First and foremost, an apology to many a college journalism professor for having this article start with a question mark as a headline. Second, sorry this is running so late on a Friday. Non-Crew stuff is quite afoot these days, which we will share how it will affect the site in a couple weeks (fear not, we are not shutting down or anything).

Now that we have that out of the way, we come upon the curious case of a Rio Rancho brewery and its mysterious fate. We recently published a list of every active craft brewery in New Mexico, and one of the commenters on Facebook thanked us for including Cazuela’s Mexican Grill and Brewery.

Only then another commenter replied that he thought the brewpub on Sara Rd, just east of Rio Rancho Blvd/Hwy 528, just north of Intel, had closed.

The almighty Google declared that he was right, that after 12 years in business, Cazuela’s had given up the ghost and shut its doors. Except, there is no mention of the brewery being closed on the official website. There has not been an update on Facebook since January. In a way, as quietly as Cazuela’s appeared (at least on the brewing side, the restaurant was open well before a beer was made on site), it disappeared.

Well, maybe it did. It would not be the first time that Google has been wrong about something. But, without anything to contradict that, we have to accept it as fact. There has been nothing in the Rio Rancho Observer, and the Rio Rancho page on Reddit has been sans anything Cazuela’s for a long time.

The Crew tried, over the years, to keep consistent contact with Cazuela’s. It did not happen, however, which is really no one’s fault. Some places just never really appoint a single contact person, either because they are too small or the staff turns over too frequently. Our last full story with an interview was all the way back in 2015.

Brewers came and went out there. Mike Campbell, who was the founding brewer at Tractor back in 1999, started up the brewing program in 2013. He went on to win a bronze medal at the 2014 World Beer Cup for his oatmeal stout, Beer for my Horses.

When Campbell moved on to start up his own place that eventually (after many name changes) became Kilt Check Brewing, Cazuela’s turned to Back Alley Draft House brewer Brandon Venaglia to take over. Venaglia would stay for a bit before moving on to Bathtub Row in Los Alamos, and then later he returned to Albuquerque to run the show at Toltec before it closed, and currently holds the top title at Flix Brewhouse off Coors.

Other brewers came after that, but we never managed to connect with them. Cazuela’s just got lost in the shuffle of the 40-plus breweries in the Albuquerque metro area. We heard many a rumor that a closing was imminent over the years, but it continued to plug away. It got to the point where we ignored the closing rumors.

Now, though, it appears to have faded into the history of closed breweries in the Albuquerque metro area.

However, if Google is wrong and Cazuela’s is still open and serving beer and food, please let us know. We would never be happier than to rescind/rewrite a story about a brewery closing.

But, if this is the end, and this was one of your favorite unsung places around town, leave us a comment here or on social media. We tentatively raise a pint to Cazuela’s, whatever its fate might be here in 2025.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister