Lucy’s Cafe: A Legendary and Delicious Landmark
by Rene Leon

El Paso has many legendary cuisines whose tales travel far beyond the city limits: the style and class of Café Central; the eclectic energy of L & J Café; and, of course, there is Chico and his tacos.

There is, however, a dish that lies unbeknownst to most, save for the select few who have ventured into one of the last diners in the Sun City.

Lucy’s Café has stood strong along Mesa Street for over 35 years, and inside the blue-and-white diner is where you can find indulgence with machaca.

The dish, which in Spanish means smashed, consists of beaten and dried shredded beef, cooked on an open grill and smothered under a queso sauce ripe with chile and onions. Served on a plate with hashbrowns or in handy burrito form, you can eat at the diner’s counter and watch Mesa’s constant flow of vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians, or you can carry it out to your home, office, car, park, movie theater, etc. In any case, the rest of your day will be better after having stopped at the old-fashioned eatery.

The recipe was brought to El Paso from Monterrey, Mexico, by café owner Lucy Lepe. Her son, David Lepe, who now operates the restaurant after his mother’s retirement, says there are other establishments in El Paso that have tried to replicate Lucy’s machaca recipe, but none has been successful.

“Since mom was cooking on an open grill, everyone saw what she put in it,” he says.

“It’s gotten so popular that even IHOP tried to sell it. But if you try the machaca with the chile con queso, no other machaca will taste the same.”

While Lucy’s is close enough to serve the many professionals, office workers and shoppers from Downtown, a large number of Lepe’s customers actually come from just across the street, from inside Cathedral High School’s halls full of ever-hungry high school students.

“In the morning, it’s the high school kids. They govern from 7 to 8,” he says. “Nobody else can come in because there are 20 or 30 of them.”

The Record
After finishing a machaca plate or burrito, you may be tempted to order another, though the too-much-of-a-good thing notion usually prevents that from happening for most patrons. But for other (braver) customers, one order just is not enough.

A few years ago, customers began competing to see who could eat the most machaca burritos and the café soon had its first standing record, set by Maury Saucedo, who downed six burritos in quick succession.
Not long after that, the record was broken.

Hanging on the wall above the counter is a certificate declaring that Wade Luther and Andy Thomas, two friends and Cathedral High School alumni, had broken the record by eating seven burritos. But that record was soon to be broken yet again.

According to Lepe, a hungry customer entered the café one day but had no money for a meal. So, as part challenge and part bargain, Lepe agreed to let the customer have a free meal if he could break the record and eat nine burritos. He did. His meal was free. And the rest is history.

So if you want to see great local artwork and photographs hanging on the walls of a café from another era, if you have a big appetite, or if you have little to no monetary occupants in your wallet, venture up Mesa Street to see if you are man (or woman) enough to set your own record and become a Lucy’s Legend.