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The dining room at Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen in Albuquerque’s Summit Park neighborhood was already in full swing by 11 a.m. on Election Day. A restaurant filled with diners an hour before noon is a feat in itself, but even more notable for a spot such as Padilla’s that’s closed on the weekends and only open between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. during the week. The second their doors open, the restaurant fills up quickly and servers — some who have worked there for decades — start darting around, filling coffee cups and taking orders. Owner Irene Leyba says their limited hours are a result of accommodating their loyal employees.
“In the beginning, we were open six days a week, and as time went on, we just felt that we needed another day off,” she says. “Employees were always wanting time off on Saturdays. They wanted to go camping, fishing, baseball games, weddings.”
On this particular Tuesday, as many people in the city — and country — were focused on elections, regular Padilla’s patrons were offering their condolences. About a week earlier, Leyba’s 91-year-old father Bennie Padilla died. She says even though Padilla passed the business along to Leyba and her sister years ago, Padilla could almost always be found in the restaurant connecting with customers.
“The customers used to like to come in and listen to all his stories. He liked the horse races,” she says. “They would come in saying, ‘Mr. Padilla, do you know who’s going to win the Kentucky Derby?’ or ‘Who’s going to win this race?’ He was very social with all the customers, and they just liked to hear all his stories that he had to tell about his younger days.”
Padilla grew up in Barelas before moving to the Los Griegos neighborhood where he lived until his death. He had strong ties to the Albuquerque community well before opening Padilla’s and gave to charity whenever he could. Leyba says her father was active in his church and gave frequently to organizations like the Red Cross and the Fraternal Order of Police. She remembers times when people would come into the restaurant asking for donations, and he would send her right then and there to grab some cash to give to them.
Having cash on hand is just one of the byproducts of the old-school way Leyba’s parents ran the business that she has continued. In the age of debit cards and digital currency, Padilla’s still only takes cash, and the bill comes from servers’ notepads, in lieu of the now ubiquitous printed versions.
“My parents are just old school, and they always dealt in cash, they preferred to keep it that way,” Leyba says.
Leyba says Padilla, who was married to his wife Mary for 73 years until her death in 2023, was a devout man of faith.
“He prayed constantly, especially in his older days,” she says. “He had prayer books that he read every day and prayed the rosary, I don’t know how many times a day. He and my mom both went to daily Mass.”
Leyba describes her father as “a very strong, smart, generous man.” She says Padilla had always been an entrepreneur and got his start as “a young lad with paper routes.”
“I think even into his 20s he still ran paper routes and then worked at a grocery store: Arrow Food Market,” she says. “He and my grandfather opened a pool hall, so he’s always been in business. They ran the Buckhorn Bar on Bridge and Eighth.”
Padilla worked for Santa Fe Railroad and then as a lieutenant in the Albuquerque fire department for several years before opening a pool hall with his father. The two also managed the old Buckhorn Bar in the Barelas Neighborhood.
Padilla instilled a strong work ethic in his family and his employees through leading by example. Part of Padilla’s success, Leyba says, comes from a tradition of hard work and compassion for employees, while serving up authentic food that hasn’t changed much in 40 years, if not longer.
“My grandmother taught my mother to cook and my aunt, and they taught us. And so [the recipes] all came from our ancestors,” she says.
Padilla’s menu isn’t long, but the chile packs a punch, and every meal starts with complimentary chips and salsa and usually ends with a heaping pile of sopapillas — a New Mexico tradition that seems to be slowly being swapped for itemized receipts with charges for anything extra.
Leyba says she remembers spending holidays at home with her mom and her sister cooking Thanksgiving dinners or empanadas on Christmas.
“It was just the normal family traditions,” she says. “It was all about hard work and family.”
That old-school way of running a restaurant must be working. Diners can expect a wait on weeknights, and Leyba says she’s served a list of notable New Mexicans including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.
In a text to The Paper., Denish says simply, “I have always, and still eat at Padilla’s!”
Leyba says there’s no plans for doing anything other than keeping the traditions of Padilla’s going and the memories of her parents alive. Even after his passing, her father’s passion for giving back to the community continues on. The last line of his obituary reads, “In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to your favorite charity.”