ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Since 1974, Tomasita’s has made a name for itself by serving up some of the best and most authentic, made-from-scratch New Mexican food. However, they’re changing up tradition a bit with how they are serving their sopapillas.
When you have your sopapillas delivered to your table, next to them you’ll find a serving of their house-made honey butter. But how did honey butter find its way onto Tomasita’s menu? The owner of Tomasita’s, George Gundrey, says it was in the 1980s when his mother Georgia, the founder of Tomasita’s, was served honey butter while dining in a restaurant in California.
“She said, ‘This would be great on a sopapilla’. So, she brought it back to Santa Fe, and she introduced honey butter as a condiment to sopapillas; and that’s what Tomasita’s has done ever since,” said Gundrey.
Tomasita’s is known for using top-notch ingredients in simple ways. Their honey butter recipe, Gundrey says, is only three things: butter, honey, and milk to help thin the mixture. “They assume it’s butter when they see it, the reaction is always ‘Oh really, oh it’s wonderful, it’s so good, I didn’t know what it was’,” said Gundrey.
Gundrey also says that their honey butter is the perfect accompaniment to their scratch-made sopapillas. The secret to making a perfect one of those, according to Gundrey, is making sure they’re incredibly puffy and hot.
“What we do at Tomasita’s, we want to make homemade food. We don’t use any chemicals; we only use the freshest ingredients and it’s all very simple. I think it’s important both from a flavor perspective, but also a little bit spiritually. We like to say there’s love in the food,” said Gundrey.
Tomasita’s has two locations. One is in Santa Fe, near the intersection of South Guadalupe Street and Montezuma Avenue. The other is in Albuquerque, off of I-25 and Jefferson. Both locations open at 11:00 a.m. every day.
