{"id":394,"date":"2016-09-27T03:49:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T09:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=394"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:38:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:38:00","slug":"sophias-place-albuquerque-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=394","title":{"rendered":"Eli’s Place (formerly Sophia’s Place) – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Dennis<\/a>
Dennis and his daughter, the lovely Sophia at the viewing of the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode featuring his outstanding restaurant (Photo courtesy of Sandy Driscoll)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NOTE<\/strong>: In March, 2018, Sophia’s Place reopened.\u00a0 Please click here<\/a><\/strong> for the updated review.<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture yourself as a first-year marketing student assigned by your professor to perform a marketing analysis of Eli’s Place and its enigmatic chef-owner Dennis Apodaca. Essentially you’ve got to figure out the rhyme and reason behind the restaurant’s success. “Easy assignment,” you think to yourself, “Eli’s Place is successful because it serves some of the best, most delicious food in Albuquerque.” Your research quickly reveals, however, that Eli’s Place actually violates many of the time-honored, trusted and fundamental marketing tenets of growing and successful businesses. From a marketing perspective, it just shouldn’t work as well as it does. <\/span><\/p>\n

Any Marketing 101 student can tell you, for example, the importance of brand identity. A brand is one of the most valuable and important assets of a restaurant. It needs to be carefully cultivated to ensure it properly and authentically reflects the values, attributes and passions of a business. Eli’s Place received an enormous boost to its brand identity in 2008 when the Food Network came calling. Being featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is generally worth a fortune to any restaurant. So what does Dennis Apodaca do? In 2015, he renamed his restaurant, eschewing the well-established and nationally known brand name Sophia’s Place in favor of Eli’s Place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eli’s Place may not be as visually appealing as other restaurants, but it serves beautiful food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then there’s the restaurant itself. From an esthetic perspective, it isn’t nearly as inviting and attractive as those modern venues with their pristine veneer or the effusive, over-the-top flamboyance of the chains. It’s virtually homely. Heck, it doesn’t even have a sign telling you you’ve arrived at your destination. The parking lot can get muddy during inclement weather which can sometimes render the outdoor patio useless. Step inside the Lilliputian edifice and during peak hours, you’ll be challenged to find a seat. It just doesn’t make sense that Eli’s Place works as well as it does.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main reason for its success, of course, is gifted proprietor and chef Dennis Apodaca, an accomplished restaurateur despite (or maybe in spite of) not following a tried-and-true template. Sure, he may be an enigma to any marketing student, but to savvy diners he’s one of the very best chefs in New Mexico. Dennis has a very impressive pedigree that includes stints at some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and Santa Fe, having worked for several world-famous, cutting-edge chefs in some of America’s most renown restaurants. Those include Mark Miller, the high priest of modern Southwest cuisine and founder of Santa Fe’s Coyote Cafe and the pioneering Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse, the original California cuisine (focusing exclusively on organic, locally produced foods in season) restaurant in Berkeley, California.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The interior of Eli’s Place. Note the poster signed by Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host Guy Fieri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apprenticing under luminary chefs may make apparent the genesis of some of his culinary influences, but it’s also obvious that Dennis loves his craft and plies it with enthusiasm and style. I heard him speak once of his annual pilgrimages to New York and of dining at such restaurants as Katz’s, a Manhattan deli I hold in reverential esteem. Like most great chefs, he is always in pursuit of new ideas and techniques. Dennis launched the restaurant he named for his then eight-year-old daughter Sophia on December 3rd, 2002 (and which he renamed for Sophia’s own son in 2015). It’s situated at the former site of the once very popular, but now defunct Fajitaville, a restaurant at which he served as chef before launching his own operation. As popular as it was, you don’t hear many former Fajitaville patrons lament the change. That’s because they’ve been completely won over by Apodaca’s inventive, eclectic and funky menu–a menu that includes a range of sophisticated salads and soups, extraordinary sandwiches and lots of pleasant surprises.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dennis is also a stickler for using fine ingredients, many of which are flown in and delivered daily to his charming North Valley restaurant. He insists on the preparation of each meal to order; you won’t find anything sitting under a heating lamp here. You also won’t find a freezer in the premises. Dennis believes in ultra-fresh. His menu is replete with specials of the day which change frequently, usually crafted from fresh ingredients he procures from the farmer’s markets. Eli’s also does not have an oven or burners, just two grills, but sheer magic is created on those grills. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chips and salsa at Eli’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On August 25th, 2008 the Food Network’s Guy Fieri taped a segment at Sophia’s for his Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives program. On a signed poster which hangs on one of the restaurant’s walls, Fieri wrote “little place, huge flavors<\/em>.” That pretty much says it all, not that Fieri didn’t say quite a bit more about Sophia’s. After that segment aired on Monday, November 24th, 2008 getting a seat at this fabulous restaurant became even more difficult. Guy Fieri pegged it correctly when he called him “a hands-on chef who’s doing things his own way.” That includes touches like making his own butter and crafting all his culinary creations by hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

24 November 2012<\/strong>: One holdover from Dennis’s days at Fajitaville are some of the best salsas in town. An order of salsa and chips<\/em> <\/strong>rewards diners with two salsas–a roasted tomato salsa and a pico de gallo style salsa coupled with housemade chips served warm. Neither of the salsas are especially piquant, but both are redolent with freshness and flavor. The chips are lightly salted and oversized for Gil-sized portions of salsa. Unfortunately you’ll run out of salsa before you run out of chips.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Grilled<\/a>
Grilled Sirloin and Green Chile Sandwich on Sage Bakehouse Bakery Bread with Shoestring Fries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Breakfast and lunch entrees are served all day which is a great thing because you never know when the urge will hit for a world-class sandwich. <\/span>Sage Bakehouse bread, a New Mexico treasure, is the foundation upon which those sandwiches are built. Each sandwich is served with your choice of potato salad, green salad or homemade shoestring potatoes<\/strong> <\/em>(a must-have). Don’t desecrate those shoestring potatoes with ketchup. Ask instead for a small bowl of Eli’s red chile and dip your fries into that. Some of the best chile and some of the best fries in town–you can’t go wrong with that combination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eli’s grilled pastrami sandwich<\/em> <\/strong>is a poor man’s version of the aforementioned Katz’s in which pastrami is piled on skyscraper high. Even though Eli’s doesn’t lay the pastrami on as thick as at Katz’s, it’s also not apportioned in waifishly thin shreds like the sandwiches the chains proffer. In Albuquerque only California Pastrami<\/strong> serves a better pastrami sandwich (although it dropped just a bit in my estimation when packets of mustard replaced the gourmet mustard once dolloped on the sandwich). Apodaca gets his pastrami flown in from Chicago where this brisket derivative is best made.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chipotle
The green chile cheeseburger at Eli’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

30 August 2008<\/strong>: Also exceptional is the green<\/em> chile bacon cheeseburger<\/em> <\/strong>on hard-crusted Sage Bakehouse bread. As the hack comic Banya would tell Jerry Senifeld, “it’s the best, Jerry, the best.” In a city and state in which green chile cheeseburgers are a religion, Dennis Apodaca is a high priest, serving something just a bit different. This cheeseburger is a two-fisted edible piece of art with an explosively delicious taste. The green chile is not so assertive that it prevents the salty sweetness of the bacon to sneak out. Instead they meld together wonderfully. The texture of the lightly toasted Ciabatta bread is a nice departure from the traditional soft burger buns. The bacon is crispy and thick. There’s no iceberg lettuce in this masterpiece; it’s salad quality mixed greens. The hamburger patty hasn’t seen the inside of a freezer; it’s hand-formed and thick, prepared to your exacting specifications.<\/span><\/p>\n

27 September 2016<\/strong>: Burger aficionados will also love Eli’s chipotle cheeseburger<\/strong><\/em>, a work of art and absolute beauty. It’s got the piquancy (maybe even more) of a green chile cheeseburger with the inimitable flavor of chipotle. If you’re not sure what a chipotle is, it’s merely a smoked, dried jalape\u00f1o. It’s a versatile pepper, adding depth, complexity and a kick to meats, and a savory counterbalance to sweets. At Eli’s, the chipotle doesn’t come out of a jar. It’s the real thing, smoked at home and rehydrated to textural perfection. This chipotle cheeseburger is simple, a thick hamburger patty, molten cheese and chipotle. That’s it…and that’s enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sophia's
The breakfast burrito, Albuquerque’s very best<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The simply named Breakfast Sandwich<\/em> <\/strong>on (what else) toasted Sage Bakehouse bread is a concordant composition of fried eggs, bacon, cheese and fresh salsa that will help make your day start off on the right foot. It may well be the best breakfast sandwich in Albuquerque, not that there is a plethora of competition in the breakfast sandwich arena.<\/span><\/p>\n

10 April 2008<\/strong>: Eli’s breakfast burrito<\/em> <\/strong>has done something I had thought impossible. It supplanted Milton’s<\/strong><\/a> breakfast burrito as my favorite breakfast burrito in New Mexico. The primary reason is a wondrous red chile, a deep, earthy, sweet and utterly delicious chile of medium piquancy. This chile is in rarified company with Mary & Tito’s<\/a><\/strong> legendary red which I’ve long considered the best in the Duke City area. It’s the type of chile you might want to lick off your plate so as not to leave any of it behind. If Dennis were to offer New Mexican food exclusively, it would probably be the best in the city. Make sure you order your burrito “smothered” so you won’t be lamenting that there isn’t enough chile on your plate. In its September, 2011 edition, the staff of Albuquerque The Magazine<\/em><\/a><\/strong> undertook the enviable task of selecting the Duke City’s very best breakfast burrito. Eli’s was rated tenth best. To paraphrase the immortal words of former world boxing champion Max Schmeling\u2019s manager Joe Jacobs, “they waz robbed!”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Huevos Mexicanos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s only one thing wrong with Eli’s red chile. It’s that the red is so good, many of us may never again order the breakfast burrito “Christmas style” (with both red and green chile). That would be sad because the green chile is outstanding in its own right. It’s a fruity chile with a comal roasted aroma and flavor. The breakfast burrito is crafted from organic eggs, potatoes, cheese and salsa. You can have it with your choice of bacon, pork carnitas, chicken, beef or vegetables.<\/span><\/p>\n

23 November 2010<\/strong>: The daily specials on Eli’s menu truly earn the accolade “special.” Such is the case with a breakfast enchilada<\/em><\/strong> with turkey sausage, Cojita cheese and poblano chile. The melding of these ingredients make for an outstanding breakfast entree that I may have to bide my time to see returned to the menu. Fortunately, there’s always something else intriguing and invariably delicious to mollify my appetite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Another
Duck enchiladas served with a green chile cream sauce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

30 August 2008<\/strong>: Another very special special are the duck enchiladas<\/em> served with a green chile cream sauce<\/strong> <\/em>(pictured above). Somehow Dennis manages to segregate the least fatty parts of the duck while retaining all its characteristic flavor and he engorges corn tortillas with the delicious canard. A generous dollop of mildly piquant green chile sauce crowns the enchiladas with even more flavor. This special is served with black beans studded with Cojita cheese as well as a mixed greens and mango salad. This is just Dennis and his free spirited whimsy; he loves to play with ingredients and has a knack for making seemingly disparate ingredients meld together in perfect flavor synchronicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives taping took place on a day in which the special of the day was another version of duck enchiladas<\/strong><\/em>, this time with tomatillo sauce. Watching the step-by-step construction of this entree revealed the depth of Dennis’s talent, but even more so, just what a perfectionist he is. Every preparation step is meticulous and well practiced, obviously the result of extensive experimentation until everything is absolutely to the chef’s exacting standards. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Scallop Tacos with beans, rice and a salad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The duck, which is left in the bone and skin, is seasoned and rendered in duck fat for several hours then is de-boned by hand and seasoned again (lime, cilantro, Mexican red chile, sugar, salt and other ingredients) on the flat top. Two legs per order of succulent duck meat are then placed on two soft corn tortillas with Asadero cheese then topped with the tomatillo sauce, toasted pumpkin seeds, scallions and queso fresco. Fieri uttered “really good” three times punctuated with “an explosion of flavors” and “you’ve got it going on with this one.”<\/span><\/p>\n

10 April 2015<\/strong>: A Washington Post<\/em> writer recently proclaimed, “Ok so who in the hell doesn\u2019t do a scallop taco<\/strong><\/em>?” He obviously hasn’t been around the restaurant scene in Albuquerque where scallop tacos are a novelty. In fact, Dennis is just one of a handful of chefs in the landlocked Land of Enchantment I know of daring to depart from the de rigueur fish taco (which is rarely done well in New Mexico). His version starts with gigantic sea scallops which he tucks into soft, pliable corn tacos then garnishes with a mild salsa, avocado slices and Cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche. There are two scallops per taco, two tacos per order and they’re at least twice as good as the best fish taco I’ve ever had.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sophia's
Eli’s shoestring fries with red chile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eli’s scallop tacos are inspired–an amalgam of flavor combinations which work very well together. The pearlescent scallops are grilled so they have a nice char on top and at bottom while retaining an opaque clarity that means they’re absolutely perfect. I’ve tried in vain several times to duplicate Dennis’s wizardry with scallops, but have concluded begrudgingly that my scallop skills are rudimentary compared to the chef. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Saturday and Sunday brunch menu features several items not available during weekdays. These weekend specials have made Eli’s an intensely popular dining destination. You might have to wait in line ten to fifteen minutes to place your order then another half hour for your order to reach your table. It’s worth the wait.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chilaquiles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

20 April 2008<\/strong>: One of the best reasons to get up on a weekend are Eli’s Special Pancakes<\/em><\/strong>, priced daily and served with fresh fruit and real maple syrup. Those special pancakes might be sour cream and lemon pancakes<\/em> with a pi\u00f1on butter topped with blueberries. The tartness of the blueberries and lemon create a palate pleasing harmony with the maple syrup. The sour cream changes the texture of standard pancakes by adding moistness while retaining the fluffiness inherent in great pancakes. <\/span><\/p>\n

23 November 2008<\/strong>: Eli’s pancakes will cure the early morning blues (or anything else that ails you). A large stack (four) of pumpkin pancakes<\/strong> <\/em>with pinon nut butter topped with assorted berries may be the very best pancakes you’ll ever have. They’re stick to your ribs pancakes, the panacea for cold mornings. Cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice emphasize the flavor of pumpkin while the berries provide a tangy contrast. The syrup brings together the complementary tastes of sweet, tangy and pumpkiny. Share these with people you love.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Turkey Sausage Enchiladas with Red and Green Chile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the things that makes Dennis’s pancakes a panacea is his homemade butter, a culinary rarity that blew even Guy Fieri away. Fieri who has probably seen just about everything on his road tours seemed amazed that Dennis would go to that extent. After sampling Eli’s homemade butter (made from separated heavy cream mixed with toasted pine nuts, dried cherries and honey), Fieri called it “outstanding.” <\/span><\/p>\n

4 November 2012<\/strong>: Other brunch favorites include Eli’s version of chilaquiles and a very unique interpretation of Huevos Rancheros called Huevos Mexicanos<\/em>. This dish is constructed from corn tortillas topped with two eggs prepared any way you want them then slathered with green chile stew. The green chile stew is terrific, the type of which you’d appreciate at any time, but especially on a cold wintery day. The chilaquiles<\/em> are simplicity itself though its flavors are complex and delicious. Chilaquiles are a traditional Mexican dish with which Eli’s takes a few liberties, topping the eggs and tortilla chips with red chile instead of the more conventional salsa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lemon
Sour cream and lemon pancakes with a pi\u00f1on butter topped with blueberries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You’ve got to experience this gem for yourself to find out what so many diners know–Eli’s Place is one of Albuquerque’s very best restaurants of any genre. Overflow crowds and accolades don’t tell the whole story. That lies in each and every wonderful morsel of pure deliciousness fashioned by the inventive hands of the chef and owner. Eli’s Place and its superbly talented owner-chef Dennis Apodaca may be an enigma to marketing students, but to those of us who love great food, he’s a luminous star, one of the very best.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Pumpkin pancakes with pinon nut butter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ELI’S PLACE<\/span><\/strong>
\n6313 4th, N.W.
\nAlbuquerque, New Mexico<\/strong>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 27 September 2016
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 20
\nRATING<\/strong>: Outstanding<\/span><\/strong>–A stand-out; delivers a memorable dining experience through a harmonious blend of exceptional food, attentive service, and consistent quality
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Grilled Pastrami Sandwich, Breakfast Sandwich, Chipotle Bacon Cheeseburger, Simple Noodles, Breakfast Burrito, Special Pancakes, Scallop Tacos, Chilaquiles, Huevos Mexicanos, Grilled Sirloin Sandwich, Pork Carnitas Tacos,<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: In March, 2018, Sophia’s Place reopened.\u00a0 Please click here for the updated review. Picture yourself as a first-year marketing student assigned by your professor to perform a marketing analysis of Eli’s Place and its enigmatic chef-owner Dennis Apodaca. Essentially you’ve got to figure out the rhyme and reason behind the restaurant’s success. “Easy assignment,” you think to yourself, “Eli’s Place is successful because it serves some of the best, most delicious food in Albuquerque.” Your research quickly reveals, however, that Eli’s Place actually violates many of the time-honored, trusted and fundamental marketing tenets of growing and successful businesses. From a marketing perspective, it just shouldn’t work as well as it does. Any Marketing 101 student can tell you, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36327,"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":[440,21,540,165,699,1762,703,544,262,561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albuquerque","category-american","category-breakfast","category-brunch","category-closed-in-2017","category-diners-drive-ins-and-dives","category-dog-friendly","category-food-network-eats-new-mexico","category-closed","category-rating-outstanding"],"yoast_head":"\nEli's Place (formerly Sophia's Place) - Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED) - 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=394\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eli's Place (formerly Sophia's Place) - Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED) - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NOTE: In March, 2018, Sophia’s Place reopened.\u00a0 Please click here for the updated review. Picture yourself as a first-year marketing student assigned by your professor to perform a marketing analysis of Eli’s Place and its enigmatic chef-owner Dennis Apodaca. Essentially you’ve got to figure out the rhyme and reason behind the restaurant’s success. “Easy assignment,” you think to yourself, “Eli’s Place is successful because it serves some of the best, most delicious food in Albuquerque.” Your research quickly reveals, however, that Eli’s Place actually violates many of the time-honored, trusted and fundamental marketing tenets of growing and successful businesses. From a marketing perspective, it just shouldn’t work as well as it does. 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