Last year, Rich Freedman, your beloved former business partner passed away.
Judy: When Rich died, I was having lunch with a friend at the Tea House. And somebody said we haven’t seen Rich, we can’t find him.
Freda: That night and he didn’t respond. That wasn’t like him.
Judy: And he came to our house for dinner on Wednesday nights. Often my husband Dick and Rich played backgammon, and Dick said he acted so strange that night. But he did beat Dick at Backgammon that night, so whatever that means.
So, Rich died. And then we said, Oh, God – so here we are. Now, Rich was a lawyer and an accountant, so you’d assume he had everything in order.
Freda: He had Nothing.
Judy: Nothing! No Thing! So, Freda stepped up, went over to the Tea House and picked up that
management. And what did Dick and I know?
Freda: You’ve been a huge support and we had the best year in 2023 that we’ve ever had.
Judy: This place would’ve gone up in flames without Freda.
How does Canyon Road inform this place?
Freda: El Farol means lantern or light and originally when El Farol started serving food, the way the villagers would know we were open was because the light was on, on Canyon Road.
Canyon Road was the thoroughfare from the Plaza to the Acequia. So that’s why we still have the lanterns. We’ve kept that tradition going.
Until Rich bought the place, you couldn’t even see the original murals on the walls. When we restored this place, Rich and I started to uncover the plaster and everyone was so excited.
Judy: someone on Instagram said they liked it better when it was a dump.
Freda: Yeah, we’re a restaurant, not a Dive Bar.
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