Ghouls and Goblin await at La Hacienda - Sunny travels to El Paso to dine with the ghost of Don Juan de Onate.
Last Saturday as I approached mile marker "0" south on I-10, the craving for Mexican food tortured with sizzling Mesilla Valley green chile hit me hard. A friend and I were trekking to El Paso for lunch, to be followed by a shopping orgy. An El Paso buddy, who joined us for the afternoon fete, suggested we meet at La Hacienda Café (1720 W. Paisano), where, I soon learned, our Mesilla Valley green chile is eminent.
Located at the crossing of the Rio Grande where Don Juan de Onate began his arduous hike from what is now El Paso to Santa Fe in 1598, La Hacienda Café is El Paso's most historic restaurant. Onate himself engaged chefs to prepare Mexican-American meals at this same spot for his 600 plus traveling compadres. (The Spanish explorer and conquistador claimed New Mexico for Spain in 1598. Onate also served as New Mexico's governor until 1607.)
Historical archives report that Simeon Hart built the main structure of today's La Hacienda for his bride Jesuita in 1850. He also operated the adjacent Hart's Flour Mill, whose building remains today. Numerous political squabbles forced Hart to lose and then reclaim La Hacienda several times. When son Juan Hart, founder of the El Paso Times, assumed control of the business, La Hacienda soon became THE hottest refuge for elite El Pasoans in search of fine food and drink. In 1881, Fort Bliss moved their headquarters next door to the restaurant providing troops with ready feasts. (Fort Bliss since moved to its present location.)
In the early 1900s, Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa was said to have dined at La Hacienda and later the building served as a news bureau for both the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
But not until 1948 did La Hacienda became a public restaurant, which was run by the Lopez family until this summer when Joe John became proprietor. Now, Mexican and Southwest-style cuisine is prepared by Chef Magdaldno Medina, who continues to use many of the Lopez family recipes.
La Hacienda is a colorful, festive clime in which to dine, especially, I'm told, for local politicians in search of authentic Mexican fare. There's even a City Hall Special consisting of cheese enchiladas with your choice of red or Mesilla Valley green chile sauce, charro beans, ranch rice and desert all for 5 bucks. Other entrees include chicken mole and a slew of familiar Mexican combos, many of which are made punchy with the world's best chile - Mesilla Valley, of course.
Female wait staff is dressed in resplendent Mexican-style costumes and the waiters sport snazzy black and white and bolo ties. La Hacienda is probably the only place in the region where you can purchase the chair on which you perch. The solid wooden straight backs are artfully stained with a kaleidoscopic of hues and designs that speak "Southwest neoteric." For $200 you can take one home. Photographs and other memorabilia deck the walls, halls and the two bars. The famed Felena, a woman of the evening, is said to have lured clients in the adjacent bar that's now called Rosa's Cantina. Legend also has it that the ghost of Don Juan de Onate continues to haunt the building's spacious chambers and several rooms pay tribute to the famous conquistador. In one darkened room a mask of Onate hangs over a fireplace mantel and peers eerily down at diners. Another wall captures the sunlight with a stained glass window that's etched with Onate in full warrior gear. In that the Halloween season is upon us, skeletons, cobwebs and other ghoulish décor seem to confirm and welcome Onate's "presence."
On warm days, many patrons prefer dining under the canopied outdoor La Parrilla Patio, where three large bells are seen suspended from a tower. Patrons quench thirsts with draft beer, wine and La Hacienda's famed "3 Bell Margaritas," so named, their literature claims, after three workmen finished installing the three bells on the patio. Placing their individual after work drinks of tequila, triple sec, and a sweetened mixture of lemon and lime juice near the bells, the threesome decided to test the chimes. When they pulled the rope, the bells swung forward, toppling the drinks into a fish bowl of ice. Rather than dispose of the "accidental" concoction, the workmen sampled the mixture and found it delicious and instantly became hooked. Since each man was married to women named Margarita, the "3 Bell Margarita" was born. Today, La Hacienda commemorates the event by serving potent 3 Bell Margaritas in a fish bowl. (One and two bell margaritas are also available.)
Before leaving La Hacienda, visit the Don Juan de Onate, El Paso Rio del Norte crossing memorial and the Official Camino Real monument on the grounds. It's a splendid opportunity to spend a lazy, autumn afternoon. For more information, call (915) 533-1919.
