwest corner of this compound,” Hutchinson said. “It's where the original La Posta started. She asked her uncle if she could acquire the building and start their little La Posta cafe. So he agreed to do that. He sold her the building for $1.00 with love and affection. My wife and I didn't get the same deal in 1996. Slightly more than a buck.”
Tom’s father-in-law was one of Katy Griggs’s first customers in 1939, and described to Tom and Jerean what his dining experience was like back then.
“So Katy starts this restaurant in the north part of the compound in 1939, with a maybe a half a dozen tables on dirt floors, no running water, her mom and grandma on the back cooking,” Hutchinson said. “And she's greeting guests and seating them and taking orders in the front. And everything went well that day for Katy, except that she ran out of food about two hours before she was supposed to close. And she, of course, it took her to tears. She swore it would never happen. So one of the things we tried to embrace at La Posta is: never run out of anything. Because Katy wouldn't have liked it that way.”
Hutchinson explains how La Posta has managed to not only survive, but thrive, in the tough restaurant business for over eight decades.
“First, the facility, the history, is second to none,” he said. “It's very authentic. It wasn't designed to be a restaurant. It's really a series of Adobe buildings we pulled back the roof connected over time.”
But he said what really put La Posta on the map was the personality of its original owner, Katy Griggs.
“This is a lady that, you know, women didn't start their own businesses back in in those days. She was bound and determined to have a successful taco joint. She did. She was very vivacious, had a mouth sometimes that would make a sailor blush, told wonderful stories, treated everybody like they were family, very generous. And I think all of that, put together with the wonderful facility, the core, the history, created a very unique dining experience.”
Veronica is a regular La Posta customer, and she explains what keeps her coming back.
“The atmosphere. It’s wonderful and it’s just pleasant to be here.”
La Posta’s food is one of the factors that contributes to its unique dining experience, and Tom Hutchinson named some of his customers’ favorite dishes.
“You know, obviously our combination plates, because you get a little bit of everything on it. But the red enchilada of pancake style with an egg on top, you know, second to none. Where you going to find that anywhere, even Northern New Mexico? And then the dish that Katy created in 1939 called the Tostada Compuesta, which is really just a tortilla cup. It's cooked as a cup, deep fried as a cup, and then it's filled with frijoles, garnish, lettuce and tomato, cheese and whatever protein you'd like--typically red carne or green chile chicken.”
And then there are La Posta’s wide variety of award-winning margaritas and selection of over 100 tequilas. Mauro is one of the bartenders at La Posta’s Cantina and Tequileria. He describes La Posta’s secret to making a great margarita.
“So what we rely on has a lot to do with the tequila itself that goes into it. Nothing beats a good tequila that you’re going to put into a margarita. So if you’re already starting with a good product, there’s nothing better to it than to add some other stuff to just kind of up it a little bit. The agave itself is what kind of sweetens up the margaritas to people’s likings, but then we just have the variety of what people like. We have some really sweet ones, some more refreshing ones, we can do some more on the tart side, some more kind of tropical. So you kind of hit every kind of step of what people might like.”
Tom Hutchinson reflected on what owning La Posta has been like for him and his wife, Jerean, since they purchased it in 1996.
“Well, it's hard work,” he said. “Even one that's established, even one that’s iconic like this. But we've enjoyed it. We've raised our kids here. We're back among her family, which is fairly large compared to mine back east in Maryland. And it’s what we've been doing for a long time now. It’s working out pretty well.”
An understatement for what began as a humble “taco joint” in 1939 to the institution it is 85 years later.
