{"id":46215,"date":"2021-06-17T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/restaurant-brings-colorado-new-mexico-border-cuisine-to-ignacio\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:30:17","slug":"restaurant-brings-colorado-new-mexico-border-cuisine-to-ignacio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/restaurant-brings-colorado-new-mexico-border-cuisine-to-ignacio\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant brings Colorado-New Mexico border cuisine to Ignacio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sonja
Sonja Silva and Eli Romero, co-owners of Sonja's New Mexican Cuisine, incorporated their heritage into the new restaurant in Ignacio. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sonja Silva wanted to serve the food of her youth \u2013 the cuisine of Southern Colorado and New Mexico \u2013 to the Ignacio community.<\/p>\n

In early June, she and her \u201cpartner in crime,\u201d Eli Romero, brought Sonja\u2019s New Mexican Cuisine to life.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is founded in family history. It is housed in the one-floor building at 135 Goddard Ave., a former grocery store and restaurant built by Silva\u2019s parents in 1973. The pictures on the walls, and the restaurant\u2019s rustic-bohemian vibe, come from Silva\u2019s own life, family and travels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up here. My family has been here for generations and generations. I love this town,\u201d Silva said. \u201cI would like to bring good food that we grew up with, that people are familiar with who grew up in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sonja
Sonja Silva, co-owner of Sonja's restaurant in Ignacio, incorporated bright colors and photographs from her family, life and travels during an extensive remodel of the restaurant at 135 Goddard Ave. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That means Frito pies, Fritos smothered with red or green chili, beans, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomatoes; the native taco, a large sopapilla with the same toppings; a sopapilla stuffed with locally farmed ground beef and toppings; and the Ute sandwich, two grilled cheese sandwiches smothered with the same toppings.<\/p>\n

The most expensive item on the menu, Dave\u2019s Open Faced Burger for $12, is also one of the most popular, Romero and Silva said. Fries, breakfast classics, kids items and more are on the menu at Sonja\u2019s, open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working with Farmers Fresh Market, and we\u2019re buying locally grown beef,\u201d Silva said. \u201cSo the burgers we sell are from the farmers in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sonja
Sonja Silva and Eli Romero, co-owners of Sonja's restaurant in Ignacio, get ready for the lunch rush hour Wednesday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The restaurant owners received a liquor license from the town of Ignacio on Monday, which means they will be able to serve the Romero family\u2019s famous margaritas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a secret recipe,\u201d said Romero, who owned The Patio in Durango and Romero\u2019s in Silverton and Durango. \u201cYou have to come in and try it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the opening day June 9, the line was like \u201cpeople coming out of church,\u201d Romero said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had people that come back four days in a row. That\u2019s how good it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t keep up with it. We were cooking till midnight and then we would get up at 4 a.m.,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n

\"Many
Many menu items at Sonja\u2019s New Mexican Cuisine come smothered with red or green chili and topped with cheese and other garnishes. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jacob White, a resident in the Ignacio area, went on opening day and has returned several times since then. He keeps coming back for the good food and friendly people, White said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty exciting to see them open due to the fact that I\u2019m here every day and there\u2019s a limited amount of options available during lunch and breakfast,\u201d said White, a fan of the restaurant\u2019s huevos rancheros. \u201cI really want to see them be successful and be able to provide their service to their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once they have more help in the kitchen, the owners will be able to take things up a notch with items such as homemade tortillas and sopapillas. The building was renovated to include a takeout window, which will help the owners catch customers passing through Ignacio on the way to Navajo Lake, Romero said.<\/p>\n

\"Sonja's
Sonja's restaurant on Goddard Avenue in Ignacio opened in early June after months of renovation work by the owners. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The restaurant took almost a year to become a reality. It started as an idea during the summer of 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The owners plugged away at renovations and equipment purchases before receiving a burst of funding from friends and family that helped them open this summer.<\/p>\n

Now they have one goal in mind:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really want to offer the community good food, spicy food \u2026 at a reasonable price,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

inspiration from family history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,438,28,1235,1231,4691,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-food","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-pine-river-times","tag-pine-river-times-news","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86792,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46215\/revisions\/86792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46215"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}