Lobos guard Donovan Dent partners with Sadie's of New Mexico

If you dine at one of the three Sadie’s of New Mexico locations in Albuquerque, you’ll have the option to order the New Mexi Cali Burrito. The restaurant soft-launched the burrito on Tuesday. It’s also the literal product of an NIL deal executed between the family-owned New Mexican restaurant and New Mexico freshman point guard and Riverside, California, native Donovan Dent.

The New Mexi Cali Burrito includes shredded beef brisket, hand-cut fries, chili con queso and avocado lime crema.

Sadie’s of New Mexico General Manager Gilbert Sanchez said while a Cali burrito might traditionally feature carne asada and pico de gallo, the restaurant used brisket and chili con queso as replacement ingredients to stay true to its culinary identity.

“We worked with him, came up with a plate that kinda is New Mexican but also kind of reflects his culture, which he grew up in Riverside, California,” Sanchez said in a Zoom interview. “We kind of fused two things together.”

Sanchez said the restaurant’s Instagram and Twitter posts promoting the new menu item were some of its most-viewed posts “in a while.” Its post on Twitter has almost 17,000 impressions, which is roughly 15 times its follower count.

Now, the restaurant is hoping to turn social media impressions into customers.

“For us to see an increase on what we’re doing on social media, I think goes a long way,” Sanchez said. “Now we’ve just got to get the people to come in and try out the meals.”

The NIL experience for a small, family business

The restaurant chain first signed NIL deals with Brianna Martinez, an Albuquerque native who played soccer at Notre Dame, and former New Mexico men’s basketball guard Saquon Singleton.

“We kind of started it with them,” Sanchez said. “Probably went through some interesting learning curves, I guess, as far how to do something that is worthwhile for us and for the athlete.”

Sadie’s of New Mexico also produces the university’s official Lobos-branded salsa, Sanchez said.

Dent is the third New Mexico athlete whose NIL deal with the restaurant has involved the promotion of a specific meal. The first two athletes to partner with the restaurant for a new menu item are former women’s soccer forward Jadyn Edwards, who was a super senior who helped New Mexico win four Mountain West regular season championships, and current wide receiver Luke Wysong.

Sadie’s of New Mexico partners with athletes by quarter. Each agreement varies based on the athlete and the athlete’s social media following.

Sanchez said the athletes who have partnered with Sadie’s of New Mexico have received between 10 and 18 percent of the revenue of their respective meals sold. The meals are priced based on the margins the restaurant needs to make the NIL deals worthwhile for its own business, too.

For Edwards, the soccer star, “if we would have done probably a full six months with her, she probably would’ve seen definitely close to five [thousand] to $10,000 on NIL money to her, based off the agreement we had,” Sanchez said. “And Luke’s going to hit that for sure on his burrito bowl that we do for him. It’s really just coming up with a meal and then the kids promoting it as well, which is trouble. That’s maybe been the biggest hurdle is getting the student-athlete to find the time to promote those meals.

“Like I said, we’re not just giving out the money right away. There has to be some sort of return for us that’s going to help us getting customers in and trying their meal.”

‘If the meal doesn’t sell, then they make no money’

Sanchez summarized the nature of the agreements simply. If a meal sells, then the athlete makes money.

“If the meal doesn’t sell, then they make no money,” he said.

Sanchez said there’s little risk for anyone involved, other than “maybe someone trying a meal that’s completely horrible and saying, ‘I’m never going back to Sadie’s’ and basing their experience off of that.”

However, there are limits to the culinary creativity that an athlete can propose. Sadie’s of New Mexico won’t add just any item to its menu.

“It’s been interesting,” Sanchez said. “I think we have a good model right now… It’s tough to see a return on your investment. I think a lot of these guys — you see the car dealerships who just start throwing out hundreds of thousands of dollars and how do you quantify that?

“Again, we’re a small business so there isn’t hundreds of thousands of dollars to just throw out, which sucks and which is also maybe good in a way.”