When organizers of the Cedar Crest Farmers’ Market put up a new sign this week to let passersby know about home-grown goods for sale, they uncovered a piece of town history.
Pete Withers has been the Cedar Crest Farmers’ Market manager for six years. Pete, his wife Sani Withers, and their sons own Polk’s Folly Farm in Cedar Crest and they are one of 20 or more vendors who sell products at the market. When the Withers put up a new sign, they found an old sign underneath for the Bella Vista Restaurant.
“We had every intention of saving the raised letters, but as it turns out, they’re very brittle. It’s just plywood cut in the shape of letters. So you touch them and they fall apart. In fact, a couple of letters are already gone,” Pete said. “I don’t think we’re gonna be able to save them, but we have pictures.”
According to a feature in the Albuquerque Tribune, the Bella Vista was built by the Guelfi brothers, Alfi and Aido, who emigrated from Italy in the 1930s. The restaurant, which closed after about 40 years in 2001 brought back memories for the Withers.
Sani grew up in Cedar Crest and remembers the place well. Families enjoyed all-you-can-eat chicken and fish in the dining room that sat up to 1,200 people at its busiest. Sani’s friends worked at the restaurant as teenagers, serving customers in lines out the door. An advertisement in the Albuquerque Journal from 1975 offered a choice of all-you-can-eat spaghetti and meatballs for $2.10 or stroganoff for $2.65.
“The Bella Vista was the go-to place and all the sports teams from Albuquerque would come out here and have their banquets, and it was this huge, massive dining room,” Sani said. “It was kind of an icon in the East Mountains for years and years and years.”
Robyn Hoffman, president of the East Mountain Historical Society, said the restaurant was an East Mountains institution.
“I’ve always wanted to do an oral history on the place,” she said.
The organization has kept old advertisements and postcards of the restaurant for preservation purposes.
The Cedar Crest Farmers’ Market is just north of Triangle Grocery on North 14th and has been in existence at different locations for almost 20 years. Pete says that with the help of the New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association and grants from the state, they participate in programs like Double Up Food Bucks in which EBT and WIC recipients can buy food from the market at half price.
The property that used to be the old Bella Vista is still a great place for the Cedar Crest community to come together and make new memories.
“I wanted this to be a real community gathering place,” Pete said. “When people come here, they’re seeing friends that they haven’t seen in a long time. It’s where people come to hang out. It’s not a bar, it’s not a restaurant but it’s outside. Everybody’s having fun.”