Restaurant Review: The Plaza Café

The return of a classic

By: Laurel Gladden
Published online: Friday, October 19, 2012
Appeared in: Pasateimpo

Overlooking the Plaza from the spot it has occupied for nearly a century, the cherished Plaza Café, which closed two years ago after a fire and reopened this summer, feels like something out of The Andy Griffith Show. It’s the old-fashioned diner on the town square, with classic detailing like red vinyl booths, tile floors, and counter seating. Oversized maps of the American Southwest color the walls, and gorgeous desserts — carrot cake, red velvet cake, and the rightfully famous caramel-apple-pecan pie — tempt you from inside a lighted glass case.

You’ll see babies, parents, grandparents, and out- of-towners. You might run into a neighbor, your old grade-school teacher, or a former boss. A dude in a cowboy hat and boots might amble in, and local police officers just might pull up in their squad cars, stopping by for a quick breakfast or lunch at the counter.

The Plaza Café serves good food morning and night. Breakfast options include the traditional (fried and scrambled eggs, omelets, French toast, and pan- cakes) and regional favorites (huevos rancheros and divorciados, breakfast burritos and enchiladas, papas fritas, and what sounds like a real gut-buster: the chile relleno omelet). The lunch and dinner menu inspires indecision, from chips, salsa, and guacamole to a variety of soups and salads, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, sandwiches, and burgers. If you’re craving something more mainstream, there’s steak, meatloaf, pasta, or fish and chips. The heritage of the Razatos family, which has owned the Plaza Café since 1947, surfaces in the Greek salad, Greek omelet, and gyro, but you can order posole or menudo, too. For the record, some of the desserts, like the Key lime pie, look better than they taste.

When it comes to breakfast, I favor savory; I’ll take huevos rancheros or a bowl of papas fritas nine mornings out of 10. Some Saturday mornings, though, nothing but pancakes will do. The Plaza Café’s blue- corn-piñon flapjacks are a great Northern New Mexico alternative to the average white-flour variety. The blue corn adds a nutty, mineraly taste and an enjoyable grainy texture. There were whole pine nuts in nearly every bite of our single pancake, too. (Be realistic: unless you’re a growing teenage boy, one pancake is probably enough.) We were happy to pay a little extra for a small pitcher of real, sweet-woodsy maple syrup.

Claiming you serve Santa Fe’s “best bacon” is a bold statement, but the Plaza Café backs it up with hefty, strapping strips that are meaty, slightly sweet, and not overly salty. Several of my picky bacon-freak friends, skeptical at first, admitted that the bacon was indeed among the best they’d ever had. It’s even better dunked in a little maple syrup.

The huevos rancheros and breakfast burrito are both exemplary specimens of their genres. The kitchen sometimes has trouble cooking things correctly (like over-medium eggs), but the scrambled huevos in the breakfast burrito were light, fluffy, and butter-hued. My burrito was sitting in puddles of chile rather than being smothered in a blanket of it, but that’s picking nits — the good stuff makes its way into your mouth either way.

The green chile is smoky and stewy, with a bright, warm heat. The red has a lovely pronounced bitterness and packs a real wallop. I watched a couple of tourists turn rosy-cheeked and wide-eyed after just one bite. If you’re having a serious chile jones, the Plaza Café will ladle some right into a bowl and make a meal out of it by adding pinto beans, cheese, sour cream, and your choice of calabacitas, chicken, carne asada, or carnitas.

The Frito pie — a generous, colorful heap of food served in a wide bowl — offers a variety of flavors and textures, from crunchy, corny Fritos to spicy, garlicky ground beef, picante chile, cheese, and cooling lettuce and tomatoes. You might want to steer clear of this hot, highly seasoned dish on a first date — your breath will be on the fiery side after eating it.

If you’re interested in good, no-fuss cooking in a cheerful environment, the Plaza Café is the place. Just keep in mind that this old-fashioned establishment has some old-school rules when it comes to table manners. “Sit up straight, don’t talk back, chew your food, elbows off the table, don’t fidget, be nice, say thank you” is the policy at the Plaza Café (as noted on the menu). Most grown-ups don’t like being told what to do, but when the food’s this good, you won’t mind being bossed around a little.