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Legal Tender Saloon and Restaurant reopened after a closure, and volunteer servers take care of you. (don strel/for the journal)
When I was a little girl, I remember my parents talking about a place called The Pink Garter. I thought they said, “gator” and begged them to show me. So one Sunday we piled in the car and drove to Lamy. It wasn’t a reptile, it was an old stone building. I was disappointed, but I remembered it.
The Pink Garter became the Legal Tender, and broke some hearts when it closed years ago. The Lamy Railroad and History Museum moved into the building in 2006 and with the help of volunteers and private donations, reopened the restaurant earlier this year. In addition to food, you’ll find live music with no cover charge, and local beer on tap and New Mexico wine on the drink list.
Part of the fun here is the decidedly noncorporate ambience. Open the front doors and instead of a hostess with a stack of menus, you’ll see an ornate German cherrywood bar with stools in front and space for a herd of bartenders in back. Danceable music – country and then vintage rock the night of my visit – adds to the down-home flavor. Patrons at the bar greeted my friends and me with welcoming looks, then went back to their brews. A staff person showed us to a table in the smaller of the two dining rooms, the space without the band, since we wanted to talk.
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Legal Tender Saloon and Restaurant LOCATION: 151 Old Lamy Trail, Lamy, N.M., 505-466-1650 (at the Lamy Railroad and History Museum) HOURS: Lunch noon-4:30 p.m. and dinner 5-8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; brunch 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays FULL BAR |
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Another of Legal Tender’s major attractions in my view is the joyful way the volunteer serving staff does its job, working to support the efforts of chef Charles Thompson and his crew. These volunteers bring such enthusiasm to the job that you forgive what they might lack in professional restaurant training. During the course of the evening, five different men and women waited on us, each treating us like welcome guests.
We started with appetizers to share. The chicken wings ($8) got the nod of approval: meaty and nongreasy, served with a spicy/sweet sauce and blue cheese dressing with a few carrot and celery sticks. You can ask the kitchen to heat the wings with the sauce if you prefer.
The deliciously rich mac and cheese ($9), enough for dinner, was one of the highlights of our meal. Instead of the elbow macaroni I expected, the pasta here was slender ziti tubes. The creamy cheese sauce included green peas and bits of ham to make this classic comfort food more interesting. Other starter/small plate options are crab cakes, four salads, the day’s soup and green chile stew.
We sampled two specials. The minced mushroom soup, homemade and thick, was topped with crunchy thin rings of battered-fried onion. I liked the idea of this soup better than the result – too rich and overly salted. The other special, chicken livers, gets a thumbs up. This easily sharable portion of perfectly cooked livers arrived with sweet grilled onions on a small bed of greens. Livers aren’t for everyone, but if you enjoy them, try these.
In the mood for more traditional entrées? The menu includes grilled lamb chops, pork chops, a steak, pot roast, barbecue sandwiches, burgers and ribs. We enjoyed the classic chicken piccata ($13) because of its outstanding lemon caper sauce. The two breaded chicken cutlets came with a small scoop of mashed potatoes and very tasty sautéed spinach leaves. One of my friends (OK, he’s a guy) thought the serving size was rather petite, but my girlfriend and I explained that it was perfect because it left a tiny space for dessert.
He thought we needed more chicken because his Carnivore Platter ($15) had enough food for two hungry cowboys. The ribs, pulled pork and brisket came with mashed potatoes, ranch beans and sweet smoky barbecue sauce on the side. If you’re hungry for meat, Legal Tender accommodates.
We were least impressed with desserts, even though they make them in house. The molten chocolate cake tasted good but had the texture of a pudding. The apple pastry was overly sweet with not enough fruit to batter. But these are small quibbles. Don’t most of us have access to more than adequate sweets this time of year?
Legal Tender specializes in affordable good food served by people who when they say, “Please come again,” really mean it. The cowboys, artists, Eldorado transplants, aged hippies and musicians you may find here add to the ambience. The local bands and Victorian furnishing help make the half-hour trip from downtown Santa Fe more than worth the effort.
