Minding Your Business; 372; Jerry Harrell, Double Eagle Restaurant

Minding your business is provided by support from Seal Levitino of Emeric Realtors, proud to be associated with the quality programs and community service projects of PBS and KRWG TV. By Camino Real Builders, a committed partner with KRWG Broadcasting, providing educational, informative and entertaining programs to our region. And by the New Mexico Humanities Council, working with local groups to bring programs about culture and the human experience to all communities in New Mexico. KRWG TV presents Minding Your Business, a look at the people, places, events and issues that impact the business and economy of Southwest New Mexico, with your host

Charles Colmer. Hello and welcome to Minding Your Business, a show where we explore business economic development, community resources and events and issues that impact our region. This week on the show, it's tough to survive in the world of small business and restaurants make up a healthy percentage of that group. But for decades, the double eagle on the plaza in Ole Missilla is a state strong. Here to talk about how is General Manager Jerry Harrell. Thanks so much for being on the show. Thanks for inviting me. And I have to tell our viewers, you've seen many of our business features, you've been a viewer of the show. And you said, hey, how about, you know, enough of those new folks, how about us are surviving? So here you are. Well, I wouldn't call you an old geezer, you can't be much. We got to be probably about the same age. But nonetheless, great idea for a great pitch for a show and real glad you're here. I always start off by finding out a little bit about the guest.

Where'd you grow up? Where'd you go to school? And what were your work experiences before double eagle? Well, actually, I started off in Southern Louisiana. Was the only white Anglo-Saxon Protestant on my block. Everybody else was French Catholic, Cajun. Oh, okay, okay. So, grew up there with the McNeigh State University in Lake Charles, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and started in the hotel business. It was in the hotel business for about 25 years, but always hotels with pretty extensive food and beverage. And I became, I think, quite good at food and beverage operations and hotels. I finally decided to retire after 25 years in the hotel business and found a buddy-ritter in the double eagle who was looking for somebody to take care of the business. So, I made him a deal. And so, we've worked out a deal, and I've been there ever since. That was about 1995 that I came back to Las Cruces. So, about 12 years, you've been you've been working for budding. You've seen some changes around the restaurant and certainly

around the plaza in the area with the Mercado coming up and all of that. I've done business features on a couple of Mercado businesses simply posh and just did Emerald Isle not too long ago. Now, you told us when you came on board, not tell us some about the history of double eagle, what you know? Well, the building itself is one of nine buildings on the plaza listed in the National Historic Register. The double eagle listed as the oldest and was a home from some of the valley's most prominent families up until about the 1960s. Was abandoned for a time, became a cotton warehouse, then a series of small shops. In 1971, Robert O'Anderson from Atlanta Richfield Oil purchased the building and turned it into a restaurant. And he's the one who brought in all the things that make the double eagle, the double eagle, the Bacharachristos Chandeliers, the artwork, the sculpture. He's the one who spent all that money and made it the

the place that it is physically. He ran that to build the restaurant from 1972 when it opened all the way to 1984 when Buddy Ritter bought the building. And Buddy's the one who added air conditioning and started doing some upgrading and changing. But it is an old historic building made of Adobe brick mud blocks and has some very unique and unusual maintenance characteristics to it. So it's always a challenge. But that's how the double eagle came to be. And I can absolutely attest to that. I live in an 80-year-old Adobe home downtown that I'm renovating myself and certainly has its physical plan issues, but a labor of love. True, true. And that surprises me how you tell me about how it was decorated and when it was first bought and turned into the double eagle because when you walk in there, it feels like it's been like that forever. Exactly. John Miggs was the interior decorator. And John Miggs was a New Mexican born and raised and always had that New Mexican touch.

Always added New Mexican flair. And so when you go in the building, it seems like this is the way it's supposed to be. It's always been there. It's home. And so John Miggs has that feel about anything he designed. Now, I understand the restaurant has a resident ghost. Well, not one, but two. But two. Well, tell us a little bit about said spirits from the other world. Well, the first family that moved in with a maize family, you know, the Mexican American War, 1846, 1848. In a state's took the western half or northern half of Mexico to be the western half of the United States. And the line for the United States was at Danyana. And there were some Mexican citizens who did not appreciate being conquered and say they moved south of the border. And they're the ones who found the Bacias a permanent settlement. The maize family was one of those families and they started building the house that houses the double eagle today. Well, a big house like that, they had a lot

of servants. And while the service was a little teenage girl named Armando, Inaz, excuse me. Okay. And she was in the house then working and she fell in love with the owner's teenage son Armando. So Armando and Inaz fell in love. But, you know, they were teenagers so they don't really fall in love. They fall in love. Yeah. Well, mom found out about the romance. So there's no way my son's going to marry a maid. She fired on the house, sent her from the house and says they could not see one another. But do teenage boys listen to their mother? They do exactly opposite. Exactly. So they could even see one another on the side. And one day, mom, mom comes home early unexpectedly from a trip and she finds Armando and he has Armando's bedroom. And they were in there and they were playing tiddly links. And mom became so upset that she grabs her sewing shoes and attacks Inaz. Oh my God. Stabs her to death. In the struggle, she actually

stabbed her own son and he died three days later in that same room. So both deaths occurred in the room. And ever since then, the house has been haunted by the two ghost lovers. You have to tell me what have you seen? Have you have you seen anything weird here? I've participated in exactly his has been one night, a very late night when we were closing up. One of the servers was there selling up in the Maximilian room and finishing his side work. I said, look, I'm tired. I'm going home. You finish up. Here's the keys. We go ahead to come back tomorrow. Give me my keys back then and it'll be fine. So I left him alone in the restaurant. So he was setting everything up on the tables in the Maximilian room and he kind of felt a cold chill. He didn't think anything about it, looked around. It was a young Hispanic girl walking out of the Maximilian room onto the patio. He didn't think about the ghosts. He thought maybe I'd forgotten the lock of door. So he runs to

the patio saying, man, man, I'm sober closed. There's no one there. He checks all the doors. I did my job. All the doors were locked. Well, he decided to go home right then. He came back on the next day and maybe signed a pledge to never leave him alone in the restaurant again. But that's the only one I've been associated directly. There've been a number of incidents, though. They like to move things. They call people's names. The fun thing about the ghosts is they're not mean or malicious or malevolent. They're more like teenage prank things that they do. That is absolutely fascinating. I'm fascinated by the subject got chills listening to the story a little bit. I have actually lived in 200 houses. I'd long story one out in Stamen farms and one actually in the middle of town just off Missouri Street. But more about the double legal. Double legal actually is two restaurants under one roof. When was Peppers introduced and tell us

why? Why would you do something like that? Well, the double legal is a large, large building. They're actually 285 seats in the restaurant and it's what's called an upscale white tablecloth restaurant rather than something like a fast casual restaurant like Apple Vs or Texas Roadhouse. And so Las Cruces really didn't need a 285 seat white tablecloth restaurant. So we weren't filling all the seats with white tablecloth service. These weren't enough people in the town of Las Cruces who wanted that service. So we kind of divided the restaurant and went to a fast casual concept called Peppers. And we knew we probably couldn't compete with Apple Vs and Texas Roadhouse and those families, those sort of places because they buy large quantities of food. So what we decided instead of competing on price, we compete on quality and we do things a little differently.

For example, we have chili rianos that we have the regular Chorianos. But we do them a little differently. We put a tempura batter on them instead of a light egg batter. So they're very crispy and you put that green chili sauce over the top of it. You have a little crunch to it in addition to the cheese. It makes it a lot of fun. We do things with seafood stuff rianos. We use black beans instead of just the refried beans. We took a little Pacific ram, influence and took an Asian wonton skin, stuffed it with cheese and green chili, deep fried it, serve it with pineapple and jalapeno salsa. So you've got fried bread and cheese with sugar on top. How can you go wrong? You know, and just about anything in New Mexico, especially this part of the state that you put cheese and good chili on. It's going to sell. Now it sounds like you also tried to delineate yourself from the more traditional side of La Posta, where they're

more traditional and I understand that you and Tom get along great. And I did have to snicker a little bit. I went to Tom Jerry. Yeah, Tom and Jerry show. Practically next door neighbors, but but did you find that that was a key to success because people can get a great plate of enchiladas or chili rianos at La Posta. Did you feel that was something necessary to put that like gourmet touch on it? Well, not so much gourmet, but different. And creative. How about that? Creative. There we go. La Posta has a great restaurant. So there's the other restaurants in Macilla. Each is unique in style. We all have enchiladas, but our enchiladas are different than La Posta's than Andalai's and season yours. And so all the restaurants in Macilla do the same thing basically, but we do it differently and creatively. And so we were not afraid of competing

with Tom. We didn't want to compete with La Posta. We wanted to do our own thing. And so you go to La Posta on Monday for his enchiladas and you come to peppers for my seafood stuff, chili rianos on Wednesday and then Andalai's for their tacos on Friday. And Andrea actually worked at who owns and runs Andalai worked at La Posta for a long time. I think before the Tom days and then started her own restaurant and heard her father and that's an amazing place to great food. But also like you said, a little toast from those on the plaza. So all three places we highly recommend. I've actually never eaten a season or so. So I can't say. Now let's talk about survival on the plaza. We've alluded a little bit to it, particularly with peppers, but what does it take to survive on the plaza? Well, I think the realization that

Las Cruces is not our entire market. We don't have a local market. We have a local niche. For sure. And several, a lot of people from Las Cruces come to Messia, but we would never survive if we didn't have the tourists that come off the interstate and the El Paso Waris traffic. So we specifically market Messia as a community to El Paso, to Waris and to the interstate driver. And it's those people that have allowed Messia both the retail side and the restaurant side to survive. Now other fine dining restaurants have tried to make a go of it in the area. I was an opener at the Hilton when they first built it in 86 and they tried to fine dining restaurant that failed inside a year. And they just converted it into a lobby bar. Others have made a go. I understand Savinos has just sold. And while probably somewhere in between

standard American food dining and double legals, Savinos, it's just tough to survive in that niche, particularly because of the size of the city. How have you maintained turning a profit because you can't survive on prom season alone? Right. Exactly. Well, again, that's where the Messia, the uniqueness of Messia comes in. And those other markets that we're able to appeal to, no one else in Las Cruces City limits can appeal to a traveler off the interstate, can appeal to the El Paso market to come up in the numbers needed in the Waris market that comes up. So we have a unique atmosphere. Sometimes too, when a white tablecloth comes in and they come in with a little attitude. And they're going to teach Las Cruces how to eat. They're going to,

they look at what we do at double legal and say, well, this is not like in the food magazines from the East Coast and the West Coast. And we're going to do it differently. We're going to do it right, quote unquote. The problem is nobody wants to eat that. And so you have to pay attention to the Las Cruces market if you're going to, you know, market to the Las Cruces people. And understand they're pretty basic meat and potatoes type people. And frizzy and foam are wonderful for some people, but a good old steak and a baked potato is pretty good for the vast majority of people. Now, that makes a good segue. One thing we had talked about a little bit before was Gardunios. They had a hard time here. And you said you had some specific things to say about where they went or right. And you said it had a lot to do with food influences. And in our area

compared to the north, explain more. Well, as I said about to Messia, and we've all got enchiladas. But they're slightly different. But they're all basically southern New Mexico, enchiladas, with an influence more from Spain and from Mexico. If you eat enchiladas in Albuquerque and farther north, that Mexican food is influenced more by Indian cooking. We don't have that many Indians down here in the South, the Apaches, Hickoryas, the Tortugas. But they were not a big influences for us. Food was concerned. And so the different ways that chilis are used, particularly red versus green, makes a big difference. And so Gardunios, that food, that same food that people here in Las Cruces, refused to buy. People were standing in line for in Scottsdale, Arizona, and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The same recipes, the same food, made the same way. And yet,

people in Las Cruces turned their nose up at it because it wasn't southern New Mexico cooking. It was northern New Mexico cooking. So that was the big difference in why I think Gardunios did not really succeed. See, now that's why my favorite Mexican food are usually in tiny little mom and pop shops. And unfortunately, one of our most favorite, Casa de Menudo, just shut down. And my wife and I were heartbroken, but Fidencios has reopened. I guess I learned from the folks there that they had been in Hatch all this time. When they left their location on North Main, they had a place in Hatch that they kept running. And they decided the time was right. And they opened up in that old Popeye's chicken. And I couldn't be happier. Wonderful food. And I've slowly been been taking some of the other guys from the station there and showing them and it's been a really big hit. Now, we've been talking about food influences. Let's talk a little bit about food trends.

As a years have gone on, as a restaurant tour, as a hotelier, you have had to change your attitude about foods. Now, I remember it was either the late 70s or early 80s USDA came out with a major report about cholesterol and all of these kind of things. And America hit the brakes on rich beef and richer foods. And you couldn't sell a prime grade steak in a store. People just wouldn't buy it. What do you remember from the 70s? Walks of 70s and 80s as a hotelier, what was your experience? Well, that's exactly right. Once the health kick came in, people watched what they're eating much more, paid much more attention. Like I said, you couldn't give away a prime steak. Buffalo was a big thing back in those days. Because it was lean back to beefy tastings. You still had beefy, so the texture. But a lot of buffalo steaks were out. Buffalo burgers were very popular.

The lower fat salad dressings came in and people were having salad dressing on the side instead of on the salad. So all those trends came in at those times. Now, for example, it's kind of flip-flop. Yeah, with food network, we've sort of gone back to more of the 60s and 70s attitude about food and joy. Not holy. The attitude when you're out at a restaurant is entirely different than your attitude at home now. Okay. Before you would have the butter at home and you'd have all the fanning things at home. Now, the trend is you got splurge in the restaurant and at home, you have the healthy stuff. The canola oil. And the brummel and brown butter. Exactly. You eat for restaurants and have the zero trans fat. That's sort of thing. Now, also, beverage trends are changing. Wine has kind of made a comeback, hasn't it? Wine's a big feature with double legal now. Yes. In fact, we just won the 2007 wine

spectator excellence award, best of the wine spectator for Southern New Mexico. We're the only restaurant without award south of Albuquerque and only six in the state. And so the wines that we've got about 300 wines on stock, the one hand that we keep. Wine has made a big progression, primarily because people were a little afraid of the DWI moving away from hard liquor to beer and wine, wine in particular. And once you start off with a little white zen as your first taster, you kind of broaden your horizons. They start tasting other things. So going to pino's, Cabernet's, that's sort of thing. And learning a little bit more. So it becomes fun. Jerry, if you can believe it, we're out of time. Thank you so much for being on the show, talking about trends in the double legal. Thank you. Appreciate it. To finish off this show with a focus on food, we're going to change it up a little bit and feature a bartending and cooking

demonstration from the folks at Double Eagle. I'm going to show you how to make it to Kiela Turquoise Margarita today. We're going to salt the rim. Go ahead and pour the Kiela first. 100 percent. Cabernet, Magabe Riposato Turquoise, triple orange liquor, lime juice, and some blue curacao. Blue curacao is a blue triple sec. It's a blue orange liquor. Go ahead and top it off with some lemon juice, shake it, and then strain it. We serve it up. Then we add real turquoise stone.

Enjoy. My name is Larry Lauro Campos and I'm a chef here at the Double Eagle. I've been here for 16 years and since 1974 I've been working as a chef. What's the realtor? We are an agent in Rome here at the Double Eagle. Explain to the people that my business needs to be aged. We can't spend it really tender and it's really good in that way. This is the only age in Rome and I think it's in the whole size that I don't know Mexico. I have a daily here, when I use it, this is when we can start using them. So tell us what you're going to do today. I want to cook a pork house, 28 hours steak. The pork house comes from the short loin and one side is New York and the other side is a flake. Also, the pork house comes from the same short loin. This is prime. You can see that marble did on the steak, all this is marble.

That's what makes the prime. This is a bit of a season already here. It's a rather big make again, only in the doldy. Is that a secret recipe here? Yes, that's the same kind of secret recipe. Wow, you can only flip it two times. One way and then I cross it and then I cross it and it should be done. We just made a round separate with a rubber and a steak before we put it in the steak in the corner of the cook. We only want the flavor on it. It's not marinated before, so the steak has the wrong flavor already but soft. Just a friendly reminder, if you do drink, please do so responsibly and use a designated driver.

Well, that just about does it for this week. If you have a question or comment about the show, you can call the mind in your business hotline in 646-7350 or email me at Charles Comer at Yahoo.com. Again, I'd like to thank my guest general manager of Double Legal Restaurant, Jerry Harrell for coming on the show and thank you so much for watching. I'm Charles Comer, just hoping you have a great one. Minding your business is provided by support from CEO Levitino of Emoryk Realtors,

proud to be associated with the quality programs and community service projects of PBS and KRWG TV. By Camino Real Builders, a committed partner with KRWG Broadcasting, providing educational, informative and entertaining programs to our region. And by the New Mexico Humanities Council, working with local groups to bring programs about culture and the human experience to all communities in New Mexico. Bohemia, 100 years of Mexican craftsmanship, Bohemia, Mexican-Imported Beer.

You just do it, but really for the most part, that's basically all you do, and then you tweak the painting to fit your personality, your color scheme, and all the things that you want to do, including all the way down to, of course, adding a few birds flying in here, about to run out of time, so I'm going to go ahead and take my script brush now. I love to put these little birds in here, I don't know until they get up there. Now watch this, these are the one-stroke birds, lean, and then you apply a little pressure for the body, you see there? And you can actually put a

little beak on there, and a little tail. So it looks just like he's flying right there. You can put two or three like that, or the rest of this can just be kind of suggested, and there you have it. And you can add little details again, more cracks and things in the roof, and little highlights, and fun things to make the painting, what you want it to be. But again, folks, we're out of time, and I hate to tell you that, but it hasn't been fun. Hope you've enjoyed returning to the days of old. We're going to have to leave you now, but remember now. Next time when we have our session, we're going to start a brand new painting, so come prepared for that, okay? Hope you get a chance to finish it up. Send me a photograph in the mail, we'll take a look at, okay? Well, thanks for joining us again. God bless you, stay inspired, keep painting, and I promise I'm going to see you right here real soon on another Yarnale School of Fine Arts. So they're not all lined up correctly, gives them a lot of movement, and then the beautiful

sailboats. Sailboats in the wind. We've completed this both as a scribble quilting and as an applique technique. Wow, so you're actually using three different techniques for doing quilting or applique and just using the same patterns. That's right. I've never seen such colorful quilts for kids. They're just darling. Thank you. We have to share this way, but I think you're so sweet. This is peek-a-boo bunny. Again, another one of the block techniques. We tried to do something a little different in each one of the blocks, and in this case, we've rotated the bunny face in each one of the blocks, and the one right in the center is cut off, so it looks like she's peeking out over the top. I would never think of using an applique like that. That's darling,

and look at the colors here. This is one of my favorite quilts. This is a littlest prop plane. Again, a block configuration, and we have taken the block, the plane in the lower left hand block, and it is flying out of the block, and right in the middle of that, and I'll see it in