Local food favorite celebrates its ‘Golden’ anniversary

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A staple in the Albuquerque metro is celebrating its 50-year anniversary.

For decades, Golden Pride has served up fried chicken, ribs and burritos – and they’re not going anywhere. They said they didn’t go 50 years to put the brakes on a good thing now as they plan to keep it going for decades to come.

“It’s way better than we ever thought because, for years, we were just fried chicken and we did okay,” said Larry Raiosek, the owner of Golden Pride and Frontier.

Larry and Dorothy Rainosek say they’ve come a long way since they opened their first Golden Pride location across the street from their Central and Eubank location.

“A friend of ours bought a building on West Central and said, ‘I really need something in that building,’ so we said, ‘Okay, we’ll go ahead and open up,’ and at the time we called it Golden Fried.”

A year afterward, the Rainoseks opened Frontier restaurant across from UNM.

On its first day, Golden Fried only brought in $49 – back when you could get two pieces of chicken and a roll for just 49 cents.

It wasn’t long before they added 200 employees and new, future-classic menu items such as burritos and sweet rolls. They also added three other Golden Pride locations across the metro.

“All of the sudden we have four Golden Prides, and I just couldn’t run all four of them,” Larry said.

With the help of some long-time, dedicated employees, their children, the food and an atmosphere that keeps customers coming back for more, the Rainoseks have built an institution that they hope will last for years to come.

“We’ve been able to decorate the golden pride and frontier, and people — the artists like to hang out in the Frontier and the Golden Pride because there’s a lot of people that come through and get to see the art,” Dorothy said.

“We’re looking for more years but it won’t be 50 more,” Larry remarked. “Hopefully it will continue and, if our daughter does not want to run it, then I’m sure that she’ll figure out how to sell it to someone, but we’re still here and we think that we’re good for another 10 years and we’ll see how that goes.”

The Rainoseks said they are not looking to expand as they are happy with their four locations. They also said, like everyone these days, they’re looking for more workers.