The Wolf Shack offers New Mexican flavors and flair to the classic J&W's menu

There's a New Mexican spot in town. Nope, not a new Mexican spot, a New Mexican spot.

The Wolf Shack, formerly J&W's, officially opened its doors on Jan. 2, ushering in a new era bolstered by the culinary talents of Alisha Mora and Chris Miera.

The couple will keep the classic J&W's staples on the menu (Carol Churchill has agreed to keep making her tartar sauce while menu items like "Baby Randy" and "Randy" will maintain their names), but Chris and Alisha are excited to add some New Mexican flair to the Wrangell culinary scene.

If you're wondering what defines New Mexican food, worry not.

"New Mexico has a lot of Mexican and Native American influences mixed together," Alisha said. "And it has to do with our chili."

This chili - known as the Hatch chili to New Mexicans - comes from the little town with the same name. Nestled just north of the southern border and east of White Sands National Park, Hatch, N.M., is the chili capital of the state. And for New Mexicans, it's the chili capital of the world.

"It's green when it grows and then as it ripens it turns red," Alisha said. "You can roast it in a green state over the flame or ... make red sauce out of it in a red state."

But then ... scandal! Allow Alisha to explain.

"It's only grown in New Mexico," she said.

"But Colorado has tried to take it," Chris added from behind the counter.

Back to Alisha. "It's a huge deal," she said, "because it's labeled as New Mexico chili."

This kept happening throughout the interview. I would pose a question to Alisha but Chris would pipe up from the back, or I would ask Chris something about the food and Alisha would respond with an answer of her own.

But they weren't interrupting each other. They were simply oscillating back and forth like a pair of ballroom dancers, each setting up the other for a dip or a spin or an opportunity to tell me more about Hatch chilis. It's this dynamic, a pinball percolation between Chris and Alisha that makes the Wolf Shack work.

During service, Chris does all the cooking; their son Lennex runs the window; and Alisha works as something of a go-between. She also makes the restaurant's doughs. But as far as the division of labor, those are about the only set boundaries. Everything else is fluid and prep time is just another ballroom for Chris and Alisha to dance. Some days she makes chili and he experiments with fish tacos. Other days she puts together a sweet bacon sauce to compliment a cheeseburger that Chris grills behind her.

Though the couple married in 2018 (wish them happy anniversary on Feb. 17), their love for cooking dates back to their childhoods.

"I learned from my grandmother," Alisha said. "She was a cook. She can make anything and her food was our comfort, our place to be."

Alisha added that her grandmother's breakfasts - and that Wrangell's breakfast options are limited on weekends - inspired her to start opening on Saturday mornings.

"You'd go to my grandma's house and there was no silverware," she said. "There was a stack of tortillas. You got red chili, beans and eggs and meat and you used your tortilla as silverware."

While the Wolf Shack does hand out silverware to customers, no love is lost when it comes to their breakfast menu. So far, they've served huevos rancheros, chicken fried steak and your classic two-egg breakfast.

"It's comfort food. You don't want anything else," Alisha said.

Chris, meanwhile, comes from something of New Mexican culinary royalty. His family owns Padilla's Mexican Kitchen in Albuquerque. When asked how long he worked there, he just held his hand down to his knee: "Since I was that old."

From a young age, he learned how to make green chili chicken enchiladas, carne adovada and tamales. He learned the secrets of the perfect sopapilla and the nuances of a hearty pozole - a stew made from soaked hominy and pork.

For now, those dishes will appear as dinner specials, but Chris and Alisha hope to incorporate such staples of New Mexican cuisine into their regular menu in the future.

"Introducing stuff little by little is our plan," Alisha said.

Importing authentic New Mexican ingredients, though, is a bit of a challenge. Chris and Alisha make everything homemade; when they ran a lasagna special the other night, the couple home-cooked every ingredient. Well, almost.

"The only thing from the store was the cheese," Chris said.

Given the importance of the Hatch chili, there's no chance they are going to cut corners when it comes to imports. They could order the chilis while they're green, but they come frozen and Alisha said the shipping is too inconsistent. The ripe red chilis ship dehydrated, so that is more attainable, but it means they sadly won't be able to ask customers the classic New Mexican question: You want that green or red? (If you want both it's called Christmas.)

Though the couple misses the accessibility of authentic New Mexican cuisine, they are making a conscious effort to place the Wrangell community at the core of the Wolf Shack identity. After a long and difficult child adoption process in 2022, the couple was ready to get out of New Mexico.

When Alisha found a job as a social worker at SEARHC, Chris, Alisha and their now five-person family stuffed their life into a 24-foot trailer and arrived in Wrangell in October 2023. Chris worked part time at J&W's, but last summer he and Alisha realized they wanted to take over the business full time.

With all three kids in the school system, Alisha and Chris have found ways the Wolf Shack can help the students they so desperately want to support. They want to let students work the counter to help offset sports travel costs.

"We really want to be there for the community and all the sports," Alisha said.

"This is our family," Chris added.

They've certainly updated the menu since taking over the business, but for those craving a lunchtime burger while hunched over on Front Street, there's nothing to worry about. Toward the end of our interview, I asked Chris a final question: What menu item are you the proudest of?

"I can make a good burger," he laughed.

And then he turned to the grill. Chris proceeded to cook up a sweet and spicy bacon burger adorned with that sweet bacon sauce Alisha made earlier in the day.

Huddled under a space heater on the Wolf Shack patio, I unwrapped my burger, hunched over the wooden table and took a bite. Chris was right. He can make a good burger - a really good burger.