{"id":134,"date":"2025-03-09T16:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T22:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=134"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:38:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:38:53","slug":"chopes-la-mesa-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=134","title":{"rendered":"Chope’s – La Mesa, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chope’s, a 150-year old home converted into one of New Mexico’s very best restaurants (Photo Courtesy of Sandy Driscoll)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During my Kim’s inaugural visit shortly after we retired from the Air Force in 1995, we ran into a former Las Cruces resident now living in the nation’s capital. His near teary-eyed testimony about how much he missed Chope’s was more powerful than a Sunday sermon.\u00a0\u00a0 When he kissed the hallowed ground in front of Chope’s, we knew he meant it.\u00a0 An elderly gentleman recounted the time Chope’s salsa was so hot it made him hiccup for three days.\u00a0 A middle-aged woman from Las Cruces rhapsodized about Chope’s chile rellenos, her testimony practically eliciting involuntary salivation in the impromptu audience of queued patrons.\u00a0 Chope’s has had a similar effect on most its guests for six generations.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the consummate mom-and-pop operation, Chope’s had the most humble of beginnings.\u00a0 Nearly a century ago,–1915 to be precise–Longina Benavides began selling enchiladas to her neighbors in the farming community of La Mesa.\u00a0 A \u00a0 kerosene lantern hanging outside the front door of the circa 1850s family home signaled the availability of\u00a0 enchiladas just off the stove.\u00a0 When Longina’s son Jose inherited the home, he and his wife Lupe continued the family tradition of feeding their neighbors.\u00a0 They named the family business “Chope’s,” the nickname Jose’s father had given him.<\/p>\n

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The main dining room at Chope’s (Photo Courtesy of Sandy Driscoll)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chope’s is officially one of the most important restaurants in America. In 2015, Chope\u2019s earned a rare honor for restaurants when the National Park Service named it to the National Register of Historic Places. It wasn\u2019t solely because Chope\u2019s had been run by the same family for 100 years without interruption.\u00a0 Places that end up on the list have to be historically significant, whether due to an association with a person, event, architectural style, or discovery.<\/p>\n

Chope\u2019s recounts an ignominious story that has largely been lost in American history.\u00a0 It’s the story of the braceros<\/em>, Mexican men who came to work American fields for two decades in the middle of the 20th century as part of a bilateral guest-worker agreement.\u00a0 Essentially President Franklin Delano Roosevelt struck a deal with Mexican president Manuel \u00c1vila Camacho to bring Mexican workers to the U.S. on temporary contracts as part of the Mexican Farm Labor Program, more commonly known as the Bracero Program. Though the braceros\u2019 labor was critical to the American wartime economy, Chope\u2019s is one of the few places left in America that remembers.\u00a0 Chope’s and the village of La Mesa were among the few who treated braceros with dignity and kindness.<\/p>\n

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Chope’s Bar, Established in 1909 (Three Years Before New Mexico Became a State)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Derived from the term brazo<\/em>, the Spanish word for \u201carm,\u201d many braceros found they were considered nothing more than a pair of strong arms. And while the agreement was supposed to minimize the exploitation of workers, it rarely did. The Bracero History Archive<\/a><\/strong> recalls that \u201cmany laborers faced an array of injustices and abuses, including substandard housing, discrimination, and unfulfilled contracts or being cheated out of wages<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Braceros had a different experience in La Mesa compared to farming communities elsewhere.\u00a0 \u00a0Southern New Mexico, after all, had once been<\/em> Mexico. Mexicans had come to work on farms in this region long before any official agreements had been struck. Americans and Mexicans were not only more comfortable living together, but many shared ancestry. In La Mesa, they had access to the ingredients and dishes that they had grown up eating \u2014 tortillas, sopes, tamales, rice, and more. The braceros here were part of the fabric of the community. And, in La Mesa, that means you could often find them at Chope\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Chope passed away in 1990, but his legacy lives on.\u00a0 So do stories of his decades-long run as Democratic precinct chairman for La Mesa.\u00a0 Savvy candidates knew that in order to carry the county, an endorsement from the popular restaurateur was a must. \u00a0\u00a0 Chope was also a staunch advocate of higher education, his daughters and granddaughters all having attended New Mexico State University and all have or continue to work at the restaurant in one capacity or another.\u00a0 Chope’s remains an Aggie alumni favorite.<\/p>\n

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Dining at the Bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The glass-half-empty crowd will lament the “middle of nowhere” journey to Chope’s, a fifteen-mile jaunt from Las Cruces along scenic Highway 28, taking virtually the same route Spanish explorer Don Juan de O\u00f1ate traveled in 1598.\u00a0 It’s a slow, meandering drive that might seem interminable if you’re famished.\u00a0 Others will enjoy the journey which bisects the historic village of Mesilla and the sprawling Stahmann Farms, the world’s largest family-owned pecan farm with some 180,000 trees producing between eight- and ten-million pounds of pecans per year.\u00a0 Tree limbs from both sides of the highway meet overhead, providing a shade tunnel that seems like something out of a fairy tale.<\/p>\n

First-timers might be confused when they arrive at Chope’s. Their first inclination might be to enter the colorful building with the signage which reads “Chope’s Town Cafe” just above clusters of painted purple grapes on the vine.\u00a0 The grapes precede the slogan “You can’t miss with Italian Swiss Colony wines…vinos deliciosos<\/em>.”\u00a0 That building houses Chope’s bar which is renown for its varied selection of adult beverages: imported beers, premium tequilas and pitchers of margaritas.\u00a0 The bar does offer the entire menu, but the restaurant is actually next door in the house in which Chope was born.\u00a0 The bar is favored by bikers as evidenced by bikes of all types parked in front of the complex.\u00a0 During a visit in March, 2025, I had a great conversation with the military veterans in one biker group.\u00a0 Though they jokingly consider the Air Force the “country club among the armed forces<\/em>,” they respected my service and commisserated with me about commanders in chief who have failed the military.<\/p>\n

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Chips and Salsa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The old house is charming in a homey “having all your relatives in your dining room for Christmas” sort of way. \u00a0 It’s perpetually crowded with seating in personal-space proximity.\u00a0 It’s not uncommon for diners in adjacent tables to continue the neighborly discourse they initiated when they stood together in line waiting for the restaurant to open. Until 2009, the\u00a0 walls on the dining rooms were adorned in faux wood paneling festooned with plaques and certificates. A make-over in 2009 has brought each of the three dining rooms into the twentieth-century.\u00a0 The walls are now painted in soft colors with several nichos indenting the wall, the perfect spot for art.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Josefina Garcilazo, a Chope’s mainstay emerged as a James Beard Foundation semi-finalist in the “Best Chef – Southwest” category.\u00a0 Josefina has worked in the historic restaurant for forty years, the longest of any employee.\u00a0 She’s considered family and has been entrusted with the sacrosanct family recipes.\u00a0 Josefina prepares everything fresh daily and routinely tastes everything she cooks to ensure it meets the high standards for which Chope’s has been known.\u00a0 Both red and green chile have a “home cooked” quality that locals and visitors alike believe is incomparable in a state renowned for red and green chile.<\/p>\n

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Chope’s unique con queso with four flour tortillas<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Above the door to the kitchen, which is adjacent to the main dining room, is a ceramic placard reading “Lupe’s Comedor.”\u00a0 To the right are portraits of Chope and Lupe (who used to visit the kitchen on occasion to make sure her recipes were followed to the letter).\u00a0 Lupe’s Comedor is the domain of deliciousness in which the magic happens, where three tons of autumn-harvested Mesilla Valley chile are served to devoted diners.\u00a0 For the benefit of unacculturated visitors and tourists, the menu includes a small dictionary that defines\u00a0 traditional New Mexican food (interestingly, enchiladas are misspelled).\u00a0 The back of the menu regales guests with the history of Chope’s and of the Benavides family.<\/p>\n

The epitome of excellence and perhaps best use of a long green chile anywhere is in the form of a chile relleno<\/em><\/strong> from Chope’s which doesn’t use the benign Poblano as many other restaurants do.\u00a0 The chile is stuffed (though not so much that it puffs up) with a mild white cheese, lightly breaded in an eggy flour batter and fried to a crisp.\u00a0 The chile rellenos, and there may be none better anywhere in New Mexico, are available as an a la carte item or in quantities of three. \u00a0 Unlike some chile rellenos throughout New Mexico, these are not smothered in chile or melted cheese.\u00a0 That’s the way it should be–let the rellenos speak for themselves. The restaurant’s motto “stuff it,” by the way, relates to the relleno and does not, as some might suspect, reflect Chope’s sentiment toward Republicans.<\/p>\n

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Combination Plate #4: Two enchiladas Christmas style, one taco, one chile relleno, beans and rice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The salsa<\/em><\/strong> is liquefied fire.\u00a0 It is easily the most incendiary item on the menu and it’s complementary.\u00a0 if you happen to be there when the restaurant opens up, you might espy the wait staff ensuring each table has chips and salsa.\u00a0 The chips are thick and low in salt.\u00a0 They’re formidable enough for Gil-sized scoops of salsa though if you’re not a fire-eater, you’ll likely just dip the tip of the chip into the salsa.\u00a0 It’ll still bite you back.\u00a0 Aside from its potent piquancy, it’s a very flavorful salsa, showcasing the melding of ingredients in perfect proportion to one another.<\/p>\n

To mollify your scorched tongue, you might want to order the chile con queso<\/em><\/strong>, another Chope’s menu item which might be the very best in New Mexico.\u00a0 It’s an unconventional con queso, the antithesis of the melted glop some restaurants try to pass off as con queso.\u00a0 It’s more akin to a green chile stew, with or without meat, topped with a melting white cheese…and it is absolutely fabulous.\u00a0 Instead of chips, the con queso is accompanied by four flour tortillas, each about five-inches in diameter and about an eighth of an inch thick, not the paper-thin abomination inferior restaurants serve.\u00a0 Use the tortillas to scoop up the con queso and you’ll be amazed at the magnificent marriage of green chile and cheese.<\/p>\n

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Quesadilla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Combination platters will allow you to maximize your adventure in taste.\u00a0 My favorite is combination plate number four<\/em><\/strong>: two enchiladas, one taco, one chile relleno, beans and rice.\u00a0 Of course, I order this platter “Christmas style,” with both red and green chile.\u00a0 The green chile is usually slightly more piquant than the red.\u00a0 The green chile is perfectly roasted and evinces just why chile is considered a fruit and not a vegetable.\u00a0 Amidst the glorious piquancy, you can taste a succulent sweetness and best of all, it’s not pureed; it’s chopped into small bits. The red chile is a deep red, wholly unlike most of the red chile served in restaurants throughout northern New Mexico.\u00a0 The color and flavor are reminiscent of a good chile Caribe (concentrated chile made from dried red chile pods, blended and processed to a smooth consistency) though I have not been able to discern any of the usual pod remnants.<\/p>\n

The enchiladas are among the very best in New Mexico.\u00a0 They’re rolled, not stacked, and engorged with cheese then topped with a blend of perfectly melted white and Cheddar cheeses.\u00a0 The enchiladas are so good, in fact, that a fried egg is wholly unnecessary.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve always contented that southern New Mexico makes better enchiladas than my beloved north and Chope’s validates that opinion. Tacos are also terrific, made with well-seasoned ground beef enveloped by soft corn tortillas and accompanied by lettuce, tomatoes and cheese.\u00a0 Though combination plate number four includes a taco, it’s advisable to order at least one a la carte taco.\u00a0 To say they’re fabulous is an understatement.\u00a0 Both beans and rice are also ridiculously good.\u00a0 The rice is fluffy and light, wholly unlike the clumpy, liquefied rice some restaurants serve.\u00a0 The beans are refried and topped with that wonderful white cheese Chope’s uses so well.<\/p>\n

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Red and Green Enchilada Plate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

9 March 2025<\/strong>:\u00a0 Chope’s chile is so fiery that just being in proximity to it is almost too much for my Kim.\u00a0 That wasn’t the case in 1996 when I first introduced her to this legendary restaurant.\u00a0 Sadly, a prescription has sensitized her taste buds to the extent that anything beyond the piquancy of ketchup is too much for her.\u00a0 There are few things on Chope’s menu she can eat.\u00a0 Among them are quesadillas and gorditas.\u00a0 Her choice was a simple quesadilla<\/strong><\/em>, flour tortilla wrapped around beef and cheese with sour cream on the side.\u00a0 As quesadillas sans chile go, it was a good one, but this fire-eater would have preferred chile’s inimitable bite in every morsel.<\/p>\n

9 March 2025<\/strong>:\u00a0 Among the enchiladas plates on the menu are one that includes an enchilada topped with red chile, an enchilada topped with green chile and one filled with sour cream.\u00a0 I asked for two eggs atop the enchiladas, obviously having forgotten how much it would deplete my 4.1K account.\u00a0 Oh well, you only live once.\u00a0 The enchilada plate<\/strong><\/em> was superb, deliciousness in every bite.\u00a0 Neither red or green chile had the legendary piquancy I remember.\u00a0 In fact, both red and green were discernible in their piquancy, but not so much that I prayed for a quick death.\u00a0 Neither chile drew blood…er, sweat on my brow.\u00a0 Yes, the chile was delicious (as good as you’ll find anywhere), but some of us believe pain is a flavor and it’s a flavor we love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sopaipillas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

9 March 2025<\/strong>:\u00a0 \u00a0Only one dessert was available, but it’s the quintessential New Mexico dessert.\u00a0 Yes, sopaipillas with honey (real honey).\u00a0 Alas, these sopaipillas<\/strong><\/em> are the training bra of sopaipillas.\u00a0 They didn’t have any of the characteristic puffiness that define sopaipillas.\u00a0 They were also very greasy and just not very good.\u00a0 It made me wonder how Chope’s could possibly serve a stuffed sopaipilla if the sopapillas have no pockets in which to load up with ingredients.<\/p>\n

My friend Steve Coleman of Steve’s Food Blog<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>says, “at Chope’s you enter the realm of world-class roadfood<\/em>.” What a perfect assessment! Chope’s is not a pretentious gourmet restaurant, but it has won over the hearts and appetites of diners from throughout the world who recognize it for what it is–New Mexican home cooking as good as it can possibly be. For New Mexican food I rate it just below Mary & Tito’s<\/a>,<\/strong> the James Beard award-winning treasure in Albuquerque and long, my very favorite restaurant in the Land of Enchantment. That’s my paean to a Land of Enchantment gem in little La Mesa!<\/p>\n

Chope’s<\/strong>
\nRoute 28
\nLa Mesa, New Mexico<\/strong>
\n(505) 233-3420
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 9 March 2025
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 5
\nRATING<\/strong>: Excellent<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 High quality dining experience; very good to excellent food, attentive service, and a well-maintained atmosphere; worth a detour.
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Enchiladas, Chile Rellenos, Tacos, Con Queso, Tapatio, Quesadilla, Chips and Salsa<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During my Kim’s inaugural visit shortly after we retired from the Air Force in 1995, we ran into a former Las Cruces resident now living in the nation’s capital. His near teary-eyed testimony about how much he missed Chope’s was more powerful than a Sunday sermon.\u00a0\u00a0 When he kissed the hallowed ground in front of Chope’s, we knew he meant it.\u00a0 An elderly gentleman recounted the time Chope’s salsa was so hot it made him hiccup for three days.\u00a0 A middle-aged woman from Las Cruces rhapsodized about Chope’s chile rellenos, her testimony practically eliciting involuntary salivation in the impromptu audience of queued patrons.\u00a0 Chope’s has had a similar effect on most its guests for six generations. Perhaps the consummate mom-and-pop…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3622,2836,112,141,581,563],"tags":[4784,4785,4788,2781,4789,4786,4790,4787,4783,2046,949,994],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-beard-foundation-best-chef-southwest-nominee-2024","category-james-beard-award-best-chef-restaurants","category-new-mexican","category-new-mexico","category-new-mexico-culinary-treasures","category-rating-excellent","tag-best-chef-southwest-semifinalist","tag-braceros","tag-chef-josefina-garcilazo","tag-chile-con-queso","tag-chile-rellenos","tag-chopes-bar","tag-combination-plate-4","tag-established-1909","tag-james-beard-foundation","tag-quesadilla","tag-salsa-and-chips","tag-sopaipillas"],"yoast_head":"\nChope's - La Mesa, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=134\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chope's - La Mesa, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During my Kim’s inaugural visit shortly after we retired from the Air Force in 1995, we ran into a former Las Cruces resident now living in the nation’s capital. His near teary-eyed testimony about how much he missed Chope’s was more powerful than a Sunday sermon.\u00a0\u00a0 When he kissed the hallowed ground in front of Chope’s, we knew he meant it.\u00a0 An elderly gentleman recounted the time Chope’s salsa was so hot it made him hiccup for three days.\u00a0 A middle-aged woman from Las Cruces rhapsodized about Chope’s chile rellenos, her testimony practically eliciting involuntary salivation in the impromptu audience of queued patrons.\u00a0 Chope’s has had a similar effect on most its guests for six generations. 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