Family feast: Cervantes offers traditional New Mexican cuisine made from recipes passed down through generations

In 1976, Roberta Finley followed her family’s entrepreneurial footsteps and opened Cervantes Restaurant & Lounge.

“It all started with a big dream of wanting to be your own owner,” Finley said. “My father was (an) entrepreneur, and my brothers, my twin brother and my oldest brother. So, you know, it runs in the family. You want to be your own boss.”

Family feast: Cervantes offers traditional New Mexican cuisine made from recipes passed down through generations

Finley ran the restaurant while raising four children, and Cervantes remains a family affair. Finley’s daughter, Iris Metzgar, is the general manager of the restaurant. Metzgar’s daughter, Savanah Salazar, works as a server and Metzgar’s son, Kyle Baird, takes on serving, bartending and other duties at the restaurant. Finley’s oldest son, Richard Gonzales, runs Cervantes Food Products, which bottles the restaurant’s salsas and chile sauces for retail sales.

Cervantes is an Albuquerque staple with a loyal customer fan base.

“I think it’s mainly because of wanting to serve the best possible New Mexican food you can serve with the best products that you can that are available and use no animal fats,” Finley said. “My food has never had animal fats.”

Cervantes’ red chile is flavorful with a nice kick of heat.

“We learned to do red chile from my grandmother and it’s strictly made from the pods,” Finley said. “My oldest son brings in all the pods, and then we buy so many bags a month from him, and the chile comes from Adams (Produce) farm (in southern New Mexico).”

A popular menu item that is marinated in its red chile overnight is Cervantes’ carne adovada. The carne adovada is then baked for several hours until it is “nice and tender.”

“The top three (requests), I would say, would be the carne adovada, the chicken enchiladas and anything made with chicken because we do not order chicken already shredded,” Finley said. “We boil our own chickens and we shred them ourselves. And I would say our chile rellenos are really popular.”

Everything but the corn tortillas are made in-house using Finley’s recipes.

“I think we do have the best (New Mexican food) in town,” Metzgar said. “You could go to all those other New Mexican restaurants in Albuquerque, but you’re not going to get the quality of food that’s put out by (our) restaurant through her recipes. You’re just not going to get it.”

In addition to its cuisine, patrons come for the margaritas.

“The house margarita goes all the way back to when we started, because they’re using the same recipe,” Finley said. “We sell a lot of them. We also sell a lot of the handshaken ones too.”

Patrons pack the lounge side for their fill of Cervantes’ food and drink during its happy hour from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“I think what’s made that bar, in that lounge, so much fun, is that Kyle’s a lot of fun,” Metzgar added.

Cervantes also has a rustic but festive vibe with decorations for every big and small holiday, including Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day. However, its Halloween decorations are a must-see.

The restaurant’s walls are covered with original paintings that Finley has purchased, except for a painting that hangs above the dining room’s fireplace. The painting was already there when Finley took over the building and opened her restaurant.

“Some of the swords were there when we got there, the tapestries were there, so it’s kind of an Old World atmosphere,” Metzgar said. “And then, (Finley) bought from local artists here in Albuquerque, the rest of the paintings. She’s had them for many years, all local.”

One standout, is a large, painted portrait of Finley that hangs in a corner of the lounge.

“I was 40 years old,” Finley said of how old she was when the portrait was done. “I’m pushing 84 now, so it’s been 44 years.”

Patrons can bring the flavor of Cervantes into their own kitchens with the restaurant’s bottled line of salsas and chile sauces that are made without animal fats or preservatives. The products can be purchased at cervantessalsa.com.

“They have a few different ones,” Metzgar said. “They have a chopped green, they have an extra hot green chile sauce, and then they have a medium green chile sauce, and then extra hot red (chile sauce) and hot red (chile sauce). And then the salsa, they have a mild, medium and a hot.”

The product line also includes a green chile salsa.

“The chile products are made just right there, right across from our restaurant,” Finley said. “And those are also my recipes that my son has been able to perfect.”