‘Breaking Bad’ fans flock to Los Pollos Hermanos
Twisters transforms into iconic restaurant to commemorate show
A decade after its 2008 premiere, “Breaking Bad” still has plenty of fans.
Hundreds showed up at the Twisters on Isleta Boulevard on Saturday, which was briefly transformed into “Los Pollos Hermanos,” the fictional fast food eatery in the show, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the show’s debut.
“This was all for the fans,” said Marq Smith, one of the founders of the Better Call Saul Three Strikes fan club, which organized the event.
Smith and club co-founder Edward Candelaria were dressed as the mascots of the fictional business, the Chicken Brothers, and a long line of fans waited to be photographed with the pair.
The restaurant, the same location the show was filmed at, and its parking lot were packed with people and cars, with most wearing their favorite “Breaking Bad” gear.
Twisters director of operations Joe Barraza said more than 1,000 people had showed up to the restaurant by 11:30 in the morning.
The staff were fully decked out in Los Pollos Hermanos aprons and visors.
Ashley Kajiki Romero of Carlsbad wore the same outfit throughout three seasons of the show, playing the restaurant’s manager Cynthia.
“I didn’t think there would be this big of a turnout,” she said, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans in the parking lot. “I’m really shocked.”
Superfan Tom Hudak, wearing Walter White’s signature black pork pie hat, dark sunglasses and goatee, was at the party with his wife, Amy, and family friend Candace Luce.
The three New York natives now live in Albuquerque, largely due to the show.
“I had just wanted to Break
Bad for my 30th birthday,” Luce said, adding she’s watched the series in its entirety five times.
So she traveled to Albuquerque with her fiance and took a “Breaking Bad” bicycle tour.
“And I fell in love with it,” she said.
She encouraged the Hudaks to take the tour, and they, too, were smitten with the city.
“We fell in love with the city and the food and the people, so we gave up on our dream of moving to Arizona and bought a home in High Desert,” Amy Hudak said.
Luce and Amy Hudak said they were surprised by how much they liked Albuquerque, as the show following the rise and fall of a meth kingpin doesn’t exactly paint the city in a positive light.
Neither has had any experience with crime since moving here a few years ago.