Sadie’s restaurant pondering Rio Rancho location

RIO RANCHO — Rio Ranchoans, your hopes for something other than chicken and fast food here may be answered – but only time will tell.

Sadie’s, an iconic New Mexico restaurant that opened its first shop in 1954, could become a reality … someday.

Let’s just say the family that owns Sadie’s – Betty Jo Stafford, Sadie Koury’s sister, and her sons, Brian and William – recently closed on a two-acre parcel on Westside Blvd., about a quarter mile from Rust Medical Center. Mike Skolnick, of Excalibur Realty & Investments, was the only broker involved in the transaction.

“The whole point for us was a real estate buy,” William Stafford told the Observer on March 14. “We thought it would be a good thing to acquire land there. … It’s a smokin’ spot.”

Stafford is well aware of some people in the City of Vision lamenting the lack of a quality, sit-down restaurant. And he also knows of the residential and commercial growth in the Unser Gateway.

“Rio Rancho doesn’t have anything that represents New Mexico, I don’t think – as far as New Mexican food goes,” Stafford said. “People want us up there; we hear it all the time.”

But, he said, a lot of lessons about the food service industry were learned during the pandemic.

“I don’t know that it’ll happen in the near future,” he said of any specific timeline for an actual Sadie’s – as people know it – to open, and the Staffords will “sit on it” a decision is made.

“Any hype is good hype, right?” he said. “That’s why this is exciting. I get it and I understand it — I’m hoping that someday we do open a Sadie’s there; in what capacity, I can’t tell you.”

Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull saw to it that the news was posted on his Facebook page.

“While we know this is a land purchase for Sadie’s, this makes us no less optimistic that someday they will build,” Hull said, “and we’ll have a Sadie’s. We miss the one that used to be in the Santa Ana Star Casino, and having one a little bit closer to home in Rio Rancho would be awesome.”

As for the negativity he noticed on his page, noting he removed one comment, he added, “If we want businesses to know they will be welcome in Rio Rancho, we have to celebrate all of these business, whether it’s what we want — or not.”