BURQUE MEETS LIMA

Pollito Con Papas Serves Peruvian Faves And Satisfies New Mexican Tastes

Rene and Monica Coronado didn’t mean to end up in the restaurant business. But in 2011, after the 2008 financial crisis, it was time to close their furniture store.

Rene, born in Mexico, loves to grill. And Monica’s Peruvian family owns the very popular El Pollo Rico in Arlington, VA. So, together they opened a Peruvian grilled chicken restaurant. At first, their tiny spot on Broadway served only fries, Peruvian chicken thighs (modeled on Monica’s family recipe), and creamy green aji sauce so good the Coronados make it at home to keep the recipe secret.

Peruvian transplants saw the Pollito con Papas sign and were excited to get some home food, but Burqueños expected tortillas and chile with their chicken. Rene stuck by the Peruvian formula though, saying, “I know we’re gonna get our niche, ’cause our food is different and it’s good.”

When Pollito started to gain traction, it moved to a larger space on Gibson to serve the lunch crowd from Kirkland AFB and the VA. Slowly, the menu expanded. To use up leftover chicken—since he won’t serve anything less than fresh—Rene added chimichangas like his mother taught him to make. Monica added yuca fries and stuffed potatoes, a Peruvian street food.

When the restaurant needed a sign, Monica designed a mascot, but Rene found early versions too cute. He wanted something with an attitude and eventually Monica nailed it. “People say, why is your chicken so angry? And I say, it’s not angry— it’s determined.”

Whether you’re packing in with the crowds in ALBUQUERQUE CIVIC PLAZA, heading up the mesa to RIO RANCHO, giving thanks at CHURCH, or cutting up with your fam at the BACKYARD COOKOUT, you’ll be commemorating something special on JUNE 19.

Also referred to as “Jubilee Day,” Juneteenth memorializes the month and day when enslaved people in Texas were finally informed that the Civil War had ended the prior April and that they had, in fact, been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation an entire two years earlier. Black folks have been commemorating the postbellum era ever since, even though Juneteenth’s only been considered officially-official since 2021, when congress made it the first federal holiday added to the list since Dr. King’s birthday in 1983.

Like we’ve been saying since the Albuquerque Journal recognized our prominent voices in the Summer of Resistance 2020, Juneteenth is another sign to America that its Black brothers and sisters are deserving of the freedoms afforded everyone else and that our work toward equity and healthfulness in body, mind, and spirit is not about a mere moment, but is part of an enduring movement.

All summer long, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on what get-togethers we know are going down. Click on the QRs at right for our events calendar and check the NMBLC blog, called EQ Online, as well. Also, you can tell us about anything we might be missing. To send us the 411 about an event, please email to uplift@nmblc.org and enter ***JUNETEENTH UPDATE*** in the subject line.

But HOLDUP HOLDUP HOLDUP: we don’t expect you to wait for Juneteenth to start your summer partying; there are graduations to celebrate and summer sun to soak in. The Burqueños in City Hall get the ball rolling with the Community Block Party series, which land on a number of Saturdays through the spring and summer. The next two in the series come alive in our neck of the woods, the International District, on May 20 and June 3 at Wilson Park and Oak Street Health, respectively. Check out the flyer to the right and call Nichole Rogers’ office or click on the QR for more info!