A Small, But Bright, Light:

Interview with Dominic Trujillo from El Farolito
By Jessica Rath

Dominic at work. Image credit: Tom Quinn Kumpf From Northern New Mexico Portraits

This tiny restaurant is famous way beyond the borders of El Rito. If you have lived in or near Abiquiú for any amount of time, you’ve probably visited at least once; make it the destination of your next restaurant outing in case you’ve never been there. Its award-winning Green Chile is world famous. Just be sure to note that the menu features NEW Mexican cuisine; some reviewers mistakenly call it “Mexican”. Wrong.
 
Dominic Trujillo, who runs the restaurant almost single handedly and easily spends over 60 hours/week doing this, still found time for an interview.  Before I get to our conversation, I want to clarify something for Abiquiú News readers who don’t live in our state (maybe even for those who live south of Albuquerque): farolitos, the little sand-filled paper bags with a votive candle inside which lighten the way to the church on Christmas Eve, for example, are sometimes mistakenly called luminarias. Which are actually bonfires made with stacked wood. They also belong to New Mexico’s Christmas celebrations, at the Taos Pueblo festivities on December 24 for example, these bonfires are huge. The tiny lights are farolitos.

Tiny, but mighty. Image credit: El Farolito.

And now, let’s turn to El Farolito. Called “a hidden gem” and “best NM restaurant in NM” with lots of five-star reviews at on-line platforms such as Yelp, listed as one of the 11 best hole-in-the-wall restaurants in New Mexico,   and frequented by celebrities such as former NM governor Gary Johnson, it certainly is worth the trip to El Rito.
 
Dominic’s parents opened the restaurant in 1983, when he was ten years old. His parents are still the owners, but have retired and Dominic manages just about everything: he cooks, serves the tables, cleans the dishes, and stocks the food people can buy at the restaurant. Actually, he does have some help: his sister Christina works with him in the evenings or on the weekends when she's not at her day job. She takes care of the front: she waits on tables, handles takeout orders, and works the register. That way, Dominic can concentrate on food preparation and cooking. Plus, a nephew works a couple of hours a week, he helps with the dishes and does clean-up work, and reorganizes the drink refrigerator in the front.
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People used to be able to buy groceries and hardware  in El Rito, at  Martin’s General Store. It was a family-owned business that ran for nearly 90 years, spanning three generations.  It closed in August of 2009, a sad event for the whole community. El Rito residents had to drive to Abiquiú or to Espanola for anything they needed. Well, Dominic found a way to help a little.

What a comfortable interior. Image credit: El Farolito.

“I needed to get another refrigerator in the front for storage, for produce and things like that”, Dominic told me.  “I found an old commercial grade refrigerator, and I started storing my produce and drinks in it. Soon people would see it and ask if they could buy a lemon or an onion and things like that.”

He continued: “During COVID, people just started asking me if I had different things. It was tougher for them to go to stores. So, for about the last five years, I've been doing my best to carry a few odds and ends of groceries.”

This brought up a question for me: did they have to close down for COVID? Did they lose a lot of business then?

“No,” Dominic assured me. “I closed for one day but otherwise it  was just business as usual. Ever since the beginning of the restaurant  half, if not more of our business was takeout orders. So it wasn't much of an adjustment because we simply switched over to all takeout. The only thing I had to do was ensure the social distancing inside the restaurant for the customers. Otherwise it  didn't really affect business at all. It was as good as it ever was, maybe even a bit better. We’re the only restaurant here in town, and a lot of people just wanted to get something to eat. People just don't feel like cooking, so they  just call in an order and I pack it up and ship it out the door. COVID didn't really have any bearing on our  business other than that  I didn't have dine-in anymore, which meant that I didn't have to spend a couple of extra hours at night washing plates and silverware and cups.”

Dominic told me more about his intense work schedule.

“We used to be closed on Mondays, and we were open the other six days during the week. Now I close on Mondays and Tuesdays. My parents used to do all the shopping, and that gave me a free day to do whatever I needed to do around my own house with my own kids. But now that I'm doing all the shopping, I do that on Mondays. Tuesday is my day off to do whatever I have to do with my kids, like taking my son to physical therapy today.”
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“It can be stressful. I will be honest, there are times when I think to myself, I want to retire, I want to quit, I want to get out. But there's also a stubbornness in me that says we have to keep on going, because there's a lot of people who depend on you. I'm  generally at the restaurant for about 70 hours a week, between 60 and 70 hours.”
 
This sounds so intense! But maybe this dedication contributes greatly to El Farolito’s success – after all, it’s known way beyond Rio Arriba County.

Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson at his favorite restaurant. Image credit: El Farolito.

“I get customers from all over the world,” Dominic asserted. “I have a pretty good rating on the internet. I don't really check those reviews, but a lot of people read about me, and they will go out of their way to visit us, because El Rito is out of the way. They'll go out of their way to come in and try our food.”

I bet that’s because the food tastes absolutely wonderful, according to the many reviews. Even vegetarians and vegans can find a number of delicious dishes.

Dominic confirmed this: “There are vegan things on the menu, and I will work with vegans and vegetarians. We don’t use lard, we never have, the only thing I use lard for is when I make biscochitos. That's the only thing I ever use lard for. The red chili has always been vegetarian, we've never made it with meat in it. For the most part, the beans are completely vegetarian/vegan. So is the rice, it just has onions and tomato juice in it. I will work with people so they can enjoy their meal. That's pretty much all I ever really care about.”

I was curious: have the recipes you use been in your family for a long time?

Doesn’t this look delicious! Image credit: El Farolito.

“I'm not 100% sure. You know, my Mom still always makes the tamales. The green chile is something that my dad came up with, and the salsa that we use there, probably one of the most popular items, is something that he started and then I've tweaked it over the years and done it a bit differently, but apparently it's just as good, because I sell at least five gallons of it a week.”

So does anybody ever ask you for the recipes, I wanted to know.
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“Occasionally they do,” was Dominic’s response, “and I don’t. They’re not my intellectual property. They’re still my Dad's intellectual property and he is still alive. I don't want to go over his head and give out the recipes. But the truth is that I could give you the recipe for any one of my dishes, and it probably wouldn't come out the same. I've been making the chile and other dishes  since I moved back here from Colorado in the late 90s, and my red chile has never been quite the same as my Dad's. Neither has my green chile or my salsa. It's always a little different. Even if you follow the recipe as closely as you can, every cook has a certain touch which makes the dish their own.”

I wanted Dominic to confirm that he does all the cooking.
“Yes,  except for my Mom, she still makes the chile rellenos, she still makes the tamales, and she still makes the beans,” he answered.  “We make the beans in house. Occasionally I do keep a few cans of beans here, just in case. If I'm super, super busy and I run out of the homemade beans, I will use a can. But mainly the beans are her thing; she calls me every night and asks what we need for the following day. We use pressure cookers here, that's the only way to get them done in an hour or so.” 

Just adorable. Image credit: El Farolito.

I had a vision: maybe at some point, somebody can help you make an El Farolito cookbook?
“I do have all of my recipes written down in a notebook. They're just there. I have this black binder and I've shown it to my kids. In the binder is all my paperwork, my birth certificate and stuff like that,” Dominic replied. “And there are all my recipes. I told my kids, if you guys want, you can create a cookbook and make a million bucks;” he laughed.

Do you think they are interested, I asked.

“They're not interested in following me down this road. And I kind of pushed them away from it. This is something that you have to put your whole self into, and if you're not willing to do that, then you shouldn't do that. If you're not willing to make the sacrifices it won’t work. I totally understand where they’re coming from, they grew up almost like not having a Dad. Even though they were here with me all the time, I was at work so much that they didn't really have a Dad. I give them the freedom to decide if they want to work in the restaurant or not.” 

Every one of my kids has worked with me. They helped me with waiting on tables or stuff like that. But it's not a career path that any of them has chosen, and I totally get it.”

I find it impressive that Dominic gives his children the freedom to choose. Maybe he didn't have that freedom, what did your father expect of you? I enquired.

His answer was not really surprising; Dominic’s father belongs to a different generation with different customs. “He did expect me to jump in and work. I started working in the restaurant when I was twelve, and I worked there during summer break, and by the time I was in high school, I was working after school. When I graduated I was already kind of burned out. I basically ran away as far as I could.”

 So that's when you went to Colorado?.

“Yes, but I didn't go that far. I only went to Alamosa, I went to college there.
I actually became a mortuary intern.”

Well, that was surprising to hear! 

Interior. Image credit: Tom Quinn Kumpf

“It was a Plan B kind of thing. My original plan was to get a degree and maybe become a coach and a teacher at a school, maybe become a music teacher or a history teacher.But when I was up in Colorado, I met my late wife who was from Alamosa. We fell in love and got married right away. And then I had to make a living. So more or less  the whole time I was up there going to school, I was working at restaurants. I was doing what I knew. So I was working at fast food places or wherever I could get a job. There were a lot of different restaurants in Alamosa.”
Dominic continued: “I did that for quite a few years, but in the late 90s my Dad found out he had diabetes. Back then, diabetes was like a death sentence. So, my parents got me to come back home. My late wife and I got married in 1995 and we lived in Alamosa for a couple of years. Our son was born almost exactly a year later, on New Year's Eve of 1996 and we stayed there for a few years, and then we came back here in 1998.”

Now I was curious: how many children do you have, I asked.
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Dominic’s answer came as a surprise: “Altogether, I have five. I have three biological children, and I have an adopted daughter, and a stepson. All of my children are adults now. My adopted daughter is the oldest. She just turned 34 in December. My oldest son just turned 28, and my youngest will be 24 in May. And then I have another biological daughter. Her Mom and I are currently married. It's a long, funny story, but she will be 29 in February. My stepson will be 27. Actually, he's just my son, I don't refer to him as my stepson. He's just my son.”

With a sense of humor! Dominic and his wife Becca. Image credit: El Farolito.

So you remarried, is that correct? I asked Dominic.

“Yes, my wife and I got married in May, but she's been living here with me for five years, a little over five years. She moved here in December of 2019.
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She’s a huge Star Wars fan, and so we got married on May the Fourth, you remember the whole “May the Force be with you” kind of thing. It was a Star Wars-themed wedding. We've been trying to pull off the wedding ceremony for a few years, but with COVID and other things it was always delayed. Last year, we were finally able to have an actual wedding.”

Dominic and Becca, a happy couple. Image credit: El Farolito.

Congratulations – you look so happy together!

And then Dominic surprised me: “I noticed your accent. Is it German?” he asked. This doesn’t happen all that often. I know I have an accent even after living in the United States for almost 50 years,  but people usually can’t pinpoint it. Sweden? France?, they guess. Germany – not so much. But Dominic explained why he was able to guess correctly:
 
“When I was a kid, when I was  eight years old, I broke my legs – all four bones, the tibias and the fibulas in my lower legs. So I was laid up for a month. Thankfully, my bone healed quickly, but I couldn’t move much for a month. During that time there was nothing for me to do except play cards or play solitaire or read.  I was at my grandmother's in California, and I read a whole set of encyclopedias!  And some of the books I liked were Intro to German, Intro to Italian, and Intro to French. I could already speak Spanish, but I read through all those books, and I learned how to speak a little bit of French, a little bit of Italian, a little bit of German.” How impressive is that!

Opposite of the old Martin’s Store. Image credit: El Farolito.

When Dominic talked to me on a Tuesday, one of the two days when he doesn’t work in the restaurant, he had just returned from taking his son to physical therapy in Espanola.

“He had a bad slip and fall about two years ago, and he hurt his right leg pretty badly,” Dominic explained, “but with the physical therapy he's slowly but surely regaining the ability to walk.”
Dominic drives to Espanola every week, to help his son. Once again, I’m so moved by what I learn when I interview a person. Dominic has an immense workload and lots of responsibility for his business as well as for his family, and yet, he is cheerful and retains a sense of humor. An intelligent man;  who knows what career options he might have had when he was younger. But he is dedicated to the restaurant and my guess is that his cooking has turned into some sort of art, his personal creations.
 
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Dominic, and may your son get completely well soon!