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Adobe Deli combines southwest eccentricity and quality steaks
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You didn’t come to the Adobe Deli for a quick bite to eat. You drove into a lonely swath of farmlands 13 miles east of Deming or an hour from Las Cruces. If it’s nighttime, you may have missed the turn from state Highway 549 onto Lewis Flats Road and turned around in the dark, wondering if you should advise next-of-kin of your location as you drove toward the Florida Mountains and oblivion.
But then it appeared: The home of a country schoolhouse before Van Jacobsen purchased it in 1978 to create a bar and restaurant like no other in New Mexico, a quiet watering hole and gathering place far from city lights and traffic, a showcase for Jacobsen’s chaotic collection of southwestern memorabilia and taxidermy, an able steakhouse and an essential stop for visitors to the region.
It has also been the site of multiple paranormal investigations that, unsurprisingly, attest that the old schoolhouse is haunted; but the Adobe Deli is already so weird any poltergeist would struggle for attention.
The sign at the entrance promising “hot beer, lousy food, bad service,” sells the place far short but sets the tone at this remote tavern loaded with stuffed wildlife, missiles recovered from the desert, traffic signs and license plates, antiques salvaged from farms and ranches and life-sized cutouts of Donald and Melania Trump.
Serving staff is typically low and the kitchen takes its time with each order, leaving ample time to wander the halls and explore the irreverent assemblage of oddities, watch sports projected onto a gigantic screen in the 60-seat main dining room or shoot a round of pool on a table that has had a rough life.
The diner may feel sticker shock at seeing a $27 pork chop but will be served a cut the size of an end table. The flat iron steak ($36) is tender and flavorful, as are the porterhouse, rib-eye and T-bone options, or you might combine bravado with gustatory pleasure and dig into the filet mignon wrapped in bacon ($38) or an enormous kebab of beef and veggies drizzled with a barbecue sauce that has sweetness and bite ($38).
While the menu is geared for meat lovers, the Deli’s best-known dish might be its version of French onion soup ($9), with a rich topping of cheese atop a caramelized gratinée that has earned its own local fandom.
Vegetarians in your party will find some options among appetizers and daytime deli sandwiches, with sides including jalapeño poppers ($10), sweet corn nuggets ($10), deep-fried veggies or mushrooms, or a plate of mac-and-cheese bites ($9) satisfying enough for an entree.
For these prices, there are fancier and more professional-looking steakhouses elsewhere. Still, the Adobe Deli, approaching nearly half a century at its improbable location, cares about food and does not lean too heavily on its peculiar ambiance. Its meats are prepared with care and there is plenty of wine, beer and spirits to keep diners company while they wait, carouse and look around.
You might even be tempted to grab a permanent marker and add your name to a hallway festooned with signatures of people who have made the trek here over the years, akin to a trail log. Locals may take it for granted, but for the uninitiated, the Adobe Deli is an adventure.
