Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [215]
Before the main course, everybody gets crisp, warm tortilla chips and a set of salsas, red and green. The green is served hot (temperature-wise), but is fairly mild. The red is served cool but is very, very hot. We also ordered what the menu lists as avocado salad, but looked and tasted a lot like chunky guacamole.
The broad, airy dining room with its adobe mission–style décor is a pleasant place to relax and enjoy native foods. The staff was kind and helpful, seats were comfortable, and we relished the aroma of other people’s chile-focused meals—gorditas, con carne, tacos, tamales, rolled as well as stacked enchiladas—wafting past us on their way from the kitchen to tables.
Owl Bar and Café
Hwy. 380
505–835–9946
San Antonio, NM
BLD | $
“Masterpiece! Masterpiece!” sings the waitress at the Owl Bar as she carries a green chile cheeseburger from the kitchen to the bar at 8:30 A.M. While the menu does have a couple of egg-and-bacon breakfasts as well as steaks and sandwiches, the unique New Mexico hamburger is what puts this out-of-the-way watering hole on the Roadfood map. Since at least the early days of atomic bomb tests at nearby White Sands, when scientists used to come here for nuclear-hot burgers, the Owl Bar has built such an exalted reputation that aficionados drive from Texas and Colorado to eat ’em two by two.
Crusty, gnarled patties of beef are covered with chopped hot green chiles and the chiles are in turn topped with a slice of cheese that melts into them and the crevices of the hamburger. Customary condiments include raw onion, chopped lettuce, sliced tomato, and pickle chips. It is a glorious package, and while we have never compared this one side-by-side to the excellent green chile cheeseburger up at Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe, there can be no doubt that the Owl Bar’s version is among the state’s best.
While we ate ours at breakfast time, the stools at the bar were occupied by a few regular customers having their own all-liquid breakfasts in the form of Coors Light.
Pasqual’s
121 Don Gaspar Ave.
505–983–9340
Santa Fe, NM
BLD | $
Pasqual’s is a modest corner café with terrific food. At any mealtime in this crowded, split-level dining room, you are lucky to find a seat at a small table or at the large shared one, where a local or a stranger from just about any part of the world might break bread with you.
For breakfast, we love the pancakes, the blue and yellow cornmeal mush, big sweet rolls, and giant bowls of five-grain cereal with double-thick cinnamon toast on the side, accompanied by immense bowls—not cups—of latte. And for lunch, we can never resist the expertly made soups. Little things mean so much: fresh bread for sandwiches, flavorful roasted chiles on quesadillas, even the coffee is a tasty surprise.
After a few meals at Pasqual’s, it is easy to feel affection for its unpretenious, sometimes clamorous ambience; this is a restaurant with character that perfectly complements the good stuff from the kitchen.
Plaza Café
54 Lincoln Ave.
505–982–1664
Santa Fe, NM
BLD | $
Opened in 1918, the Plaza is the oldest restaurant in Santa Fe. Its interior is a blast from the past, especially attractive to those of us who appreciate traditional diner ambience, but the tidiest version imaginable. At the back of the room is a neon-edged map of New Mexico. The floor is lovely tiny-tile checks, and tables are chrome-banded luncheonette-style.
The Plaza seems not to be impressed by itself as a piece of history or an example of classic counter culture. It is an easygoing kind of café, one of the last vestiges of the Santa Fe Plaza as a town gathering place. The menu is an appetizing combination of Americana (burgers, chicken-fried steak, hot turkey sandwich), Greek diner standards (lamb meat loaf, souvlaki, Greek salad), and real New-Mex specialties including chiles relleños, posole with pork, menudo, and pure red chile or green chile stew. Every day starting at 11:00 A.M., the Plaza kitchen turns out what may be the city’s most delicious sopaipillas.