Red Ball Cafe in Albuquerque, New Mexico by John Margolies, 1979. The Red Ball Cafe opened in 1922. The original owner, Nester, passed away in 1962. His wife kept running Red Ball until finally closing their doors in 1979. The cafe sat empty until 1997, when it was bought by James and Theresa Chavez, and then it closed its doors again in 2014. Leticia Gutierrez had been a cook at Red Ball for the Chavezes, and in 2018 she bought the business and brought it back to life. As of 2022, it was closed again.