Category: Breakfast

BreakfastClosed in 2019Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoSteak

Ponderosa Family Restaurant & Grill- Tijeras, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:20 AM

The teeth, tail and eye of the tiger caused quite an uproar in the Sandia National Forest near Tijeras, New Mexico back in 2015 and it made the national news. A mountain biker took a blurry photo of what appeared to be a tiger and posted it online. The photo went viral, prompting Bernalillo county officials to issue a warning urging hikers to take caution and call 911 if they saw it. A subsequent investigation by the New Mexico Game and Fish Department uncovered a life-sized plastic statue of a tiger. Because of the uproar it had caused, the plastic…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastClosed in 2024Diners Drive-Ins and DivesFood Network Eats New MexicoGone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanRating: ExcellentTravel Channel Eats New Mexico

Cecilia’s Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:12 PM

FROM INSTAGRAM (December, 2024):  After 25 years on the corner of 6th & Silver, Cecilia’s Café has closed its doors. This New Mexican breakfast and lunch restaurant was once featured on the Food Network and was a beloved space for locals.  Owner Cecilia Baca cited persistent challenges with homeless people, issues finding employees, and the remote/hybrid work phenomenon as key reasons for closing. Since the pandemic, “customers aren’t working a full week,” she said. “Just a lot of little things that made me realize that Downtown will not come back to life the way it was before COVID.” Pasqual Baylon’s…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBetter Call SaulBreakfastBurgersDog FriendlyNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: Very Good

The Owl Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:45 PM

Shortly before 6AM. on July 16, 1945, some of the world’s most brilliant minds ushered in the nuclear age with the detonation of the first atomic bomb, an occasion which later prompted Los Alamos Laboratory head J. Robert Oppenheimer to declare “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” The transformative event occurred in a dry, desolate locale approximately 35 miles from bucolic San Antonio, New Mexico, the gateway to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The scientists who developed the top-secret bomb had been staying nearby in cabins rented from J.E. Miera, proprietor of Miera’s Owl Bar…

AmericanBreakfastBrunchDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:15 PM

My friend Schuyler jokes that because the diet of my formative years was mostly beans, chile and tortillas as well as chile, tortillas and beans, I’ve developed an insatiable curiosity and appetite for anything that isn’t beans, chile and tortillas (although I still love those). “No one else,” he claims “is equally enthusiastic about  bacon-infused decadence one day as he is the healthy paleo foods  the next.  Schuyler calls me  “the anti-Mikey” (the little boy in the Life cereal commercials who hated everything, except of course, Life cereal).  He argues that I like everything. In his eyes it doesn’t count…

AlbuquerqueAmericanBreakfastBurgersClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicanNew Mexico

Duke City Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:18 PM

In the 1970s and 1980s,  Reese’s Peanut Butter cups commercials consisted of a series of vignettes.  Each vignette depicted the collision of two daydreamers–one eating peanut butter and the other eating chocolate.  The peanut butter eater would exclaim “you got chocolate on my peanut butter.”  The one eating chocolate would retort “you got peanut butter on my chocolate.”  The two would then sample the mix of chocolate and peanut butter and burst out in wide-eyed surprise with “Delicious!”  A godlike narrator would then proclaim “Two great tastes that taste great together.” Reese’s has nothing on restaurant impresario Doug Weckerly, chef and…

BakeryBreakfastCaliforniaDiners Drive-Ins and DivesDog FriendlyJewishRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Sherman’s Deli & Bakery – Palm Springs & Palm Desert, California

Gil Garduno1:53 PM

Not everyone appreciated my friend Bob’s stark honesty as much as I did. For nearly twelve years, Bob was my most trusted source for information on the Santa Fe dining scene. He was also a huge advocate for my writing, even when his reaction to one of my particularly “long way around” missives was “what?.” From a style perspective, he was a “get to the point” guy while your humble blogger sometimes (okay, okay, always) takes a circuitous, raconteur’s route to get somewhere. Bob often chided me for not liking cumin on New Mexican food, once telling me “when you…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastClosed in 2019Dog FriendlyFrenchGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Crepe Crepe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:17 PM

Richard Olney, a cookbook author best known for his books on French country cooking described crepes thusly: “their greatest pitfalls derive, no doubt, from their versatility — not in itself a fault, but a quality that teases many a cook into overstepping the boundaries of sense and taste. One should never lose sight of the fragile and delicate, thin, tender thing that is the crepe itself.”  In his magnificent tome The French Menu Cookbook, he prefaced a recipe for Gratin of Stuffed Crepes with: “crepes may contain practically anything and they represent one of the prettiest and most satisfactory means of…

2020 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" Semifinalist2025 James Beard Foundation Finalist: Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages ProgramAlbuquerqueBreakfastFine DiningJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoRating: Outstanding

Campo at Los Poblanos – Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:59 PM

A simple day laborer at a wealthy estate, Ysidro began his days by rising early and attending Mass. His fellow laborers complained that they had to do some of his share of the work because he lingered in church. After hearing the complaints of his farmhands, the land owner visited his fields while Ysidro was at Mass. To his astonishment, he saw two angels guiding Ysidro’s plow in his absence. Later when Ysidro returned to work, the angels stood next to him and plowed alongside. Ysidro was essentially doing twice as much work as he would have on his own…

AlbuquerqueBreakfastMexicanRating: Very Good

Acapulco Tacos & Burritos – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno1:09 PM

Acapulco–just the name evokes images of pristine sandy beaches, translucent blue waters, a comfortable climate, luxury hotels, and world-class gourmet cuisine. There are many reasons Acapulco has earned its nickname of the “Mexican Riviera,” after the famous French resort area. It’s unlikely Albuquerque’s three Acapulco Tacos & Burritos restaurant will ever be mistaken for one of Acapulco’s pricey and sometimes pretentious three- and four-star restaurants. There’s absolutely nothing pretentious about Acapulco Tacos & Burritos. To the contrary, this humble denizen of deliciousness seem to symbolize the wonderful simplicity of Mexican food in the finest and most complimentary sense of the…

BreakfastDog FriendlyNew MexicanNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

Tortilla Flats – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno8:29 PM

“Beans are a warm cloak against economic cold.” ~John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat In his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck introduced the literary world to the downtrodden denizens of Tortilla Flat, an impoverished barrio on the shabby hillside just outside the respectable city of Monterey, California. The quirky inhabitants of the ramshackle community were a dichotomous lot–hedonistic drunks, adulterers and thieves on one hand; on the other, paisanos with surprisingly kind-hearts who asked nothing more from life than loyal friends and a little wine. Unlike their stodgy, orthodox counterparts in Monterey, the men of Tortilla Flat defied social mores, conventions…

AmericanBreakfastBrunchCaliforniaDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Cheeky’s – Palm Springs, California

Gil Garduno9:55 AM

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is widely credited with the aphorism “England and the United States are two nations divided by a common language.” My Kim and I had no idea just how different the Queen’s English is from the English spoken by the colonists until we were assigned to Royal Air Force Fairford. As part of the newcomers orientation, we were required to attend a course in which those vast differences were explained. Many of those differences were rather comedic, but we were warned, “if Yanks aren’t careful, we could perpetuate the dreaded “ugly American” stereotype widely held in…