Schnip's Trips: Traipsing through Taos 🍽
Food and drink highlights from a long weekend in this "quirky" town include chile-laced coffees and chocolates, blue corn and piñon items, oversized sourdough goods and of course, margaritas.
I’ve been to Taos many times over the past 25 years, relying on recommendations from friends who love the area, including a couple of my college housemates who grew up there. It’s a magical town with an artsy energy and unique mingling of Native American, Hispanic and Anglo cultures, lending to sprinkles of new-age woo-wooism atop cowboy and Western iconography and desert naturalism. I’m not even exactly sure what that last sentence fully implies, which seems to prove my point about Taos’ one-of-a-kindness.
If you’ve still never been, you’ve just gotta go. I believe the below tips will help make the most of your dining and drinking time. (It’s just a starting point; there’s much more to see and do.) We recently spent a long weekend in the area after too many years away, and I enjoyed visiting past favorite spots and many new-to-me places. We got into quite a bit of eating and drinking, with your next adventure in mind, dear reader. (How selfless, I know.) In no particular order, here’s our highlights:
Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Tomorrow and Tomorrow is somewhat newer to Taos’ food and drink scene, opened in the late summer of 2024. They specialize in organic-flour sourdough bagels and breads, which are turned into both open- and closed-face sandwiches. The bagels aren’t perfect wheels, but larger, slightly misshapen pucks that hold a lot of toppings easily. Bread slices are huge too, as wide as a plate and generously smeared.
Between a couple of visits (because we like the place so much) we get a few items: The lox bagel (on a fluffy everything bagel) gets a bounty of housemade cream cheese with smoked salmon strips, sharp red onions, cucumber wheels, capers, locally grown sprouts, and finishing salt, pepper and lemon. The organic tomato puts a trio of wide tomato slices on the thick cream cheese layer with capers, dill, olive oil and again salt, pepper and lemon. It’s filling on its own, but we also devour a slice of sourdough with locally made fruit jam and a dollop of ricotta cheese.
The cafe serves excellent espresso drinks made with Portland-based Roseline Coffee’s beans. We sip a classic cortado, a housemade chai with a shot added to make it dirty, and a special-of-the-day maple-cinnamon latte. All are great, and make a little remote laptop work pass much more pleasantly. The place makes you want to linger.
ACEQ
Up the road from Taos about 20 minutes, in the tiny (and cute!) village of Arroyo Seco, very chic ACEQ came recommended to us by locals, especially for cocktails. I start with a mezcal drink made with ginger and lime juices and garnish of toasted sesame oil for texture — delightful. Lauren becomes quickly fixated on her tomato-basil shrub vodka martini, mixed with dry vermouth, infused with cherry tomato and fresh basil essences, and fat-washed in olive oil. It tastes like sipping the summer garden, in a very good way, with high acidity aiding food pairings.
For bites we opt for a trio of small plates. Lamb loin chops (locally sourced) come with a sweet pea purée, chimichurri and balsamic reduction, all great in their own ways with the meat. We quickly see ACEQ is good with sauces, as the elote corn ribs with red chile butter, cotija and lime come with a superlative mole sauce. Just as impressive is “Chef Gabe’s award-winning Chimayo Red Chile” sauce on a plate of smoked beef tips, with pickled onion, cilantro and flour tortillas. It’s 11 of 10 delicious, with mild heat, big earthiness and a little tangy richness in the finish.
World Cup Café
A tiny spot at the edge of Tao’s main plaza, World Cup has been around for 30 years, but feels more relevant than ever. That’s partly because of the resistance vibes in the signage, but mostly because their craft coffee is totally on-point, as illustrated to us by our beautifully balanced specialty mochas. The Mocha Borgia is the dark chocolate and orange pairing that’s a less sweet and more natural tasting version of a Terry’s Chocolate. The Mocha Picante mixes red chile pepper into the dark chocolate for a spicy kick and nice, back-of-the-throat smolder. We return on our way out of town to order both drinks again for our drive home; they’re that good.
Michael’s Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery
Michael’s is the place everyone tells you to go for breakfast, because 50-plus years of pastry- and New Mexican-food service lends them the credibility of being time-tested. It’s got the local diner charm, and usually a line out the door. (We waited for about 20 minutes to get in.) The plates are generally affordable, and huge. Mains come with two side item choices; a side of pancakes is actually a plate of three — wow. I get Huevos Rancheros, requesting both red and green chile, enjoying the latter most. Lauren follows suit with Christmas (red and green chile) chicken enchiladas, equally enjoyable. The pinto beans are notably good, as are the house sopaipillas for a doughy treat. They’re particularly good with sips of the piñon roast coffee, roasted for Michael’s by Albuquerque’s Red Rock Roasters. (You can buy retail bags of it to-go.)
Chokolá
You might know this about me, that I’m a chocoholic. I’ve become obsessed with bean-to-bar chocolatiers such as the Springs’ own Third Wave Chocolate, with whom we made a podcast episode. Anyway, Chokolá precedes Third Wave by almost a decade, producing gorgeous dessert treats that highlight various cacao varietals. They make truffles, tarts, mousses and of course, bars to takeaway and savor later.
I spend more than I care to admit, but don’t regret the purchases bite-by-bite. Caramel-filled chocolate flavors included a miso, a lavender and an Earl Grey, all on-point. I get a passionfruit truffle, a chile-infused one and a fabulous black sesame flavor that has somewhat of a Middle Eastern vibe.
From the wide selection of bars, I pick a few interesting flavors and one single-origin bar: a Bolivian. Like Third Wave’s bars, this one’s made with only cacao and a touch of sugar. Terroir-wise, which is to say what I faintly taste in the background of the deeply earthy chocolate, I get a little fruity acidity up front that quickly fades to a clean, smooth cacao bitterness; the flavors linger pleasantly on my mid palate.
The flavored bars by contrast are bright with their infusions throughout. A lavender bar tastes like fresh picked petals rich with oil, almost a touch soapy up-front but quickly fading to a clean floral finish. A Goat Dark Milk bar sweetened with coconut sugar hosts a touch of barnyard tang and a hint of caramel in the finish. And the most unique, the Sourdough and Olive Oil dark chocolate, features a distinct bready vibe with a tiny crunch, evoking crust, almost like how tyrosine crystals in aged cheese offer toothsomeness. I imagine if you’re someone who digs Nutella-lathered bread, this one’s for you — sub the nuttiness for a superbly rich chocolate body.
De La Tierra Restaurant at El Monte Sagrado
De La Tierra is the eatery inside a resort hotel just up from the town plaza, and we catch a colorful breakfast there. Both plates we choose highlight blue corn. The Sunrise Power Bowl features a base of blue corn atole, which is typically a sweetened masa drink, but here served more like a porridge. It’s plated with tricolor quinoa, pepitas, house granola, mixed berries and brown sugar (which we leave off to reduce sweetness). The blue corn piñon pancakes arrive in a lavish piñon-caramel sauce, with butter, berries and more piñon nuts for garnish, plus a side of maple. Sweet? Yes. Amazing? Oh yeah.
Taos Mesa Brewing
The OG “Mothership” location launched in 2012, just outside of town on the mesa that’s famous for the Taos Earthships. The brewery hosts concerts between April and October, but it’s easier to drop by their Taos Taproom, opened about a decade ago, for regular beer and wood oven pizza service. TMB brews with grains from the San Luis Valley’s Proximity Malt, making them more local (in sourcing) than most outfits.
What the staff I chat with lack in product knowledge they make up for in kindness, which is to say I appreciate the attentive service but would like to know a little more than they or the beer menu can tell me about the house brews (like hop profiles, etc.). They also can’t answer the mystery as to why the menu of more than 20 beers is numbered, but with #1 missing. It literally starts with #2. “Taos is a quirky town,” one says by way of explanation.
Anyway, our tasting paddle shows proficiency, with no major low or high points, but a comfortable middle by way of hitting styles and landing overall totally pleasant and drinkable. We sip a pale ale that reminds me of one of Il Vicino’s beers from the late ’90s here in the Springs. There’s a bready RyePA, a creamy-textured Cold IPA, a big bouquet’d West Coast IPA, and perhaps our favorite: a low ABV (3.2%), malty and faintly nutty English mild, named Little Brown Beer.
Lambert’s of Taos
Lambert’s is a great fine dining option, where family friends kindly treated us to a lovely meal. Hence why I didn’t disrupt it by taking my usual food and drink pics. So my callout here is to commend the expert cook-job on our fish dishes. Lauren’s cornmeal-crusted ruby trout was a crispy-skinned delight served with wonderful garnishes: scallion chimichurri, huitlacoche hominy and piquillo pepper. My Scottish salmon arrived with a punchy dashi velouté, romanesco, fennel, radicchio and smoked salmon roe for briny pop. I loved seeing lesser-served vegetables treated respectfully.
Doc Martin’s
A town icon attached to the Taos Inn: go to hear live music in the entryway lounge and sip on one of the house margaritas. The Cowboy Buddha is a simple but potent Herradura silver tequila, Cointreau and fresh lime pour. I really enjoy my El Chupacabra, made with a pepper-infused blanco tequila, triple sec, house sour mix, lime and a salt and chile pepper rim.
La Cueva Cafe
And the award for Lowest Restaurant Ceiling Ever goes to … La Cueva Cafe! Though it may feel like a one-room Hobbit hole size-wise, La Cueva boasts big flavor. The chicken mole enchiladas are excellent. The sauce isn’t too sweet (like many renditions) and has a deep, rich flavor with alluring chile and cacao essences. The pulled chicken’s seasoned well and nicely tender. The beans are bully too.
Bonus stops (on the way to Taos):
You can of course choose to stay on I-25 longer and get to Taos via Trinidad, Raton and Cimarron. If you’re aiming to ski at Angel Fire, this is the better route. But the more scenic and charming drive means heading West on US-160 out of Walsenburg. If you don’t mind adding an hour to the drive, then don’t turn South in Fort Garland, but head West into the Alamosa area and wider San Luis Valley. Many recreational options, from hot springs to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, deserve attention. But looking just through a food and drink lens, here are some picks:
Gub Gub’s
Along Main Street in Walsenburg, at the turnoff for US-160 toward the Spanish Peaks, Gub Gub’s is a great stop in the morning hours for housemade bagels and Kangaroo Coffee. By later hours, nab a pizza on house dough, an ice cream scoop or cocktail.
Next time: We weren’t driving through at the right hours to hit Crafty Canary Brewery, but it’s on my list for the future.
Worth The Drive Bakery
One of the dozen Amish businesses sprinkled around the San Luis Valley, Worth the Drive Bakery is exactly that to many online commenters who initially got our attention. Head out of Alamosa to the farmland around Monte Vista and you’ll find this mini retail market. It sells everything from local jams, dairy, meat and produce items to the star attraction: house-baked breads and sweets.
You might be familiar with their outstanding hand pies, sold in C. Springs at Bread & Butter Neighborhood Market. We nab a fresh trio here: blueberry (not our fave), raspberry (true flavor) and strawberry rhubarb (pure joy). Plus a box of donuts (solidly good); a fluffy loaf of whole wheat-honey (make a sandwich with me!); and a satisfying savory snack of a chicken patty on bacon cheddar bread. Restraint was shown: We didn’t get the much-hyped, giant cinnamon rolls, though fairly priced and alluring.
The Colorado Farm Brewery
Expect an in-depth story from me in the coming weeks in partnership with Colorado Public Radio about this gem of a brewery. I’ll save my ammo for that, but for now know that if you’re heading to Taos and don’t mind the detour (down US-285 through Antonito once you leave the Alamosa area), this is highly worthwhile destination. It’s one of the world’s only estate breweries, with some house beers made entirely from on-site ingredients (including San Luis Valley water, yeast and farm-grown and -malted grains). Stay tuned for much more about it.