Smothered Brunch opens inside Bosque Brewing’s West Side location in creative experiment

ALBUQUERQUE — Business is about adapting and trying new things. That’s the approach leaders of Bosque Brewing Co. and Smothered Brunch are betting on with their new dual-restaurant concept.

Smothered Brunch, an Albuquerque restaurant that Bosque Brewing Co. created in April, opened a second location inside an existing Bosque location on the West Side.

Smothered launched operations at the Bosque location, 10250 Cottonwood NW, on Nov. 17, taking over the morning and early afternoon hours. Smothered operates from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., while Bosque is open from 3 p.m. to closing.

“(We’re) the first in the industry here in New Mexico to do something like this,” said Joe Garcia, a managing operator for Smothered. Garcia became an equity partner of the brand over the summer following a 15-year career in the restaurant industry.

“I think it makes so much sense to be able to create a whole day dining experience, as opposed to just breakfast,” Garcia said. “(There’s) lots of promise and lots of potential, so we’re really excited and thankful.”

Smothered’s first location at 1828 Central SW remains open, serving its staple breakfast potato bowls, churro waffles and blue corn breakfast enchiladas, Garcia said. The opening of the second location comes with the creation of roughly 30 full- and part-time jobs, he added.

The new concept comes a little more than a month after Bosque Brewing Co. filed for Chapter 11 protection, which allows the company to remain open as it reorganizes its finances amid mounting debt.

Additionally, Bosque co-owners Gabriel Jensen and Jotham Michnovicz each filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this month, court records show. The bankruptcies halted a court case in which a New Mexico limited liability company filed a complaint against Bosque Brewing Co., stating that Bosque allegedly failed to pay more than $67,000 in rent for property at 500 Market in Santa Fe as of Oct. 1.

All Bosque locations remain open, and no jobs have been cut, despite the new filings, Bosque co-owner and chief operating officer Jess Griego said.

“Nothing’s changed. Those (filings) are ... all part of a plan that we’ve had. Chapter 11 is still the case for Bosque as an LLC,” Griego said. “We are in the process of negotiating leases and that sort of thing, so I can’t make any formal predictions about the future, but as everything stands, everything is open for business.”

Bosque leadership expects to have a reorganization plan approved by the court and the Chapter 11 protection process completed by February, Griego said.

She added that while the Chapter 11 process has prompted the Bosque to make some decisions faster, the dual-restaurant concept has been in the works for a while.

“The landscape has been becoming more challenging in the brewery space, but also in the overall hospitality industry. I think New Mexico’s been hit especially hard over the last few years,” Griego said, citing increased costs of doing business. “We’re trying to be really creative about how to utilize the space we already have.”

Griego hopes Smothered opens the door for more people to learn about Bosque’s food and menu offerings, as well as strengthens its relationship with Smothered and other local businesses “looking to be creative about weathering these next couple years and this landscape in New Mexico.”

If the dual-restaurant concept is successful, expanding Smothered to other Bosque locations could be a possibility, especially if it helps the company maintain its leases and minimize the possibility of closures.

“It’s incumbent upon us as owners to do everything we can to maintain the company we’ve built and make sure we don’t get stuck in old habits or old versions of ourselves that aren’t working anymore,” Griego said.