by Jessica Del Curto
Daily Lobo
Since 1971, Frontier Restaurant has been a staple of the University area.
For 35 years, it has stood on the corner of Central Avenue and Cornell Drive. It's a place where students eat, socialize, study and find work.
"Frontier is just there, it always just stares the students in the face," said Rob Burford, judicial affairs specialist for the Dean of Students, who went to college at UNM. "When some people think of Albuquerque, one of the places you've got to go is the Frontier."
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Today the restaurant, owned by Larry and Dorothy Rainosek, celebrates its 35th anniversary.
In the beginning, there was Tex-Mex
When Frontier Restaurant opened, the Rainosek's didn't know what green chile was.
And coming from Texas, their red chile was a Tex-Mex mix with oregano and chile powder.
Dorothy and her husband Larry moved from Austin, Texas, when they were a young couple with two small children. They had hopes of opening a small diner that would attract college students.
"We needed $300 a day to break even," Dorothy said. "The first day we were open we did $58."
Shortly after they opened, 20-year-old TVI student Eddie Montoya was hired to bus tables and cook at $1.70 an hour.
Montoya said he couldn't figure out why his boss didn't have green chile on the menu with his breakfast items. Montoya decided to take matters into his own hands.
"So my friend and I rented three barbecue grills and literally stayed up all night roasting chile," he said.
The Rainoseks fell in love with it. The rest is history, he said.
Montoya is now the general manager of Golden Pride, Frontier's sister restaurant.
Surviving the riots
In June 1971, the Albuquerque Riots took place along Central Avenue. It started after police attempted to arrest people on marijuana charges. Some businesses in the University area were destroyed. About 180 people were arrested and 1,000 National Guardsmen were called into the area.
Larry slept in the store during the riots.
"We were fortunate that we did not have any damage," he said.
But that wasn't the Rainoseks' last encounter with locals those first few years.
College students participated in sit-ins at the restaurant and protesters picketed outside.
"We were being picketed in the first few years because we took a stand on the closing of Yale Park," Larry said. Yale Park used to be where the UNM Bookstore is now, and Larry said it was a spot for drug activity and transients.
"We felt if the park was closed maybe that would help the area," he said.
Once the media picked up on it, picketers were outside of Frontier for several days.
But business picked up that same month.
"In June, we knew that we were profitable at that point, and that we would make it," Larry said.
There's something about it
Not everyone comes to the Frontier for the food.
"I don't think the food is that great," Latifah Abraham, an employee of La Montanita Food Co-Op said.
Sometimes she gets in the mood for the Western-style hash browns, she said, but for the most part, she doesn't eat there.
Carmen Padilla, an administrative assistant for the Dean of Students office agreed that the food was just OK.
"It's good, but I've had better," she said.
Antoine Lombard, an exchange student from France, said Frontier Restaurant was the first place he was taken to when his plane landed in Albuquerque.
He said he had never seen anything like the ordering system at Frontier.
"I was pretty surprised," he said. "You follow the green light, and it's very fast. But it's different from fast food."
He said he liked his first meal there, but he has had much better New Mexican food since.
Even though some say the food is not that great, there has to be something that keeps people like Lombard returning at least once a week to the restaurant.
"It just has a lot of character about the place," Burford said. "You never know who you're going to see."
Bill Burleson, a customer of Frontier said it was the first place he ate breakfast when he came to New Mexico 12 years ago. Now he eats there every couple of weeks, and one reason is to people watch.
"I've seen people like Tony Hillerman here, and some of the local news people," he said. "It's a pretty neat place."
Burford said the restaurant staff doesn't shut their doors to certain people, and in an area as diverse as the University area, that is rare.
"They're very welcoming," he said. "Some students say it's a freak show, but the staff is open to anybody."
Burford said Frontier Restaurant breaks age boundaries as well. Families go in on Sunday mornings after church, high school students come in later in the evening, and alumni still go there because of the memories they had in college.
"You can go there in a suit and be fine, or you can go there in your PJ's and be fine," he said.
A part of the University
The Rainoseks are advocates for education, and they donate large amounts of money to the University.
In return, it's the students that help keep the family in business.
"It's 24 hours, it's cheap and students can go there to study, and they can sit there for a long time," Padilla said. "They treat students with respect, and makes them feel comfortable."
Randy Boeglin, dean of students, said when he was in college, Frontier had not yet been established. He said restaurants that were in its place were never as popular.
As for the future, the Rainoseks consider themselves too young to think about what will happen to the store. Larry doesn't plan on retiring.
"It's been such a big part of our lives that we think it will stay in the family," he said.
Frontier Restaurant will continue to serve students, and students will continue to flock to the place across the street.
"Frontier is obviously an institution in and of itself," Boeglin said. "It's symbiotic to the University. We both profit from its presence."
