Sadie's launches a new canned margarita

A Sadie’s franchise location closed last month, but Sadie’s of New Mexico plans to expand the business’ restaurant and retail presence with offerings like canned margaritas.

The Sadie’s restaurant located at 15 Hotel Circle NE was one of two franchised locations. The lease was up for the building, and franchise owner Roger Erker decided to close the Eubank location, which originally opened in 2009. The same franchise owner is a partner in the Academy location, which opened in 2013 and is still running as normal.

The 4th Street Sadie’s location is owned by the Stafford family, which began the business. Sadie’s began in 1954 as a burger joint before relocating above a bowling alley and adding New Mexican cuisine to the menu. The business has long-term growth plans, said Marketing Director Gilbert Sanchez, whether that’s through another family-owned spot or a franchised location.

“But it’s got to be the right move. It’s not one of those ones where you just go, ‘oh, Rio Rancho doesn’t have a Sadie’s. Let’s go there. Los Lunas, let’s go there.’ It’s got to work. We’re strategically planning how we do that,” Sanchez said.

But the Sadie’s brand is more than just restaurants.

About half of the business comes from the restaurant and half comes from the retail side of the operation, Sanchez said. The company’s salsa brand is well known, and Sadie’s also offers tortilla chips and canned ready-to-drink margaritas. The Stafford family also acquired Loma Vista Products, a company that manufactures spice mixes, earlier this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic and temporarily having to focus on takeout gave the staff time to dream up new retail ideas, said Sanchez. One of those ideas was a collaborative salsa with Marble Brewery.

The canned margaritas were also one of the products that got worked out during the pandemic, although the idea was conceived in 2017. The company has launched two flavors: classic and prickly pear.

“It was the number one RTD (ready to drink cocktail) in Smith’s for over a year, those two skews,” Sanchez said. In New Mexico, the margaritas were outselling the 1.75-liter Jose Cuervo ready to drink margarita.

The newest flavor peach launched Monday, and the company is planning a fourth flavor that will launch in the spring of next year. The Sadie’s team decides which flavors to launch by looking at flavor trends on the market and with data about what margarita flavors customers order at the restaurant. But prickly pear was just a flavor they wanted to do because it’s so New Mexican, Sanchez said.

While taking on other business ventures has helped Sadie’s expand, if the restaurants don’t do well, the retail brand will suffer too, Sanchez said.

“If the margaritas don’t taste good here,” Sanchez said, “no one will buy them in the grocery store.”

His advice for other businesses thinking about expanding into retail is to build a motivated team.

“Surround yourself with people who are motivated and have good ideas. Sometimes they’re wacky. I mean 2017, why are you going to put a margarita in a can, who’s going to buy that? They want them now. Everybody wants to buy it. So if it doesn’t work now, it may be something that works in a couple of years,” Sanchez said.