For the last 20 years, Tia Sophia’s has celebrated milestone events in an understated way, typically serving cake to diners at the iconic downtown Santa Fe eatery.
But on Tia Sophia’s 50th anniversary Monday, owner Nick Maryol is offering $5 entrées to dine-in customers throughout the day.
“I’m getting a little bit long in the tooth,” Nick Maryol said. “I want to do something extraordinary. I’m taking a big swing. I’ll go back to serving cake next year.”
Maryol is expecting a large crowd to take advantage of the offer, although Tia Sophia’s, 210 W. San Francisco St., rarely wants for diners on a typical day. He said a parade of local dignitaries is expected to show up, while a local radio station will be broadcasting from the eatery and live music will be performed.
There are some limitations on the $5 entrée offer, Maryol noted. Diners will need to pay in cash, and the promotion does not extend to takeout orders. The offer is limited to one entrée per person.
‘A spiritual journey’
Maryol was in a reflective mood earlier this week as he talked about the significance of the 50th anniversary of the restaurant his parents, Jim and Ann Maryol, founded.
Maryol has credited his father with being the originator of the term “breakfast burrito” when that item was added to the Tia Sophia’s menu in 1975. The late Martha Rotunno, working at Tia Sophia’s as a waitress, is widely credited with coining the phrase “Christmas” as shorthand for both red and green chile.
It’s been a little more than 20 years since Maryol took over on Jan. 1, 2005.
“For me, personally, it’s been sort of a spiritual journey,” he said.
He said owning the restaurant keeps him connected not just to his late father but to his grandmother, a Greek immigrant and longtime Albuquerque eatery owner for whom Tia Sophia’s is named.
“She fought to keep six mouths fed,” Maryol said. “Thinking of her and how hard she fought is how I got through COVID. I said to myself, ‘Grandma worked this hard every day.’ ”
The COVID-19 pandemic, when New Mexico restaurants were prohibited from serving anything but takeout orders for several months, was the most difficult time of his tenure as the owner of Tia Sophia’s, Maryol said.
“I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” he said. “The [financial] crash of 2008 was rough, but not that kind of rough.”
Maryol has faced other challenges along the way, not the least of which is living up to the reputation for quality his parents built while making Tia Sophia’s one of the more popular and highly regarded restaurants in a city widely known for its culinary offerings.
“I feel the weight of it, I do,” he said. “But it’s also another connection to my parents.”
Keeping things going
Even now, after more than two decades of running Tia Sophia’s, Maryol acknowledged he’s not entirely comfortable in the role.
“I have imposter syndrome something hard,” he said. “I’m always concerned that this is the year I run the restaurant into the ground.”
That hasn’t happened yet, of course, one reason being that Tia Sophia’s has a veteran and devoted staff led by manager John Gallegos that helps keep the business operating efficiently.
“I have at least five employees who have worked here longer than I’ve owned the restaurant,” he said.
Maryol and his brother Alex, a well-known local musician, rattled off a long list of current and former employees who they said played a pivotal role in making Tia Sophia’s what it is.
“I need to give a shoutout to my staff for the 20 years I’ve run the restaurant,” Maryol said. “They’ve never been better than they are right now. It’s my honor to work with them and my honor to lead them.”
The restaurant boasts a large and loyal group of regulars, many of whom have dined there for decades. Local attorney Patrick Casey, who died in 2022, headed that list, Maryol said, often eating at the restaurant twice a day.
Maryol grew so used to seeing Casey’s face nearly every day that he came up with a special way of referring to him.
“I called him my dad away from Dad,” he said.
Alex Maryol said it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that he grasped how special it was for a business to have such a devoted following.
“I realized what makes this place good is the community of people who come to eat here,” he said.
Long and winding road
Nick Maryol said he literally grew up at Tia Sophia’s. His father put him to work bussing tables when he was only 6 years old — a move that deeply offended his sense of justice.
“I was the angriest 6-year-old in Santa Fe,” he said, laughing and describing how he acted out his resentment by eating leftover fries off of dirty plates.
After college, Maryol literally got as far away from Tia Sophia’s as he could, spending several years in Japan after studying the language and earning an international business degree. Upon returning to New Mexico, he went to work for Thornburg Investment Management, but he finally decided to heed the call of the family business in 2005.
Maryol said he’s never doubted the wisdom of that decision — “except all the times I did.”
Maryol said he and his wife, Vanessa, recently returned from an extended visit to Japan, where he did some soul-searching.
“I was lying in bed one night, and my eyes popped open,” he said. “I started imagining what my life would have been like if I had stayed [in Japan].”
But that feeling of uncertainty was short-lived, Maryol said.
“I’ve second-guessed myself, but I’ve never regretted” making Tia Sophia’s his life’s work, he said.
Owning and operating Tia Sophia’s has allowed him to extend his family’s legacy of hospitality, he said.
“I feel like we have created a place where you don’t have to have your defenses up,” he said. “That’s the magic of Tia’s.”
