AZTEC, N.M. — For nearly 50 years, the Aztec Restaurant has been a staple in San Juan County. 

“I wanted to have a place for everybody to be able to come in and sit down and have a meal, and visit because that’s what this is about is everybody coming in and visiting, you know, eating that was kinda secondary,” said Linda Harris, the owner of the Aztec Restaurant. “Kinda like the National Enquirer, if you wanna know something, go to the Aztec Restaurant.”

A couple of weeks ago, Linda had to close the local favorite for good. 

“It was just like had no idea this was going to happen,” Linda said. 

Linda and her employees say they were caught completely off-guard. 

“There was no prep. There was no warning. It just happened. And it’s like, ‘What do you do after that?’ because that wasn’t part of the plan,” said Greg Harris, a cook.

The building needed a new roof. Harris said the property managers approved one last spring.

“The property managers came and talked to me in the middle of January and said that it was just going to be too expensive to fix. We needed to close and it was too unsafe for people to be in here,” Linda said. 

Linda added, in addition to serving up some of the best food in town, real memories were made at her restaurant. 

“We have several ghost stories. We did dancing here on Friday nights,” she said. 

“I started coming in with my grandparents when I was just a kid. We’d sit and they’d have their coffee, and I’d have a cinnamon roll,” said Bri Harrington, a worker at Aztec Restaurant. 

As of right now, there are no plans to open another restaurant.