{"id":70195,"date":"2025-05-17T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T06:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=70195"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:10:08","slug":"dels-restaurant-tucumcari-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=70195","title":{"rendered":"Del’s Restaurant – Tucumcari, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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Del’s Restaurant (Circa 1956) in Tucumcari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 1950s was the era of American Graffiti and Happy Days.\u00a0 Motorists were getting their kicks on Route 66 and listening to Wolfman Jack howl as he spun Rock Around The Clock at 45rpm.\u00a0 Vestiges of that era are still teeming in Tucumcari, the easternmost major town in the Land of Enchantment along Interstate 40.\u00a0 Known by locals as “the town that’s two blocks wide and two miles long<\/em>,” Tucumcari’s main thoroughfare traces the route blazed through town by old Route 66.\u00a0 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\u2019s call that has drawn generations of \u201ccruisers\u201d to Tucumcari Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Not quite equidistant between Amarillo and Albuquerque, Tucumcari has long provided much-needed respite for weary travelers headed west.\u00a0 In its halcyon days, hundreds of signs along the highways trumpeted \u201cTucumcari Tonite\u20142,000 Motel Rooms<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 There aren’t nearly as many motel rooms in Tucumcari today.\u00a0 Among the survivors are the famous\u00a0\u00a0Blue Swallow Motel<\/a><\/strong> which Smithsonian Magazine<\/strong><\/a> once called \u201cthe last, best, and friendliest of the old-time motels<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Across Route 66 from the Blue Swallow stands another survivor, the landmark tepee fronting the historic Tee Pee Curios<\/strong><\/a> . The Tee Pee has one of the coolest neon signs anywhere, best experienced at night.<\/p>\n

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The Front Dining Room at Del’s Restaurant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1956 saw Del and Wilma Akin launch of a breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot named Del’s Restaurant.\u00a0 Approaching its 70th year, Del’s is still going strong, evoking a nostalgic sense of yesteryear.\u00a0 In July, 2021, Chase Waters, a Tucumcari native and former employee purchased Del\u2019s, enhancing Del\u2019s Western decor with memorabilia from his grandparents\u2019 Phillips 66 station, which once operated in town. Waters is only the fourth person to own the restaurant.\u00a0 Ownership transition is such a rare and significant occurance that the event was covered by New Mexico Magazine<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The hereford also lights up at night.<\/p>\n

Del’s is renowned for its versatile menu of American and New Mexican favorites.\u00a0 That menu is a multi-page exercise in decision making.\u00a0 Will it be chicken-fried steak, catfish, chimichangas, a green chile cheeseburger, enchiladas or fajitas?\u00a0 Seriously, there is a wealth of options on that menu.\u00a0 In his most recent visit (2006), my friend Steve Coleman of Steve’s Food Blog<\/strong><\/a> noted “Although several restaurants in town\u00a0attempt\u00a0to 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<\/em>.”\u00a0 It would be interesting to see if that trend remains.<\/p>\n

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

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).\u00a0 The surprise in Del occupying its prominent spot is that the second restaurant on the Yelp list is Watson’s BBQ<\/strong><\/a> which several sources have named one of America’s best purveyors of barbecue.\u00a0 Much as we’ve loved Watson’s during two previous visits, you can’t be a gastronome and not change things up.<\/p>\n

Del’s is a showpiece for western art and curios.\u00a0 Decorative elements include barbed wire, lassoes and spurs.\u00a0 We were seated in the front dining room which seemed to be popular among sedulous workers with deep tans.\u00a0 At the back of the front dining room where the cashier’s station sits, touristy bric-a-brac is available for purchase.\u00a0 Service is warm and gracious.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n

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Brisket Fajitas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A basket of salsa and chips<\/strong><\/em> were ferried to our table as we perused the menu.\u00a0 Large, crispy and lightly salted, the chips were warm and definitely not out-of-a-bag.\u00a0 The salsa wasn’t especially piquant, but it was thick, delicious and made for Gil-sized salsa scooping.\u00a0 There are eighteen appetizers on the menu, but for most of us the salsa and chips will suffice.\u00a0 Should you decide on another starter, such choices as potato skins, cheesy chile fries, fried pickles, cheese nachos and fries are available.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Del’s offers the usual suspects–steak, chicken and shrimp–fajitas as well as brisket fajitas<\/strong><\/em> (red and green peppers, grilled onions, sour cream, guacamole, flour tortillas).\u00a0 We were surprised at just how good the brisket was.\u00a0 It was tender and delicious with a smoky flavor that bespoke of low and slow preparation.\u00a0 It was a welcome change from skirt steak which can’t always be trusted to be tender.\u00a0 Among the elements that made these fajitas special was the guacamole with a deep, rich flavor.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Green Chile Cheeseburger with Sweet Potato Fries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a week of enjoying incomparable onion burgers and charbroiled, hickory smoked burgers in Oklahoma, you might think I’d be tired of burgers.\u00a0 As an unabashedly proud New Mexican, I can never get tired of our sacrosanct green chile cheeseburger<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 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<\/strong><\/a> (which I didn’t review because we got it to go).\u00a0 Nor was the green chile especially piquant.\u00a0 In fact, it didn’ have much more heat than a bell pepper.\u00a0 The burger was dressed with lettuce, tomato, red onions, mustard, pickles and that insipid green chile.\u00a0 Mind you, as a burger it was still pretty good, but as a green chile cheeseburger, Del’s has some work to do.<\/p>\n

Del’s has a thirteen item dessert menu centered around pies and cakes.\u00a0 Pies include an old-fashioned lemon meringue, lemon berry, key lime meringue and apple.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In Steve’s estimation “By far the best feature of the meal was the\u00a0Sopaipillas with Honey\u00a0served for dessert<\/em>.\u00a0 Our sopaipillas were fresh out of the fryer.\u00a0 These triangular-shaped golden beauties had the requisite puffiness that just beckons for honey.<\/p>\n

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Sopaipilla with Real Honey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As long as nostalgia exists, there will hopefully be a Del’s Restaurant to enrich our memories and sate our hunger.<\/p>\n

\n

Del’s Restaurant<\/strong>
\n1202 U.S. Route 66
\nTucumcari, New Mexico<\/strong>
\n(575) 461-1740
\n<\/span>Facebook Page<\/strong><\/a>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 17 May 2025
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 1
\nRATING<\/strong>: N\/R
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Green Chile Cheeseburger, Brisket Fajitas, Sopaipillas with Honey, Salsa and Chips
\nREVIEW #1470<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 1950s was the era of American Graffiti and Happy Days.\u00a0 Motorists were getting their kicks on Route 66 and listening to Wolfman Jack howl as he spun Rock Around The Clock at 45rpm.\u00a0 Vestiges of that era are still teeming in Tucumcari, the easternmost major town in the Land of Enchantment along Interstate 40.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s call that has drawn generations of \u201ccruisers\u201d to Tucumcari Boulevard. Not quite equidistant between Amarillo and Albuquerque, Tucumcari has long provided much-needed respite for weary travelers headed west.\u00a0 In its halcyon days, hundreds of signs along the highways trumpeted \u201cTucumcari Tonite\u20142,000 Motel Rooms.\u201d\u00a0 There aren’t nearly as many motel rooms in Tucumcari today.\u00a0 Among the survivors are the famous\u00a0\u00a0Blue Swallow Motel which Smithsonian Magazine once called \u201cthe last, best, and friendliest of the old-time motels.\u201d\u00a0 Across Route 66 from the Blue Swallow stands another survivor, the landmark tepee fronting the historic Tee…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,540,112,141,5647],"tags":[4960,4956,4959,1438,4958,838,4953,842,4955,4949,843,4957,875,4952,4954],"class_list":["post-70195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american","category-breakfast","category-new-mexican","category-new-mexico","category-rating-n-r","tag-4960","tag-blue-swallow-motel","tag-brisket-fajitas","tag-catfish","tag-chase-waters","tag-chicken-fried-steak","tag-get-your-kicks","tag-green-chile-cheeseburger","tag-neon-signage","tag-opened-1956","tag-route-66","tag-tee-pee-curios","tag-tucumcari","tag-tucumcari-boulevard","tag-two-blocks-wide-and-two-miles-long"],"yoast_head":"\nDel's Restaurant - Tucumcari, 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=70195\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Del's Restaurant - Tucumcari, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 1950s was the era of American Graffiti and Happy Days.\u00a0 Motorists were getting their kicks on Route 66 and listening to Wolfman Jack howl as he spun Rock Around The Clock at 45rpm.\u00a0 Vestiges of that era are still teeming in Tucumcari, the easternmost major town in the Land of Enchantment along Interstate 40.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s call that has drawn generations of \u201ccruisers\u201d to Tucumcari Boulevard. Not quite equidistant between Amarillo and Albuquerque, Tucumcari has long provided much-needed respite for weary travelers headed west.\u00a0 In its halcyon days, hundreds of signs along the highways trumpeted \u201cTucumcari Tonite\u20142,000 Motel Rooms.\u201d\u00a0 There aren’t nearly as many motel rooms in Tucumcari today.\u00a0 Among the survivors are the famous\u00a0\u00a0Blue Swallow Motel which Smithsonian Magazine once called \u201cthe last, best, and friendliest of the old-time motels.\u201d\u00a0 Across Route 66 from the Blue Swallow stands another survivor, the landmark tepee fronting the historic Tee…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=70195\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nmgastronome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-17T06:01:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-06T01:10:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/DelsRestaurant06-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1493\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gil Garduno\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gil Garduno\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gil Garduno\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/28268e3f2056794f14f3b1b033bf5cbd\"},\"headline\":\"Del’s Restaurant – Tucumcari, New Mexico\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-17T06:01:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-06T01:10:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195\"},\"wordCount\":1229,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/DelsRestaurant06-scaled.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"#1470\",\"Blue Swallow Motel\",\"Brisket Fajitas\",\"Catfish\",\"Chase Waters\",\"Chicken Fried Steak\",\"Get Your Kicks\",\"Green Chile Cheeseburger\",\"Neon Signage\",\"Opened 1956\",\"Route 66\",\"Tee Pee Curios\",\"Tucumcari\",\"Tucumcari Boulevard\",\"Two Blocks Wide and Two Miles long\"],\"articleSection\":[\"American\",\"Breakfast\",\"New Mexican\",\"New Mexico\",\"Rating: N\\\/R (Not Rated)\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nmgastronome.com\\\/?p=70195\",\"name\":\"Del's Restaurant - 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