Refugio and Carmen Garcia opened their tortilla factory here in 1929, and El Modelo still holds that corner of Barelas, in Albuquerque. This place began in 1929 when Refugio and Carmen Garcia opened their tortilla factory; Carmen would rise at two in the morning to prepare tortillas to sell for breakfast. She hired Petra Vargas to make tamales, and Vargas then taught the Garcia family how to make them.
When Carmen’s son Leo returned from World War II in 1945, he went into business with his mother. In 1947 the eldest son Salvador helped build the current building on the site of the family’s former three-room house, and the location has not changed since 1929. In 1985 Hector Mendoza and Virginia Chittim purchased the restaurant and ran it together until 2003, when Virginia Chittim took full ownership.
Today El Modelo continues to serve tortillas and its critically acclaimed tamales, alongside New Mexican favorites: chile rellenos, enchiladas, stuffed sopapillas, huevos rancheros and burritos. Notice the corner itself: the same ground the Garcia family has occupied since 1929, and the building Salvador helped raise in 1947.