{"id":115,"date":"2026-09-02T15:37:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=115"},"modified":"2026-09-03T11:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:10:22","slug":"cafe-san-marcos-santa-fe-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"San Marcos Cafe – Santa Fe, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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San Marcos Cafe on South 14 About Ten Miles South of Santa Fe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contrary to some popular opinion, roosters don’t crow just to be noisy or annoying. They crow as a sign of territorial advertising; they’re protecting their turf. At San Marcos Cafe, the cacophonous din of crowing roosters is understandable considering the throngs of hungry patrons infringing on their turf.\u00a0 There was one famous fowl at the San Marcos Cafe who didn’t chicken out at the sight of guests. \u00a0Buddy the Chicken, master of all he surveyed, served as the restaurant’s unofficial valet parking attendant and maitre de. \u00a0Nattily attired in polychromatic plumage and a black bow tie, Buddy welcomed one all and actually answered to his name. \u00a0When he passed away in 1996, he received an above-the-fold obituary in the newspaper. \u00a0Name one other chicken who’s ever been honored posthumously other than with “Bless this food we are about to receive<\/em>…”<\/p>\n

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The Front Dining Room at San Marcos Cafe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s not just roosters that parade happily on the bucolic grounds of their expansive coop behind this charming old adobe establishment on the Turquoise Trail about 15 miles south of Santa Fe. Domesticated peacocks display their glorious multi-hued plumage while peahens play hard to get. Chickens roam freely within their coops looking for the right spots to hold their peck-nics. \u00a0Turkeys once splayed their own plumage like politicians puffing out their chests after another session in the roundhouse.\u00a0 Alas, when the cafe added a dining room to accommodate overflow crowds it meant pens for the peacocks and chickens.\u00a0 Turkeys no longer roam the yard.<\/p>\n

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Another View of the Front Dining Room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The menagerie of fine feathered fowl at San Marcos Cafe may not even be as colorful as the restaurant’s dining areas which are decorated in country kitchen meets Santa Fe hippie style replete with painted Spanish trasteros, old enameled stoves, Western art and brickerbrack strewn about. There’s something to see in every nook and cranny of this delightfully eclectic dining treasure.\u00a0 The San Marcos Cafe is hardly a large restaurant.\u00a0 Until the expansion, seating was, shall we say, rather intimate, but close proximity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. \u00a0There’s something about being out in the country that seems to bring out not just civility, but downright friendliness among diners at the San Marcos Cafe.<\/p>\n

Similar to the Sopaipilla Factory<\/strong><\/a> in Pojoaque and Gabriel’s<\/strong><\/a> in Cuyamungue,\u00a0San Marcos Cafe & Feed has a Santa Fe address because it is located in an unincorporated area of Santa Fe County where the mail delivery and ZIP code are officially assigned and serviced through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) postal hub in Santa Fe. Don’t look for it within the City Different.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0 located on the Turquoise Trail (NM-14) not far from the New Mexico State Penitentiary. Serving New Mexico for more than a quarter-century, the San Marcos Cafe almost never was. \u00a0When the original owners Tom and Susan Macdonell purchased the building and its five acres, plans were to convert it into a livestock feed store. \u00a0With more space than was necessary for the store, a restaurant seemed a natural fit for the remaining space.<\/p>\n

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Cinnamon Rolls, One of the Many Reasons Diners Visit the San Marcos Cafe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Macdonells owned the San Marcos Cafe for thirty years before selling it to Cindy and Mark Holloway who added a capacious dining room. That window-rich dining room offers the best seats in the house. It’s where you get a slightly obstructed view of the pens in which the peacocks and peahens spend their days.\u00a0 There’s also something for everyone on the menu with eye-catching daily specials written on the chalkboard. An absolute “must have” are the cinnamon rolls<\/em> which might surpass the famous Frontier<\/strong><\/a> rolls as the best in northern New Mexico. Taller than they are wide, these rolls are flaky and light, wholly unlike the doughy rolls that sit on your stomach for hours. Served warm and lightly iced with just the right amount of cinnamon, they’re big enough to share, but you might not want to because they’re so good.\u00a0 Most diners order the cinnamon rolls not as dessert, but as a starter.\u00a0 Michael and Jane Stern, America’s leading authorities on “road food” noted on their Roadfood<\/a> Web site that “a heretofore unrecognized rule of finding good Roadfood<\/em>” is to “look for restaurants with live poultry strutting around. Inspiring that observation was a visit to the San Marcos Cafe which they called “a real find<\/em>” with “one of the best cinnamon rolls we’ve ever devoured<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Another great way to start a meal is with the restaurant’s salsa and chips<\/em><\/strong> served on blue speckled tin ware. A pronounced taste of rich red chile mingles with onions, garlic, jalapenos, cilantro and other ingredients to make this some of the best salsa in the area. This salsa isn’t always as piquant as fire-breathing New Mexicans might like, but its freshness and use of chile makes it delicious. \u00a0The chips are oversized, a perfect vehicle for Gil-sized portions of salsa.\u00a0 Unfortunately because I load the chips with as much salsa as it’s possible for them to bear, I always run out of salsa with half the portion of chips still sitting there.\u00a0 The chips are somewhat on the salty side, but they’re a nice vehicle for the salsa which flows through my veins.<\/p>\n

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Salsa and Chips<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The San Marcos Cafe is open every day but Sunday from 8:30AM to 2PM.\u00a0 All day breakfast (with New Mexican touches) is one of the reasons denizens of Santa Fe make it their gathering place.\u00a0 Lunch, of course, is another reason, but so are service (Anna, a veteran server of seventeen years at San Marcos), the feathered menagerie and the sheer charm and\u00a0 hominess of this desert oasis.\u00a0 Paper menus have likely been handled by hundreds, if not thousands, of grubby hands.\u00a0 You’re undoubtedly going to espy at least half a dozen items you’d like to try.\u00a0 Then there’s the daily specials scrawled on the chalkboard visible as you walk in.<\/p>\n

A restaurant critic on the Food Network one extolled the virtues of chalkboard specials, reasoning that if a chef lists them, they’re bound to be good…and indeed most entrees I’ve enjoyed at the San Marcos Cafe has been a chalkboard special. That’s not because the Cafe San Marcos’ standard menu items aren’t worth mentioning. Quite to the contrary.\u00a0 Both the restaurant’s breakfast and lunch menus are somewhat on the abbreviated side with about a dozen items on each. \u00a0A visit to the chalkboard is imperative with as tempting as you’ll ever see scrawled anywhere items that might elicit involuntary drooling as you peruse them.<\/p>\n

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Beef Enchiladas Served Christmas Style<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2 September 2026<\/strong>: Inexplicably AND inexcusably, we allowed nearly fourteen years (28 October 2012 – 2 September 2026) to lapse between visits to San Marcos Cafe.\u00a0 As if chiding ourselves wasn’t painful enough, luxuriating in the towering cinnamon roll sealed the pain of what we missed for so many years.\u00a0 The enchiladas<\/strong><\/em> (stacked blue corn tortillas filled with your choice of chicken or beef covered with chile and cheese) were another reminder.\u00a0 At first glance, you might look at the plate (above) and perhaps believe you’ve been ripped off as the almost equal portion of beans to enchiladas, but if you’re a native New Mexican, it’s the golden ratio.\u00a0 Most of us grew up mixing enchiladas and beans.<\/p>\n

As usual, I asked for my enchiladas to be prepared “Christmas style” (red and green chile) with beef and a fried egg over easy.\u00a0 Also as usual, I took advantage of the opportunity to order in Spanish, the first language for both me and our beautiful server Anna.\u00a0 Neither of us knew what the translation from Spanish to English was of “over easy” as in my preference for fried eggs.\u00a0 I had to look it up and to both our surprise, the translation is “huevos vuelta y vuelta<\/em>.”\u00a0 Now we know.\u00a0 These enchiladas are a master class in how to prepare enchiladas.\u00a0 It’s not just throwing ingredients together.\u00a0 It’s proportion and composition, getting the right ingredients together in the right amount.\u00a0 As usual, I would have liked the chile to be even more piquant, but it was flavorful and obviously fresh.<\/p>\n

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San Marcos Burrito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2 September 2026<\/strong>:\u00a0 Although my Kim can no longer enjoy chile-blessed New Mexican cuisine, she misses the Land of Enchantment’s uniquely delicious flavors.\u00a0 As a compromise, she orders traditional New Mexican dishes sans chile.\u00a0 Sometimes it really pays off.\u00a0 Such was the case when she ordered the San Marcos Burrito<\/strong><\/em> (roast beef and potatoes in a flour tortilla covered in chile and cheese served with house toast).\u00a0 Though she didn’t have the chile, the roast beef (cubed like stew meat) had its own inheeant\u00a0 “gravy.”\u00a0 \u00a0She admitted that she’d actually have gravy if all gravy was like the one on the roast beef.\u00a0 Sure enough, it’s a gravy my friend Lynn Garner (rumor has it she shampoos with and bathes in gravy) would love.\u00a0 The potatoes and Cheddar were terrific, too.<\/p>\n

2 September 2026<\/strong>:\u00a0 Because we treated the cinnamon roll as our de rigueur starter, we had an excellent exuse to order the bourbon apple pie a la mode<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 An even better excuse is that desserts at the San Marcos Cafe are outstanding and they’re portioned generously.\u00a0 From a discernible hint of bourbon (the flavor, not the alcohol) to the apple pie spices, it’s an outstanding apple pie made even better by Blue Bell (the pride of Texas) ice cream.\u00a0 The apple pie crust offered just a bit of contrast to offset what might otherwise have been a “too sweet” pie.<\/p>\n

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Bourbon Apple Pie A La Mode<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An authentic feed store on an attached building carries supplies any Western rancher would appreciate and adds to the charm of an outstanding restaurant on one of New Mexico’s most scenic drives.\u00a0 There are several items at the San Marcos Cafe for which the superlative “best” might apply. \u00a0It is one of the best “get-away from Santa Fe without going too far” destinations and a real treat.<\/p>\n

San Marcos Cafe<\/strong>
\n3877 State Road 14
\nSanta Fe, New Mexico<\/strong>
\n(505) 471-9298
\nFacebook Page<\/strong><\/a>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 28 October 2012
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 4
\nRATING<\/strong>: Very Good<\/span><\/strong>\u2013\u00a0Good to very good food; generally solid; delivers consistent quality, strong technique, and a comfortable, enjoyable dining experience
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Cinnamon Roll, Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Sausage, Pork Chops, Apple Pie, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, New Mexican Crepe, Red Chile, Salsa and Chips, Guacamole, Quesadilla<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PREVIOUS VISITS<\/strong><\/p>\n

An equally formidable appetizer are the restaurant’s quesadillas<\/em>, three flour tortillas layered with beans, cheese and green chile accompanied by a dollop of wonderful guacamole and sour cream. The guacamole is made with avocados at the height of fresh perfection. Like the salsa, it isn’t piquant in the least, but has a pleasant garlicky taste and is unfailingly creamy.<\/p>\n

The blue corn chicken enchiladas<\/em>, a chalkboard special, are made with a green chile whose fragrant aroma rises like steam off the hot plate in which it is served. The green chile tastes as wonderful as it smells, imbuing the chicken with the quality of mouth-watering deliciousness. It may sound like a broken record if I say the chile isn’t always piquant, but it is as good as you’ll find anywhere. (To paraphrase an old cigarette commercial, “what do you want hot chile or good chile”.)<\/p>\n

Another off-the-board special which will blow you away is the smoked chicken sausage<\/em> (hopefully not made from the cavorting chickens in the yard) served with eggs the way you like them, breakfast potatoes and warm, buttered garlic bread. The sausage is nearly as sweet as longoniza, the wonderful spicy sweet Filipino sausage, but isn’t nearly as greasy. It’s a different kind of sweet than you’ll find in Italian sausage which relies on fennel for its sweetness. We couldn’t discern any fennel on the chicken sausage but did find several pine nuts. In any case, it’s some of the very best sausage you’ll find anywhere.<\/p>\n

The San Marcos Cafe’s specials don’t just lean toward New Mexican specialties. During our second visit, we were treated to a “countrified” version of coq a vin<\/em>, the famous French chicken stew some diners consider hoity toidy. This version is made with corkscrew pasta and thanks to a generous application of peppercorns, imparts an au poivre \u00a0reminiscence. The chicken, hopefully not one of Buddy’s progeny, is tender, meaty and delicious.<\/p>\n

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Chicken fajitas<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still another special special are the chicken fajitas<\/em>. They don’t arrive at your table sizzling as they might at other restaurants, but that doesn’t make them any less wonderful. Red, green and yellow peppers as well as onions are grilled to perfection, not quite al dente, but crisp enough without being soggy. We haven’t been able to discern everything on the fajita marinade but appreciate the variety of sweet and savory tastes with which it imbues the mostly white chicken pieces.<\/p>\n

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New Mexico Crepe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It probably won’t surprise you then to read me extolling yet another chalkboard special. \u00a0Calling it a “New Mexico crepe<\/em>” (pictured above) may be just a bit of a misnomer in that it has little semblance to a French crepe. \u00a0The New Mexico crepe might even be closer to a quiche. \u00a0The bottom layer is eggs folded over almost like an omelet. \u00a0Heaped upon that bottom layer are beef, sausage, cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole and more. \u00a0Every forkful is an adventure in surprises as the ingredients coalesce into pure deliciousness. \u00a0This entree is served with the San Marcos Cafe’s version of country fried potatoes which are pan-fried to perfection with a crunchy crust that belies the potato innards which somehow retain a soft, moistness.<\/p>\n

The restaurant’s breakfast pork chops served with country biscuits and gravy are some of the best we’ve had in New Mexico, so good Kim would be tempted to order them every visit were it not for the many surprises on the chalkboard. The pork chop is about half an inch thick and grilled to perfection. Swimming in the light brown gravy are bits of delicious sausage. \u00a0The biscuits are perfect–neither crumbly or stiff, but with a velvety consistency that makes them perfect sopping vehicles for the gravy. \u00a0Before long, you might be dipping everything on your table into that delicious gravy. \u00a0It’s that good.<\/p>\n

Bill Robens,” a very good friend of this blog turned us on to San Marcos Cafe’s red chile stew<\/em>. \u00a0Green chile stew is almost a de rigueur offering at restaurants throughout the Land of Enchantment, but as Bill points out, red chile stew is hard to find. \u00a0To be clear, this is not chile con carne or chile con frijoles. \u00a0In terms of composition, it’s got everything green chile has got save for the green chile.<\/p>\n

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Red Chile Stew with Guacamole and Sour Cream<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You’ll wish it was winter at first bite of the red chile stew where its belly warming properties will be most appreciated. \u00a0The stew is served hot, not just piquant hot, but steaming hot–and not the kind of hot created by a microwave. \u00a0The chile has a nice bite to it, but a more prevalent flavor is that of a rich, almost intensely beefy stock. \u00a0The beef is carne adovada tender and there’s plenty of it. \u00a0The potatoes are perfectly cooked as are the beans. \u00a0This is one soup which truly earns the sobriquet “comfort food.”<\/p>\n

Lest I forget, similar to The Shed<\/a>,\u00a0another New Mexico dining treasure, the San Marcos Cafe serves some entrees (even New Mexican food entrees) with lightly toasted garlic bread. \u00a0It’s just one of the special touches that make this restaurant one of my favorite get-away destinations.<\/p>\n

\"Garlic
Garlic bread at the San Marcos Cafe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with many country restaurants, the Cafe San Marcos does dessert well–very well. One of the specialties of the house is a hot apple pie<\/em> with a bourbon sauce served a’ la mode with a rich, creamy vanilla ice cream. The bourbon sauce leaves the same warm sensation on your throat as the adult beverage does and is a marriage made in culinary heaven with the ice cream and pie. \u00a0There is no apple pie filling in this pie, only sweet apples sliced thinly. \u00a0The apples are indeed sweet, but not so sweet that you can’t appreciate their tartness.<\/p>\n

Another surprising dessert treat is the Cafe’s rendition of pineapple upside down cake<\/em>, the least surprise of which is that it’s sliced like pie. It’s also served cool. The cake is very moist and dense with a pronounced sweetness that’s punctuated by the slight tartness of the almost caramelized pineapple. A large dollop of whipped cream is superfluous.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contrary to some popular opinion, roosters don’t crow just to be noisy or annoying. They crow as a sign of territorial advertising; they’re protecting their turf. At San Marcos Cafe, the cacophonous din of crowing roosters is understandable considering the throngs of hungry patrons infringing on their turf.\u00a0 There was one famous fowl at the San Marcos Cafe who didn’t chicken out at the sight of guests. \u00a0Buddy the Chicken, master of all he surveyed, served as the restaurant’s unofficial valet parking attendant and maitre de. \u00a0Nattily attired in polychromatic plumage and a black bow tie, Buddy welcomed one all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,141,5631,142],"tags":[6018,6020,6013,922,1833,856,6017,6011,6012,6014,6019,6001,6016,6015],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american","category-new-mexico","category-very-good","category-santa-fe","tag-address","tag-bourbon-apple-pie","tag-chickens","tag-chips-and-salsa","tag-cinnamon-roll","tag-enchiladas","tag-new-mexico-state-penitentiary","tag-peacocks","tag-peahens","tag-roosters","tag-san-marcos-burrito","tag-santa-fe-address","tag-state-road-14","tag-turquoise-trail"],"yoast_head":"\nSan Marcos Cafe - Santa Fe, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=115\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"San Marcos Cafe - Santa Fe, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Contrary to some popular opinion, roosters don’t crow just to be noisy or annoying. 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