Another classic American restaurant is closing – due to the crippling costs of food, bills and labor since the pandemic.
After 62 years in business, Mr Powdrell’s Barbeque will close for good at the end of the month.
First, it will hold a big farewell party for all its customers in Albuquerque on the 4th of July. They’ll enjoy the outlet’s famous BBQ sauce and slow-cooking method, invented in 1870 and passed down from generation to generation.
Tears came to Joe Powdrell’s eyes as he reminisced about the restaurant’s incredible journey – from its opening by his parents in the 1960s – and told stories about his favorite customers.
“It’s been a good life experience,” said Joe, now Mr.’s boss. Powdrell’s Barbeque, while talking to the Albuquerque Journal.
Pete Powdrell founded Mr. Powdrell’s Barbeque in Albuquerque in 1962. It was then run by his son Joe, who is now closing the last location
Joe Powdrell spoke to KOB4 TV station about the closure of the last location on Forth Street – and said rising costs after Covid hit the business
“It’s had its fair share of trials, some tribulations, but after all that it’s still a very triumphant and victorious experience and we can still see that,” added Powdrell, who ran the venue on Forth Street with his wife Rita .
His parents Catherine and Pete Powdrell started the predecessor to the iconic restaurant in 1962.
They had arrived in New Mexico four years earlier from West Texas, which the family said was less integrated.
Catherine married in 2004 and Pete in 2007. They had eleven children.
But the restaurant’s roots go back much further, to 1870.
Isaac Britt – Pete Powdrell’s grandfather and Joe’s great-grandfather – invented the barbecue sauce recipe and slow cooking method in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Pete inherited the recipe and took it first to Texas and then to Albuquerque.
“The times were very separated and the horizons for us were limited,” said Joe Powdrell KOB4 as he talked about his parents moving the family from Texas in 1958.
“Dad, mom, young parents, a bunch of kids, we had family here in New Mexico as far back as the 1930s that beckoned us to come here. So we came and turned on our barbecue thing.”
The restaurant moved to its current location – Shalit House, built in 1936 – at 5209 Forth Street in June 1984. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This isn’t the first time Mr Powdrell’s has closed a location. Their other restaurant on Route 66, 11301 Central, closed in October 2023 after struggling to recover from the problems caused by the pandemic. It had been on that spot for more than 50 years.
“Covid has explored everything we needed to know. The rise and change in society, the rise in prices. That was a challenge, not only for us, but also for other companies. It’s a challenging endeavor, period,” Joe told KOB4.
Joe Powdrell talks to customers at the beloved Mr. Powdrell’s in Albuquerque. It will be closed on June 29
Mr. Powdrell’s Barbeque is a New Mexico favorite, but rising costs are forcing it to close
It’s also had its fair share of famous clients – and Powdrell has a photo of Spike Lee on the wall.
“You know, Spike Lee,” he told KOB4 as he pointed to the photo
‘If you know Spike, you know the film industry. Danny Glover is another one. Yolanda King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X’s daughter. I mean, they were here at the same time.”
Mr. Powdrell’s BBQ in Albuquerque may be having a farewell party on the 4th of July, but it may not be the end.
Afterwards, the location may still exist – as an event space. Powdrell said he has done weddings before and has worked with a car company to show off cars parked out front.
And he plans to have the sauce bottled and sold in stores.