CASA VIEJA IN CORRALES TAPS NEW TRADITION
Historic Corrales house starts new tradition with tap room
After the historic house became a brewery as well as an event center last summer, the tap room expands its hours due to popular demand.
CORRALES — It seems as if everyone who has lived in this village, or in the general vicinity, for a span of time has a story about Casa Vieja, the old Corrales house that dates back at least to the mid-1800s.
Maybe they knew the Harrington family that lived in Casa Vieja in the 1940s, or purchased eggs and milk there when it was a grocery store or worked as a waitress at one of the restaurants housed in the venerable building between 1970 and 2011.
But brother, if Casa Vieja’s walls could talk the tales we’d hear then.
The walls would know if it’s true that the bodies of two monks were once discovered buried within them. The walls could tell us how the portrait of a 17th-century French duke came to be secreted in another of Casa Vieja’s partitions.
“An adobe contractor found the painting in a wall that had water damage,” said Gary Socha, who with his wife, Linda, and daughter, Maria Socha, own Casa Vieja and have operated it as an event center since 2016. The duke’s portrait was water-logged and mudcovered.
“It had three holes in it,” Gary said.
Refurbished and reframed by Santa Fe art restorer Linda Nader, the painting of the duke, since identified as Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (1554-1642), now hangs on one of those silent Casa Vieja walls.
Even though the portrait’s presence at Casa Vieja remains a mystery, it plays a role in the ever-evolving epic of the old house. Casa Vieja is morphing into a brewery and tap room three days a week starting Dec. 20 and one of the beers offered is the Duke’s Red Ale.
Beer nerd
Renovated by the Sochas into a warm, elegant and inviting venue, Casa Vieja, 4541 Corrales Road, has entertained everything from birthday parties and weddings to celebrations of life and anniversaries, over the past 2½ years. It is no longer a restaurant. The Sochas removed the commercial kitchen. Meals at Casa Vieja events are catered or provided by food trucks.
And if alcohol was offered at events, it had to be provided by those renting the space.
However, Gary, 63, a mechanical engineer who owns the Socha Company, a manufacturers representative for heating and cooling products, is a self-confessed beer nerd. He started brewing beer about six years ago and won a gold medal for his Hefeweizen in a 2015 New Mexico pro-am brewing competition. Deciding to take advantage of Gary’s brewing talents and the craft beer craze, the Sochas bought a small brewery license and set about preparing to offer tap room hours a couple of days a week.
Good response
Brewing equipment ordered from China was installed in February and Casa Vieja introduced its tap room on the Fourth of July. Since then, the tap room has been opened mostly from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays when those hours and days did not interfere with scheduled events.
“Considering the challenge of our hours, I’ve been floored by the attendance,” Gary said.
But there were times when a patron showed up on a Thursday, unaware, despite social media notices, that tap room service had been preempted by an event. Not a good thing.
To avoid disappointing customers, the Sochas decided that starting Dec. 20, the tap room will be open from 5-8 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Casa Vieja will also continue to function as an event center.
“There are a lot of events we can do in conjunction with the tap room,” Maria said.
The tap room offers Gary’s Duke’s Red Ale and Harvest Hefe, an American wheat beer with melon hops, plus other beers and wines from New Mexico breweries and wineries. Gary will soon offer his Loma Lager and will make other beers of his own creation available on a seasonal basis or in response to popular demand. The tap room sells 64-ounce growlers for off-site consumption, and chef Jon Young, who grew up next door to Casa Vieja, provides eats through his food truck on tap room days.
Day of the duke
To kick things off, Dec. 20 is “Meet the Duke” day at Casa Vieja. From 5 to 8 p.m., the public is invited to witness the unveiling of the restored painting of the duke and to partake of Gary’s Duke’s Red Ale.
The oil portrait of the duke, which now hangs in Casa Vieja’s Sun Room, is believed to have been painted in Spain in the 1600s. Duke Nogaret de La Valette was an influential member of the French nobility and was awarded the titles of Admiral of France and Governor of Normandy, among others. He was involved in politics and plots throughout his life and was eventually exiled after striking a powerful rival in a public altercation.
The presence of his portrait inside a wall of Casa Vieja is part of the building’s mystique — like the story of the two monks, wearing robes, crosses and folded hands on their chests, said to have been found interred in one of the building’s interior walls.
Linda Socha said they were told where the monks’ remains had been sent, but there is no record of their bones at that place.
Only the walls know the truth.
One truth the Sochas know is that the romance and legends of Casa Vieja give them a special niche in the growing world of craft beer and tap rooms. That’s why their customers will be permitted to enjoy their beer or wine on the patio or in the rooms of the historic place.
“Anyone can make good beer,” Gary said. “We are selling the experience of a 200-year-old adobe building.”