Del’s Restaurant – Tucumcari, New Mexico

The 1950s was the era of American Graffiti and Happy Days.  Motorists were getting their kicks on Route 66 and listening to Wolfman Jack howl as he spun Rock Around The Clock at 45rpm.  Vestiges of that era are still teeming in Tucumcari, the easternmost major town in the Land of Enchantment along Interstate 40.  Known by locals as “the town that’s two blocks wide and two miles long,” Tucumcari’s main thoroughfare traces the route blazed through town by old Route 66.  That route is festooned with vibrant neon signage that cuts a luminous swath through the town. The nocturnal spectacle of glowing neon might be the siren’s call that has drawn generations of “cruisers” to Tucumcari Boulevard.

Not quite equidistant between Amarillo and Albuquerque, Tucumcari has long provided much-needed respite for weary travelers headed west.  In its halcyon days, hundreds of signs along the highways trumpeted “Tucumcari Tonite—2,000 Motel Rooms.”  There aren’t nearly as many motel rooms in Tucumcari today.  Among the survivors are the famous  Blue Swallow Motel which Smithsonian Magazine once called “the last, best, and friendliest of the old-time motels.”  Across Route 66 from the Blue Swallow stands another survivor, the landmark tepee fronting the historic Tee Pee Curios . The Tee Pee has one of the coolest neon signs anywhere, best experienced at night.

1956 saw Del and Wilma Akin launch of a breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot named Del’s Restaurant.  Approaching its 70th year, Del’s is still going strong, evoking a nostalgic sense of yesteryear.  In July, 2021, Chase Waters, a Tucumcari native and former employee purchased Del’s, enhancing Del’s Western decor with memorabilia from his grandparents’ Phillips 66 station, which once operated in town. Waters is only the fourth person to own the restaurant.  Ownership transition is such a rare and significant occurance that the event was covered by New Mexico Magazine.  In addition to the dazzling neon that lights up Del’s signage, the restaurant is most conspicuous because of the large hereford atop the signage.  The hereford also lights up at night.

Del’s is renowned for its versatile menu of American and New Mexican favorites.  That menu is a multi-page exercise in decision making.  Will it be chicken-fried steak, catfish, chimichangas, a green chile cheeseburger, enchiladas or fajitas?  Seriously, there is a wealth of options on that menu.  In his most recent visit (2006), my friend Steve Coleman of Steve’s Food Blog noted “Although several restaurants in town attempt to serve New Mexican style food, with spicy red and green chile, Del’s seems to have given in to the notion that the food must resemble Tex-Mex cuisine that is popular in the neighboring state. While it offers both red and green chile, they seem to be adulterated by the spices and “fillers” commonly included in Tex-Mex enchiladas that make them very tame on the “heat scale.”  It would be interesting to see if that trend remains.

Visit Yelp and you’ll find that Del’s still occupies the top spot in a three-page listing of Tucumcari restaurants (a listing that includes Denny’s, Taco Bell, Arby’s and Allsup’s Convenience Store).  The surprise in Del occupying its prominent spot is that the second restaurant on the Yelp list is Watson’s BBQ which several sources have named one of America’s best purveyors of barbecue.  Much as we’ve loved Watson’s during two previous visits, you can’t be a gastronome and not change things up.

Del’s is a showpiece for western art and curios.  Decorative elements include barbed wire, lassoes and spurs.  We were seated in the front dining room which seemed to be popular among sedulous workers with deep tans.  At the back of the front dining room where the cashier’s station sits, touristy bric-a-brac is available for purchase.  Service is warm and gracious.  Our server was happy to provide recommendations and indicated the kitchen was amenable to changes (such as my Kim not wanting anything piquant near her plate).

A basket of salsa and chips were ferried to our table as we perused the menu.  Large, crispy and lightly salted, the chips were warm and definitely not out-of-a-bag.  The salsa wasn’t especially piquant, but it was thick, delicious and made for Gil-sized salsa scooping.  There are eighteen appetizers on the menu, but for most of us the salsa and chips will suffice.  Should you decide on another starter, such choices as potato skins, cheesy chile fries, fried pickles, cheese nachos and fries are available.

Because anything more piquant than ketchup wreaks havoc with my Kim’s tongue and taste buds, she tends to gravitate to fajitas at restaurants serving New Mexican food.  Del’s offers the usual suspects–steak, chicken and shrimp–fajitas as well as brisket fajitas (red and green peppers, grilled onions, sour cream, guacamole, flour tortillas).  We were surprised at just how good the brisket was.  It was tender and delicious with a smoky flavor that bespoke of low and slow preparation.  It was a welcome change from skirt steak which can’t always be trusted to be tender.  Among the elements that made these fajitas special was the guacamole with a deep, rich flavor.

After a week of enjoying incomparable onion burgers and charbroiled, hickory smoked burgers in Oklahoma, you might think I’d be tired of burgers.  As an unabashedly proud New Mexican, I can never get tired of our sacrosanct green chile cheeseburger.  Though the menu indicated the burger was char grilled, it didn’t have an especially prominent char flavor like the burgers at Johnnie’s Charcoal Broiler (which I didn’t review because we got it to go).  Nor was the green chile especially piquant.  In fact, it didn’ have much more heat than a bell pepper.  The burger was dressed with lettuce, tomato, red onions, mustard, pickles and that insipid green chile.  Mind you, as a burger it was still pretty good, but as a green chile cheeseburger, Del’s has some work to do.

Del’s has a thirteen item dessert menu centered around pies and cakes.  Pies include an old-fashioned lemon meringue, lemon berry, key lime meringue and apple.  In keeping with our celebration of returning to the Land of Enchantment, we ordered sopaipillas which are served with real honey, not that inferior honey-flavored syrup.  In Steve’s estimation “By far the best feature of the meal was the Sopaipillas with Honey served for dessert.  Our sopaipillas were fresh out of the fryer.  These triangular-shaped golden beauties had the requisite puffiness that just beckons for honey.

As long as nostalgia exists, there will hopefully be a Del’s Restaurant to enrich our memories and sate our hunger.