‘Truly blessed’: Food Network names Lindy’s Diner one of America’s best classic diners

An Albuquerque diner has been recognized by Food Network as one of the best in the country.

Lindy’s Diner, a Route 66 eatery going on 96 years of business in Downtown Albuquerque, was named New Mexico’s best classic diner in a Food Network article published earlier this month. The article featured diners from across the country, selecting the one readers wouldn’t want to miss in each of the 50 states.

Co-owner Dawn Vatoseow said she and her husband, co-owner Steve Vatoseow, were floored when a customer sent them a copy of the article.

“It was just an honor that they would pick us for the state of New Mexico,” Dawn Vatoseow said.

The article shouted out some of the diner’s signature dishes including the Cowboy Breakfast — a chicken fried steak smothered with red or green chile and cheese, with two eggs any style, beans, hash browns and a flour tortilla — and the Fire Roasted Green Chile Cheese Burger, which the article called “as creative as they are huge.”

The article also detailed the diner’s long history as one of the oldest restaurants on Route 66 in New Mexico, drawing in a wide variety of customers since 1929.

The diner has hosted everyone from loyal locals to former President Bill Clinton and his Secret Service detail, mayors, movie stars, musicians and travelers near and far, Vatoseow said. She said roughly 36 movie and music productions have filmed at the diner.

“(There are) a lot of incredible people that we’ve gotten to meet along the way,” she said.

Dawn and Steve Vatoseow took over the diner in 1994 after working in the business for several years under the ownership of Narke Vatoseow, Steve Vatoseow’s father. Narke Vatoseow died in 1994 and had owned the diner since the early 1960s.

The diner has gone through menu changes and remodels since then, but it’s maintained a “big family type of atmosphere,” Dawn Vatoseow said. She said her children grew up in the restaurant, and she’s seen families who frequent the diner grow up there as well.

The business has provided the Vatoseows so many good memories, so many good customers, so many people we’ve met along the way (and) so many experiences that most people just don’t get a chance to do,” Dawn Vatoseow said.

She also said she often finds herself in awe pondering the diner’s history and the decades of conversations that patrons have had about world events in that very establishment.

“I always say, if only the walls could talk, Dawn Vatoseow said.

Dawn Vatoseow credited the diner’s loyal customers and the resurgence of people traveling the Mother Road for helping bring the diner this far.

She said the owners have also struck a balance between keeping up with the times and preserving the familiarity and nostalgia that diner goers love by never “(trying) to be anything that we’re not.”

Whether the owners make it to the diner’s 100th anniversary or decide to retire before then is up in the air, Dawn Vatoseow said. The owners have attempted to sell the Bliss Building that the restaurant resides in before, but no interested buyers have jumped on board. Now, they’re taking the business day by day.

“That’s going to be in God’s plan. ... Neither one of us are spring chickens. It’s a lot of work,” Dawn Vatoseow said.

Through all the hard work and the shifts of a grueling restaurant industry, the co-owner said it’s the customers who have kept them going.

“A huge thank you to the community out there,” Dawn Vatoseow said. “We just feel truly blessed.”