ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico favorite, the Frontier restaurant, is celebrating 50 years in business on Wednesday. For the past five decades, the iconic staple has been serving up delicious breakfast burritos, warm freshly made tortillas, and of course, the famous Frontier sweet roll.
The owner’s Larry and Dorothy Rainosek first opened the doors of the Frontier back on February 10, 1971. At the time, the single room restaurant along Central could only offer a limited menu. “It’s been a fabulous ride we’ve had over 50 years, from the first day when we had very few customers. In fact, we only made $58 that first day, so we’ve come a long way” Dorothy said.
The couple said they were excited to reach this milestone, especially in the midst of COVID-19. “It’s been pretty quiet. We hadn’t quite recovered from the ART thing where people don’t use Central as much when things started closing down, but we’ve persevered and we’re going to do it again,” Dorothy said.
How the couple ended up in New Mexico was that of chance, Larry said, as he had mistakenly thought the University of New Mexico had a similar campus size and location to a business district like the University of Texas at Austin. Even though the location wasn’t what they expected initially, it ended up working out as they said they now get much of their traffic from the University of New Mexico campus.
As the Rainosek’s look to the future, they said they don’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Above all, Dorothy said, they are grateful to the community for supporting them for so long. “Our community has supported us and our team of employees. We couldn’t do it without them,” Dorothy said.
Over the years, the restaurant has become a go-to for college students, tourists, locals, and film crews. To celebrate, Frontier is offering specials on breakfast burritos and the famous sweet rolls until Saturday.
