The Owl vs. The Buckhorn

The official State Question for New Mexico is "Red or Green?"

BUT .. in the tiny town of San Antonio, NM, just south of Socorro, the unofficial question for the state is "The Owl Cafe or the Buckhorn Tavern"?

There is not a whole lot in San Antonio, but the dueling green chile cheeseburger restaurants, located just across the street from one another, and in existence since the 1940s, have raised a whole controversy among New Mexicans over which has the BEST green chile cheesburger in town.

I do not have the answer to that because we have not been to both places, only one. And our choice was completely arbitrary -- we chose the one with fewer cars in the parking lot last Saturday morning just before noon, because we thought we could get a seat faster.

We went to Manny's Buckhorn Tavern. It's a very small place, nothing fancy for sure(!) and we got a seat right away, but people who arrived after us had a bit of a wait. Service was not very fast, but it was fun to look around the place - the decor is kind of "tacky Southwest". But the green chile cheeseburgers were well worth the wait -- they were juicy and loaded with green chile, cheese, tomatoes, onions and lettuce. The green chile was spicy -- I would have liked to have had more on my burger. The french fries were REAL fries -- and were hot and crispy. We have to give the place four thumbs up.

The Owl Cafe? That will be for our next visit to town.








(The picture of the Buckhorn green chile cheeseburger was "borrowed" from Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog site. )