After two-year hiatus, Albuquerque’s Last Call reemerges as Last Call Eatery

A familiar name in Albuquerque’s Mexican food scene is back on the menu two years after taking its final bow — but this time, the founder says the focus is on integrity, not speed.

“The goal isn’t necessarily to grow fast but just to grow with integrity,” said Luis Valdovinos, CEO and founder of Last Call Eatery.

Last Call Eatery, which held its grand opening at 6100 Coors NW on Nov. 1, is the relaunched version of the Last Call, an Albuquerque restaurant that served Baja Mexican and Southern California Mexican street food at four locations between 2012 and 2023.

Valdovinos said he felt the Last Call was a common name for many businesses across the country, so he wanted to distinguish the brand as a restaurant with the slight name change.

The restaurant world isn’t new to Valdovinos. Raised in a family of restaurateurs — his maternal grandfather owned restaurants and his father is a chef — he started learning to cook at an early age. Serving in the U.S. Army later gave him the push to start his own venture.

“It shaped my experience in leadership and how I build teams and how I approach excellence,” Valdovinos said.

Valdovinos opened locations in Nob Hill, Downtown, on the West Side and in the Northeast Heights, winning over the Duke City with late hours and California-style burritos.

Two locations closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Valdovinos said, and the remaining closed after a death in the family and a move to Montana, where Valdovinos was working as a private chef and fly fishing guide.

Valdovinos moved back to Albuquerque in October 2024. Quickly recognized by people who said they enjoyed the restaurant and flooded with questions about a potential return, Valdovinos said he realized the mark the Last Call left on the community.

“I just needed to take a step back and really figure out my ‘why’ again,” Valdovinos said. “I didn’t necessarily have a plan to relaunch it again, but by coming back to the community — the community is really what led me to relaunch again.”

He vowed to bring it back — but with renewed vision and brand identity. He set the comeback into motion by starting Swenyo Hospitality Group with an investor and business partner — Steve Maestas, CEO of Maestas Development Group — to help oversee the restaurant and its growth.

“This relaunch was born from a desire to bring back the kind of Mexican food that’s honest, ancestral and rooted in the love of our cuisine. It’s the food our grandparents would have recognized,” Valdovinos said. “We’re taking Mexican fast casual and giving it integrity again.”

The restaurant is implementing healthier and more authentic pre-industrial Mexican cooking methods, including using ancestral fats such as beef tallow in its fryers versus seed oil and making its corn tortillas from scratch, Valdovinos said.

“You can’t really cut corners to be able to make food the way our ancestors made it, so we are really honoring those processes by doing it this way,” Valdovinos said.

Since opening, speculation regarding why the restaurant closed in the first place has surrounded news of the comeback on social media — including rumors of a dispute leading to the closure of the Last Call and the creation of Cali Burrito Co., a restaurant that occupies the Last Call’s former West Side space and serves a similar style of food.

Valdovinos said the speculation is untrue and that Cali Burrito Co. was created by former employees of the Last Call, but there is no bad blood or recipe rivalry between the two.

“I wish Cali Burrito Co. the best. We’re rooting for them; they’re our neighbors,” Valdovinos said.

People have also pondered why Last Call Eatery reopened in a space so close to Cali Burrito Co. Valdovinos cited the West Side’s need for more restaurants and the Last Call’s existing following in the area as reasons for the location decision.

The primary response to the restaurant’s return has been warm, Valdovinos said. He added that being in the restaurant and talking to customers — old and new — has been validating.

“We don’t expect everybody to tell us they loved it. If you didn’t, I want to hear that, because the only way we can improve as a team and as a restaurant is by understanding the needs of our community,” Valdovinos said. “I’m just so grateful and appreciative to the community of Albuquerque.”