The Fork: Three Cheers for Tia Sophia’s Nick Maryol

Remember last week when we were all like, “Hey, everybody, we have a $50 gift certificate for Tia Sophia’s restaurant in Santa Fe, and if you donate to one of the causes below, we’ll pick a winner for that thing?”

Well, we’re happy to report that a couple days after The Fork ran, Tia Sophia’s owner Nick Maryol reached out to our boss to say, and we’re paraphrasing here, “Oh, dude, that’s cool—I would fully match the amount on that gift card for whoever wins that bad boy.”

First off, this is nice as hell, and we appreciate Maryol for his kindness. As we said last week, we’ve loved Tia’s forever and ever, and we feel even better knowing that its ownership is all like, “We love community, too!” Nick Maryol did not need to do that, but he instead went out of his way. What a guy! Everyone loves that place, too, and they have since Nick’s folks Ann and Jim Maryol opened up in 1975.

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Our boss even asked him a couple questions while they were on the phone, and they looked like this:

What made you want to match the giveaway?

Oh, I dunno, it just sounded like a fun thing to do. I mean, my manager had seen the story, it came across his news feed on his phone and he shot me the link. So I read it a couple of times and I was trying to remember if someone from the Reporter came by, but I thought, well, gee, it almost doesn’t seem fair that I get a little bit of publicity and [the money from] a gift certificate, so...

This is going to sound like a controversial question, but we’re on your side here: Legend has it that Tia Sophia’s invented the breakfast burrito—did y’all really invent the breakfast burrito?

I used to tell people my dad invented it, but the way my dad said it was like, New Mexicans have been putting eggs and bacon and cheese and potatoes in tortillas and eating on the run forever. He was merely the first person to put the breakfast burrito on a menu. He didn’t so much invent it—and he didn’t like to brag, so I bragged for him.

What’s your favorite thing about the restaurant?

We haven’t changed the recipes since the ‘70s, and the fun thing about this job is that we’re keeping a little bit of the old Santa Fe, a little bit of my childhood, alive.

You a bit of a chile fanatic?

I eat chile every single day.

Do you think you’ll stay on as long as you can?

Oh, yeah. I’m here until I retire, fates willing. I think I’ve got another 20 years or so to go, anyway.

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So there you have it—cool dude loves chile and is totally gonna match our $50 gift cert for a total of $100 at Tia Sophia’s. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Oh, and in case you haven’t entered yet (and we see many of you have), you can donate to one of the things listed below. If you can’t swing it money-wise, you can also enter the giveaway by dropping us a line with a reason for why you should get that cert—but make it good.

Anyway, here’s the list:

The Food Depot (it’s a food bank and so much more)

Cooking With Kids (it’s about teaching kids to cook, not literally cooking dishes that feature children)

Reunity Resources (it’s a local farm that does all kinds of cool stuff with kids and adults and also has a free food pantry for needy folks)

Kitchen Angels (it’s about bringing food to homebound folks who need it and we’re not sure why we didn’t just remember it in the first place and we’re sorry for that, truly)

We’re going to be real with you—the only reason we put the trailer for Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo in this week’s edition of The Fork is because we thought it said “Brekkie 2.”

In Defense of Our Beloved Term “Brekkie B”

You might think that because we’re a being of pure light that we don’t see y’all out there dunking on us for the term “brekkie b,” but we do. And you know what? We don’t give a shit.

It’s a term that was born out of a couple things, not least of which being The Beatles’ not-actually-that-good movie Yellow Submarine, wherein Paul (voiced by not Paul) is heard to remark about wanting “a bit of brekkie.” Now, we know you boomers reading this thing are in freaking love with The Beatles, so hopefully that calms you down enough. And if you’re freaking out about how we said “boomers,” then our intent worked perfectly.

But still, that’s not even when or how the term came to be. No. From there, the term “brekkie” was bandied about during mid-morning hangover conversations about where we could find the greasiest foods to help us get on with our post-drunk lives. It was frére de la fourchette who eventually added the “b,” when remarking, and this is NOT a paraphrase, “I don’t even know or care what’s going to happen to me today, tomorrow, for the rest of my life, I just know that if I don’t get a breakfast burrito, I’ll die. I’ll die without a bit of brekkie. I will straight up die if I don’t get a brekkie b.”

Cut to today and the way folks whine and carry on like it’s the worst thing to happen to them...well, it’s kind of like acting like The Beatles are the greatest band ever. What’s that meme that’s like, “James Brown changed music, like, 8 times, but I still have to hear about freaking ‘Nowhere Man?’” Hahah! Swish. Hey, look, we actually love The Beatles, too, but believe your beloved John Lennon would probably be like, “Let the being of pure light say brekkie b...how does it hurt you, gov-naaaaaaaah?!”

This is the last time we’ll bother to explain this to you and the last time we’re gonna say that we’ll never give it up. Hell, if anything, let us give you a little psychology lesson: Demanding that a person (or being of pure light) do or not do something is like begging them to do the opposite. Duh. It’s basic. #BrekkieB

Also

-You probably already heard that Santa Fe gastropub Fire & Hops closed forever following service last weekend, but in case you didn’t, here’s the scoop on that (through this link). It’s honestly another example of how it’s getting harder and harder to be here, love this town, invest in this town or otherwise tell fools you love Santa Fe. Restaurants are closing at a seemingly accelerated pace (Fire & Hops joins HoneyMoon Brewery, Loyal Hound and too many other to even list that have closed in recent years) and we aren’t sure what to do about it. We just know we don’t want to live in the city that only has Subway and Panera and fucking Chick-fil-A.

-We hear the fine folks at Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery recently picked up more than $30,000 in state grant bucks to train folks in spirits and beer production. The adorably named JTIP, or Job Training Incentive Program, does good things.

-Ohhhhhhhh, snark, the El Rancho de las Golondrinas Renaissance Faire is coming up this weekend, and from the vendor list we’ve seen, the food choices are gonna go off. We’re talkin’ turkey legs from three—yes, three—different vendors (YouthWorks, Power 5 BBQ and CCR Corn Roasters), plus Fusion Tacos (get the birria tacos), Poki Tako (get the salmon citrus poke) and more. We don’t have the energy to link all that stuff, so just go here to learn more.

-Pizza fans might wanna know that the El Farol Pizza truck, which has pretty much lived at El Farol on Canyon Road since it started pizza-ing, will find a new home at Nuckoll’s Brewing Co. in the Railyard as part of the Railyard’s ongoing quest to be a place where you can get a beer, a pizza and a burger—AND NOTHING ELSE! Naw, just kidding, there’s lots of other stuff to get over there, it’s just...damn, like, it’s a lot of microbrews and pizzas is all we’re saying. Could someone open up a little sandwich shop or something? A quickie burrito joint?

-Fans of the Jesushi food truck (which serves excellent sushi and hangs around outside the Eclipse Car Wash at 2217 Cerrillos Road) might be glad to know that Churro Bar, another excellent food truck, will relocate from its spot at the Villa Linda Mall (we will NEVER call it Santa Fe Place) to a spot right over there by Jesushi. Sushi and churros?! It’s like everything we dreamed about as an adolescent being of pure light, and the only thing missing is Kelly Kapowski becoming real and asking us to prom but not leaving us for Jeff, the manager of The Max.

Easily the most significant bummer of our lifetime, and we once saw a shark carry our grandma to sea then disappear beyond the horizon.

More Tidbits

-McDonald’s has already started phasing out self-serve soda stations at its locations because everyone everywhere is trash and people can’t be trusted to put sodas in their cups, apparently. According to this thing we read, it’s about creating “a consistent experience for customers and staff,” but we have concerns. Let us give you an example: A self-serve soda station might be the one place where an unhoused person can get some water without having to order something. Boom. Anyway, it’s happening.

-People in the small Portuguese village of São Lourenco do Bairro found themselves living some kind of wine-based Willy Wonka river nightmare when tanks full of vino at the local Levira Distillery burst and flooded the streets with 600,000 gallons. Yikes!

-Reviews site Yelp-dot-com is hiring its first-ever chief food photographer for a two-month contract worth $10,000. Apparently it will require some travel, so...know that. Learn more here.

-In its never-ending quest to make you terrified of everything food, HuffPost Food recently ran down a list of common food safety mistakes, including washing your hands like a jerk, treating your cutting boards like a jerk and not differentiating between raw and cooked meat when it comes to utensils.

-Slate-dot-com has an interesting piece about food journalism wherein a Virginia chicken restaurant faces the struggle that comes after a glowing review brings the ruckus. Seems that Charga Grill in Arlington got themselves a nice little piece from the Washington Post, which brought so many freaking people that the days got long and the nights got...also long.

-Lastly in not-just-local food news this week, Delish-dot-com queries whether you should brush your teeth before breakfast. We do that, mainly because we don’t eat the second we get up, but we just thought people should have the information.

A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence

This week in the print/online edition of SFR, you won’t find food coverage, so...looks like The Fork is your only respite.

Number of Letters Received

57

*Wow! Y’all really want that gift certificate! Let’s see what’s up next week.

Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader)

“Tia Sophia’s has good sopaipillas.”

*Several people wrote up about Tia’s sopas, and they’re not wrong.

Actually Helpful Tip(s)

“Don’t follow the routine work day without some variation that includes friends and green chile.”

*Reader Julie D. dropping that thing we all need to hear.

Re-certified,

The Fork