Loretta's Burrito Hut moving east

The owner of Loretta's Burrito Hut anticipates she'll reopen her restaurant about a half-mile east of her current location in the Joe's Back in the Day Diner building by late June or early July.

Loretta Muller, owner of the restaurant at 605 W. Tucumcari Blvd., said she's been shoring up the long-closed Joe's building at 321 E. Tucumcari Blvd. since March, including repairing a leaky roof. She'd planned to reopen there sooner but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented that.

Muller said in a phone interview last week opening in her new location by the Fourth of July is doable "if everything goes right."

Muller leased the former Rubee's Diner building on West Tucumcari Boulevard in late 2018 after occupying food trailer for five years at the corner of Third Street and McGee Avenue.

"I'm excited. It's something I've wanted for a long time. I'd been trying to get it for years," she said of the impending move. "This building I have now was too small for me from the beginning. I'll be glad when we have the seating capacity where everyone is comfortable and not on top of each other.

Muller said she'll shut down her operation for a few days before reopening in Joe's.

"I'm going to kick back for a week, get my house and yard organized ... things I neglected because I work so much," she said.

Before the food trailer and her brick-and-mortar building, Muller sold burritos out of her car to blue-collar workers about 15 years ago.

Muller said she'd keep her restaurant's name despite the location change.

"That's not going away," she said. "Everyone knows me already. I've got repeat customers not only in town, but out of town."

She said she wants to add employees and menu offerings at the new site.

"Our burgers are going to be called flame-broiled Ultimate Burgers," Muller said. "I've got a flame-broiler in there. There's going to be some added stuff, but I need to practice on it before I even tell you what it's going to be."

Joseph Ysco operated Joe's Back in the Day starting in 2013 but closed it about five years ago because of complications after surgery that left him disabled.

Ysco indicated in a phone interview last week the fact someone else would take over the building where he worked would be bittersweet for him.

"It was my dream to have that," he said. "It's going to hurt my feelings, but I'm glad she has that. I just hope she makes it; that's all I care about."

Ysco planned about a year ago to reopen his restaurant with a new chef from Albuquerque, but he backed out when his landlord wouldn't let him out of his lease.

Muller, a Tucumcari native, said she'd rather be in her hometown than anyplace else.

"Everyone puts this town down, but that's the reason it doesn't get any better is because they don't lift it up in prayer," she said. "I want our town to grow. Let's do more for our little town."