Shade Tree Customs and Cafe

What happened after

Original owners closed the business in 2015; it continued under new ownership as 'Shade Tree Cafe' before closing for good in October 2025.

Closure date on record: 2025-10

What happened on the show

Blending a custom shop with a cafe on historic Route 66 in Albuquerque, Shade Tree Customs and Cafe was an unusual concept when it drew its tenth season visit. Founders Ryan Greer and Richard Rael got Shade Tree the show's usual two day overhaul on a renovation budget the network keeps small, though the specific troubles Irvine tackled are not preserved in any Wikipedia recap and are left unstated here. The closure came in two stages, an unusually long tail. The founders shut the original business in 2015, after which it continued under new ownership as Shade Tree Cafe until a final Facebook post in October 2025 announced it was officially closed after 15 years. The Nob Hill fixture outlasted most of its castmates before that second, definitive ending.

After the cameras left

Shade Tree closed for good in October 2025, after a two-stage history. The founders closed the original business in 2015, per the Albuquerque Business Journal, and it carried on under new ownership as Shade Tree Cafe until a Facebook post on October 10, 2025 announced that after fifteen years the cafe was officially closed as of that afternoon, so this is a high-confidence call. The Nob Hill spot outlasted its own founders by a decade under a trimmed name before shutting permanently.