Another classic American restaurant is shuttering – due to the crippling costs of food, bills and labor since the pandemic.
After surviving for 62 years, Mr Powdrell’s Barbeque will shut for good at the end of the month.
First, it will have a big farewell party for all its customers in Albuquerque on the Fourth of July. They will enjoy the outlet’s famous BBQ sauce and slow-cooking method invented in 1870 and handed down through generations of the family.
Joe Powdrell got teary eyed as he reminisced about the restaurant’s incredible journey – from his parent’s opening it the 1960s – and told stories of his favorite customers.
‘It’s been a good experience of life,’ Joe, now the boss Mr. Powdrell’s Barbeque, said as he spoke to the Albuquerque Journal.
Pete Powdrell set up Mr Powdrell’s Barbeque in Albuquerque in 1962. It was then run by his son Joe, who is now closing the final location
Joe Powdrell spoke to KOB4 TV station about the closure of the final location on Forth Street – and said rising costs after Covid hit the business
‘It has had a whole bunch of trials, a few tribulations, but after all of that, it is still a very triumphant and a very victorious experience and we’re still able to see that,’ added Powdrell, who ran the location on Forth Street with his wife Rita.
His parents Catherine and Pete Powdrell began the forerunner 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 pssed in 2004 and Pete in 2007. They had 11 children.
But the roots of the restaurant can be traced back to much further to 1870.
Isaac Britt – Pete Powdrell’s grandfather and Joe’s great-grandfather – came up with the barbecue sauce recipe and the slow-cooking method in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Pete inherited the recipe and took it first to Texas and then Albuquerque.
‘The times were very segregated and it had limited horizons for us,’ Joe Powdrell told KOB4 as he spoke of his parents moving the family from Texas in 1958.
‘Dad, mom, young parents, a bunch of kids, we had family in New Mexico here, as early as the 1930s beckoning us to come here. So we came, cranked up our barbeque thing.’
The restaurant moved to its current location – Shalit House built in 1936 – on 5209 Forth Street in June 1984. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
It is not the first time Mr Powdrell’s has shut a location. Their other restaurant on Route 66 at 11301 Central was shuttered in October 2023 after struggling to recover from problems caused by the pandemic. It had been on that site for more than 50 years.
‘Covid examined all of what we needed to know. The rise and change in society, the rise in prices. That’s been challenging, not only to us but to other businesses. It’s challenging business, period,’ Joe said to KOB4.
Joe Powdrell talking to customers at the much-loved Mr Powdrell’s in Albuquerque. It will shut on June 29
Mr Powdrell’s Barbeque is favorite in New Mexico but rising costs means it is being shuttered
It has had its fair share of famous customers too – and Powdrell has a picture of Spike Lee on the wall.
‘You know, Spike Lee,’ he told KOB4 said as he pointed to the photo
‘If you know Spike, you know the motion picture industry. Danny Glover is another one. Yolanda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter. Malcolm X’s daughter. I mean, they were here at the same time.’
Mr Powdrell’s Barbeque in Albuquerque might be having a farewell party on July 4 – but it might not be the end.
After that, the location might still be around – as an event space. Powdrell said he has done weddings before, as well as working with a car company to show off cars parked out front.
And he plans to have the sauce bottled and sold in stores.