Begin your winter days with a warming repast or a scrumptious continental nibble. All of this and more is on offer when snowflakes fall in Santa Fe.
Breakfast, Anytime
Red chile bacon dipped in maple syrup. A ripe strawberry plucked from a bowl of gleaming fruit. The tangy sparkle of a mimosa. The laughter of family and friends around the table. The sharp aroma of fresh espresso. The knowledge that you don’t have anything to do except enjoy!
This is why I love eating breakfast. It evokes memories of past repasts and the promise of more to come. I love it at just about any time: brunch, lunch, dinner, whenever.
Breakfast is the best meal. So why relegate it to the early hours when you might not, in your pre-caffeinated fog, appreciate a fragrant croissant slathered in butter. Or the silkiness of a perfectly poached egg. Or the delight in your companion’s eyes over a piled-high plate of pastries.
Personally, I like to dawdle in my pajamas while slowly awakening––drinking my tea, reading the newspaper, catching up online. The anticipation of digging into a colorful frittata when I’m good and ready is delicious.
Fortunately, Santa Fe’s breakfast options shine like the early morning sun breaking over the Sangre de Cristos, whenever you want it. In fact, many places serve breakfast throughout the day.
Santa Fe Breakfast Restaurants
Families Welcome
Harry’s Roadhouse has a comprehensive breakfast menu: oatmeal, pancakes, French toast, eggs and omelets, and occasionally grits. Even picky eaters will find something to please. The homemade turkey sausage is dynamite, and they are one of the few places west of Pennsylvania with scrapple on the menu. Grab a coffee cake to go.
harrysroadhousesantafe.com
Tune Up serves neighborly breakfasts and brunches with Latin flair. The huevos El Salvadorenos come with black beans and fried bananas. Savory pupusas are customer favorites. Carb-loaders will swoon over three kinds of pancakes, stuffed French toast, and Irish oatmeal. Always busy, this local joint does a bang-up takeout trade, too.
tuneupsantafe.com
The Plaza Café attracts breakfast crowds with generous portions, speedy service, and New Mexican and American favorites. Breakfast is served until 4 p.m. on the Southside’s Zafarano Drive, and all day on the Plaza…since 1947.
Special Occasion
Terra at Four Seasons Rancho Encantado Resort does breakfast and weekend brunch with a small but mighty menu of fancified choices served with endless views towards the Jemez Mountains. The drive there is out of this world, especially after a fresh snowfall. Terra’s attentive staff deliver the special touches worthy of its Four Seasons’ setting. Prickly pear granola parfait, anyone?
La Plazuela at La Fonda on the Plaza has been treating visitors and locals to a picturesque setting (check out the hand-painted windows and interior fountain) for 100 years. Brioche French toast and malted Belgian waffles will impress guests or business colleagues. Great spot for holiday brunch for the whole family.
In the Heart of SF
Clafoutis made a name for itself with house-made French pastries, breads, and macarons, all by the Ligier family who hail from eastern France. The busy breakfast hubbub fades away once you’ve bitten into a tender omelet served with crunchy baguette, or a caramelized fruit crepe, all washed down with a bowl of café au lait. It’s Paris in the heart of Santa Fe.
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Dolina’s Eastern European roots shine in owner Anna Marie’s baked goods from family recipes made with fresh, simple ingredients. Try her nutty granola with yogurt, breakfast croissant sandwich, or Walnut Cinnamon Swirl French. You can also try Toast or morning soup of organic New Mexico lamb broth with poached egg. Then take home something sweet for later.
Chocolate Maven has delighted Santa Fe for 50 years with its stellar selection of cakes, pies, breads and desserts. Those breads, including gluten-free options, find their way onto the breakfast menu as toast and French toast to accompany eggs, frittatas, and more.
The real attraction is watching the bakers behind the enormous window rolling dough, folding croissants or filling pastries. Pro tip: the blue corn blueberry pancakes with piñon maple syrup are the best in town.
Longtime, Everyday Favorites
Tia Sophia’s breakfast burritos have been the stuff of legend since 1974 when the Maryol family opened up a place for New Mexican comfort food. While its downtown location attracts plenty of visitors looking to fuel their days, Tia’s is really a locals’ restaurant. There are no concessions for timid taste buds: the menu warns diners, “Not responsible for too hot chile!”
The Pantry does basic breakfast right at three locations in town. Whether eggs and bacon, a breakfast burrito, pancake, or New Mexican favorites like huevos rancheros, The Pantry is the diner everyone wishes they had in their neighborhood. The original location on Cerrillos Road has been around since 1948.
Worth the Drive
Café Fina calls its breakfast service Daily Brunch, and it’s available until 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The ricotta pancakes are worth the short drive up I-25 to the Clines Corners exit where this converted gas station turned counter-service café offers healthy versions of traditional breakfast items using organic eggs and New Mexico feta and asadero cheeses.
The brunch menu also includes burgers, chicken, Reubens, fish sandwiches, and salads.
San Marcos Café & Feed on South NM 14 has a homey feel with a woodstove in the front room and kiva fireplace in the other. Fowls and peacocks strut outside. Try the cinnamon rolls (also available in the feed store), coffee in their cute mugs, and the biscuits and gravy.
House favorites include eggs Florentine, cheese blintzes, and corned beef hash. All menu items available until 2 p.m. daily.
Tesuque Village Market enjoys a reputation for classy comfort food featuring fresh seasonal ingredients. The wait at certain times may be long, but you can always browse the market’s selection of local comestibles, artwork and other goods until a table is available. The scenic drive via Bishop’s Lodge Road through Tesuque is also a draw, especially with out-of-towners in tow.
Albuquerque, Bernalillo and Las Vegas Breakfast Restaurants
The Grove Café Market
If you’re a Breaking Bad fan, you recognize The Grove as the hip café and market where Walter White met Lydia in later seasons. Not only can you get a great cup of coffee, latte or cappuccino with your served-all-day breakfast frittata or avocado toast, the sweet potato hash, croque madame or smoked salmon on a house-made English muffin are worth the often-long lines to order.
Take a signature red velvet cupcake home for a snack, too.
The Frontier
Counting the number of John Wayne paintings is a perennial challenge at The Frontier. As is bearing the heat of the green and red chile, liberally ladled on breakfast burritos (tortillas made right in front of you!), omelets, and huevos rancheros.
This UNM-area landmark attracts students, business folks, local celebrities, and tourists looking for filling New Mexican meals (with burgers and sandwiches, too) from 5 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. And those famous cinnamon rolls? They are the size of your head and demand to be paired with a glass of fresh-squeezed OJ.
Slate Street Café
Nestled behind the courthouses in Albuquerque’s downtown, Slate Street Café’s elevated breakfasts combine the best, local ingredients with generous portions made from scratch. The turkey sausage is a superb addition to a breakfast burrito, and the huevos rancheros feature Duran Central Pharmacy’s famous red or green chile.
The forest berry Dutch oven pancake and a glass of curated bubbly are reason enough to go for the weekend’s all-day breakfast.
Tia B’s La Waffleria
Perhaps the most original waffle spot you’ve ever visited, Nob Hill’s Tia B’s La Waffleria made-to-order waffles come traditional, buttermilk, yellow corn masa, buckwheat, biscuit, or blue corn, topped or filled with interesting ingredients.
Go sweet like the coconut and mango or blueberry lavender, or savory with salmon and lox, chicken and waffles, or carne adovada. Or build your own by picking a batter and up to three toppings and a sauce. An inventive coffee drink (cinnamon dulce or maple latte, anyone?) completes your meal.
Charlie’s Spic & Span Bakery
Charlie’s is a crown jewel of breakfast seven days a week in Las Vegas, NM with lines out the door on weekends. Get there early or prepare to wait for fresh-baked donuts, cakes, and pies––it’s torture! The chile is HOT at this local favorite that draws folks from miles away for papas skillets, country fried steak and gravy, carne adovada burritos and bottomless hot coffee.
Range Café
Range Café in Bernalillo is less than an hour south, with five more locations around Albuquerque. While the bakery case invites diners to try an éclair, some hold on for giant cinnamon rolls, huevos rancheros, omelets, French toast or pancakes.
With its rustic, artsy décor (buy a painting from a local artist), generous portions, and amiable service, The Range is THE place for breakfast, especially on the weekends.
Story by Kelly Koepke
Photography by Tira Howard
Styling by Keith Recker
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