Souvenir shop ‘So El Paso!’ first opened in Kern Place and just opened a second shop in the Las Plazas Arts District of Downtown El Paso at 123 W. Mills Ave., to be exact. The INSIDER spoke to owner Anne Hussmann Mitchell, a fourth generation El Pasoan, moments before the new shops ribbon cutting!

Husmann told us, the shop is named aptly, after a phrase used when anything distinctly El Paso happens, “That’s so El Paso!”

After being shown the space inside the Anson Mills building after expressing her desire to garner more corporate business, Mitchell said, “Wow, that has a lot of potential.”

Mitchell expressed a frustration with the void in the El Paso souvenir market, “It drove me crazy that there was nothing El Paso [anymore], you know we have this great [ballpark], we have a great Neon Desert Music Festival, there’s thousands of people who don’t live here anymore, but there’s nothing that says ‘El Paso’.”

“So, it really started with the salsa, then it moved into the tortilla soup, then the pecans, and the specialty pecans,” Mitchell told us when asked where her inventory started, and how it grew into what it is today, “I opened the store and people were looking for souvenirs, because the El Paso Saddle Blanket doesn’t sell to the public and the Texas Store left town. So, we started carrying souvenirs. This salsa turned into souvenirs and now we’re downtown!”

In terms of downtown, Mitchell expressed excitement about the revitalization actually happening, with people coming downtown more and more, “As a company called ‘So El Paso’, I think I really need to be part of it.”

The shop will be open Tuesday to Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information call (915) 777-0803