![]() ![]() In the 1940s, her son José and his wife Guadalupe, whose portraits hang over the dining room, took over and expanded it into a restaurant. The basic beats of Chope’s story are printed right on the menu: Around 1915, Longina Benavides began selling enchiladas out of her dining room, hanging a kerosene lantern by the door to let passersby know they were fresh. He says it still looks the same, minus a pool table and a working cigarette machine. Les Lane, just off work hauling feed to dairies, has haunted Chope’s bar since the ’70s. ![]() ![]() On weekends, bikers in all-leather everything pack the room, but locals line the bar tonight. The bar inside is lit with neon signs plugging domestic beer. They raised their four kids on the restaurant’s enchiladas and chiles rellenos - even in the womb, when servers slipped a pregnant Ella extra food.Īcross a gravelly lot, smokers stand outside a smaller adobe building painted with 7-Up logos and grape bunches advertising Italian Swiss Colony wine, vestiges of another time. In the foyer of the main ranch-style adobe building, Albert and Ella Avila wait on a bench for one of Chope’s red vinyl-lined tables to open up, having driven half an hour from Las Cruces to celebrate their son’s visit from New York. on a Tuesday in the small town of La Mesa, New Mexico, just north of the Texas border, and there’s already a waitlist at Chope’s Town Bar & Cafe. ![]()
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