Heritage welcomes new Level 5 chef as another moves on to entrepreneurial chapter

Change is coming to kitchens within Heritage Cos., New Mexico’s largest independent hotel brand.

The companies’ newest executive chef, Goran Basarov, is reimagining the menu of Level 5, a popular rooftop restaurant at Albuquerque’s Hotel Chaco, while the chef who previously filled the Level 5 role, Sean Sinclair, is launching new concepts as he steps into more of an entrepreneurial role with Heritage.

Basarov, a culinarian with more than 15 years of experience cooking in restaurants across the globe, joined Hotel Chaco in October. The hotel is one of 10 that Heritage owns across the state.

“It’s a new challenge. I have to relearn exposure to New Mexico cuisine and get reinspired,” said Basarov, whose wife is from the Land of Enchantment. “So that’s kind of the excitement about it, and you’ll see me in the dining room, big ol’ fat smile.”

The position opened up following the exit of chef Sean Sinclair, a born-and-raised New Mexican who owns Hook It Up Fish & Chips located at Heritage’s Sawmill Market. Sinclair, a chef with more than two decades of experience, joined Level 5 and opened Hook It Up around the same period in early 2024.

With support from Heritage Cos. leadership, Sinclair is pursuing new ventures within the company, expanding Hook It Up and launching a new burger concept across Heritage’s existing and incoming food halls.

“It’s funny because I didn’t quit, I didn’t get fired — I graduated Level 5 is kind of the way I’ve been putting it,” Sinclair said. “The company allowed me to grow past being a property chef and grow into being a full-blown entrepreneur.”

Sinclair plans to open two new Hook It Up locations — one at Heritage’s newest Albuquerque food hall, Park Square Market, when its east wing opens in 2026, and the second as a standalone restaurant in Santa Fe in March.

Hook It Up started with Heritage hosting a tasting of Sinclair’s fish and chips concept for inclusion as a company run outlet in Sawmill. The success of the concept prompted Heritage to allow Sinclair to be an owner. But the business quickly grew beyond just Sinclair.

“We’ve grown in sales, good ratings and it’s been such a fun experience doing that,” Sinclair said. “My little sister works there, my mom works there, my wife does payroll — it’s a real family business.”

The success of Hook It Up is partially what inspired Sinclair to open a new restaurant called Patty Man, centered around Sinclair’s award-winning green chile smash burger. The burger won Santa Fe’s New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown, an event held by Edible New Mexico, in 2019.

What defines the burger, Sinclair said, are house-made buns, locally sourced and carefully cut beef and “the best green chile that we can get our hands on.” Sinclair said the burger’s foundation of made-from-scratch cooking and locally sourced ingredients allows for affordable pricing and offers a level of value he hopes to distinguish Patty Man with.

“I want to put the same attention to detail and amount of love into a fried piece of fish or a smashed burger as I do a tasting menu for a fine restaurant,” Sinclair said. “So the idea for Patty Man is just to have a really refined product with a high level of customer service.”

The Patty Man menu will also feature another smash burger, patty melt, crinkle cut fries and milkshakes.

Sinclair plans to open three Patty Man locations next year. He expects the first to open at Sawmill in mid-January; the second at Heritage’s new food hall called Heritage Market in Santa Fe, slated to open in summer 2026; and the third at Albuquerque’s Park Square Market later next year. Each location will employ between eight and nine people, he said.

In a statement, Heritage Cos. President and Chief Operating Officer Adrian Perez credited Sinclair’s “creativity and foresight” as a foundation for Heritage’s support of the venture.

“Hook It Up and the launch of Patty Man are just the beginning for us,” Perez said. “Sean is a like-minded entrepreneur to watch.”

For Sinclair, Patty Man is the result of preparation and serves as a natural next step of growth in his and his family’s entrepreneurial journey.

“Part of how I’m built as an entrepreneur is I have these business ideas that are fairly developed and just waiting on the right opportunity,” Sinclair said in an interview. “Some people call it luck but luck is a thing you can make. It’s when you repeat something enough times and you’re prepared enough for an opportunity, you make your own luck. So I think Patty Man is an example of that.”

In calm-before-the-storm fashion, Sinclair plans to work in some fly fishing amid menu planning, price setting, graphic designing, training, hiring and preparing for the business boom that will engulf him next year.

While he’s embracing the business side of the restaurant world, Sinclair said he isn’t hanging up his chef coat just yet. He’ll continue stepping into the kitchen on a regular basis and isn’t ruling out a fine dining concept launch in the future.

“You can’t keep me out of there,” Sinclair said with a laugh.

Welcoming change

Meanwhile, Basarov is already immersed in his new role. Basarov spent the last few weeks crafting a new Level 5 menu, which he said Heritage approved last week.

Some new items and ingredients on the menu include hominy preserved tomatoes, caramelized onion jam, a duck sausage with a persimmon glaze and a pureed sunchoke with caramelized roast.

“It’s a mixed bag but predominantly fine dining,” Basarov said. “You could call it a packed, full-of-flavor and very seasonally inspired worldly cuisine through a New Mexico lens and the lens of the Chaco peoples.”

Level 5 and its menu will serve as a “supportive vessel” for New Mexico’s local ranching and farming community, Basarov said, continuing a relationship he learned to cultivate with farmers in California.

Basarov received a certification in tourism and hotel management from the Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School in Los Angeles in 2016, clearing the way for a culinary career in the United States.

Basarov grew up in a baker’s family in Macedonia and had his first experience with professional cooking during a visit to the U.S. for a work and travel program as a college student in 2010.

Basarov worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Massachusetts when he was given the opportunity to work his way up and navigate the culinary world through “trial by volcano fire,” he said.

Inspired by the grueling but refining nature of the restaurant industry, Basarov floated the idea of culinary school — an idea that followed him back home and ultimately prompted his return to the U.S.

“Being a chef wasn’t necessarily considered a very prestigious job in Macedonia,” Basarov said.

He took his first executive chef job in his early 20s and has since chefed at restaurants like Selby’s, a one-star Michelin restaurant in Redwood City, California.

“I am an immigrant and as such, you have to work better, faster, stronger than everybody else, so that’s kind of been an area I’ve always focused on — is betterment and going forward,” Basarov said. “I was young, guns blazing, coming into restaurants and trying to change the world, and these people gave me a chance.”

Basarov said he’s grateful to explore his next opportunity and chapter of chefing and leadership with Heritage and in a place that he never expected to end up but feels familiar yet inspiring.

“I’ve welcomed this change with massive open arms,” Basarov said. “Even my wife can’t believe it. She’s like, ‘I plucked you out of California, where you were happy as a clam and brought you to the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico.’ I can’t put a finger on it. I’m very content with where I’m at. I’m beyond blessed.”