Cafe Pasqual's

Long-running New Mexican-Mexican breakfast spot a block off the Plaza

A 50-seat restaurant on Don Gaspar that has been serving Santa Fe's best breakfast since 1978. Chef Katharine Kagel built the menu around the borderlands between New Mexican, Mexican, and Latin American cooking — chilaquiles, grilled trout, free-range eggs with green chile, hot cakes with honey-mascarpone. The room is decorated with bright Mexican folk art.

There is no reservation system for breakfast and the queue starts forming before opening. The communal table is the trick — solo travellers and impatient couples sit there and skip the wait. Cash and card. Dinner is more relaxed; book ahead.

eating out restaurant
A story
The cafe is named for San Pasqual, the patron saint of cooks. The walls are crowded with folk-art tributes to him from across Latin America — bultos, retablos, and crucifixes wedged between cookware advertisements from old Mexican magazines.