Beloved Albuquerque diner, The Breakfast Club, closes

Scrambling to serve a packed dining room, Veronica Rodriguez still makes time to chat with regulars — some of whom have been coming to her South Valley restaurant for decades because it feels like being with family.

During a midweek morning rush in late September, Rodriguez smiled and said she's “as good as could be expected.”

But the beloved restaurant her late husband opened in 1989 shut its doors at the end of September due to an insurmountable amount of debt.

On Sept. 18, a notice was attached to the door of the diner at Coors and Fortuna NW from local real estate brokerage NAI SunVista informing The Breakfast Club to vacate the space by the end of September unless it could come up with $17,691 in rent, late fees and other overdue bills.

Among the charges were $8,500 for September rent, $1,000 in late fees, $1,500 in unpaid August rent, $158 for gas and $6,533 for water.

“When we got that notice, I felt as though I failed, or I'm losing him again. I just lost him a year ago next month, and now I'm losing him all over again,” Veronica said of her husband, Clemente, who died last year.

Rodriguez said she maxed out her credit cards to set up a payment plan to catch up on the water bill.

The past due balance on the account for the restaurant was $5,586. A lien for the past due amount was filed earlier this year and only three payments have been received in the last 12 months, according to a spokesperson for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. However, the lien has now been transferred to the property, according to the spokesperson.

NAI SunVista took over as the property manager for The Breakfast Club and the surrounding shopping center two months ago, according to its CEO.

Rodriguez said that the rent for the Breakfast Club increased from $7,000 to $8,500 in August.

NAI SunVista said it would not discuss the rent with the Journal as it is a "private contractual matter."

According to Bernalillo County Assessor Damian Lara, ownership of the restaurant and the surrounding Volcano Plaza Shopping Center changed hands in the past two years from local businessman Ben Cohen — who died in 2021 — to Gene Pool 640 LLC in 2022, then to its current ownership, K369, in the past year.

According to the listing on the assessor’s website, the shopping center, including the diner, was valued at $1.7 million in 2023 then jumped to more than $2 million in 2024.

Expressing support

As news of the hefty bills made its way to the diner's regulars, many came out to show support.

The restaurant was packed on a recent Monday morning — with almost every one of the brass-buttoned burgundy booths filled and hot cups of coffee occupying the white oak tables. In the dining room, the sounds of a sizzling grill was sometimes pierced by the ring of a timer or clinking spatulas.

Heading the kitchen was Danny Dooner, 39, who came to work at The Breakfast Club and help his family last year when Clemente, his stepfather, got sick. He was distraught about losing the restaurant he grew up in.

Of the demands to come up with more than $17,000 to settle bills, Dooner called it "a ridiculous ask. I mean, it's an unethical ask."

On the afternoon of Sept. 23, a little after the restaurant closed for the day at 1 p.m., Dooner let in Sid Hernandez, one of the diner's regulars, to chat.

Hernandez first came to the restaurant to meet his dad for breakfast in the early 1990s. He had been coming two to three times a week recently and said the restaurant knows his regular order.

“I’ve actually been coming here for about 20 years. My dad started coming here, and then we started coming here. My kids grew up here, so it's kind of been that place where you come and just kind of hang out. Everybody knows everybody,” Hernandez, 52, said.

He pointed to a section of booths that he often sits at with his family when they all join him for breakfast and said he’ll miss the restaurant a lot, especially coming here with his 2-year-old grandson, who used to run around the restaurant and say hi to everyone.

“I think the best thing is it's not all hustle and bustle. It's not like going to another restaurant where you're just a number,” Hernandez said. “You can sit down, eat and just talk to whoever you want. Because everybody knows everybody here, and that's something that's kind of going away.”

But it's possible Hernandez and other regulars may have a new place to gather again.

Rodriguez told the Journal she is exploring options to reopen the restaurant in a new, smaller and more affordable location, though no location is set in stone yet.