5 Best Restaurants in The Turquoise Trail, Day Trips from Santa Fe

Sure, it looks like a dusty old cowboy bar and it is set right in the heart of a village that's appeared in several Western movies, but the extensive menu of creative breakfast plates, sandwiches, and grills reveals a locavore-minded approach to food that you might not expect from the setting. You might start the day with the Saloon Scramble, a hefty plate of feathery eggs served with green onions, venison-blueberry sausage, and jalapeño hot sauce; or later in the day, consider the thinly roasted lamb with vegetables, Manchego cheese, and a refreshing yogurt sauce atop naan flatbread.

A rollicking old bar and restaurant adjacent to the Old Coal Mine Museum, this boisterous place—there's live music many nights—was a miners' commissary back in the day. Today it serves impressive burgers (available with Angus beef, Wagyu beef, buffalo, or mushroom-veggie), along pizzas, tacos, and other comfort fare. There's a fine selection of local craft beers on tap, plus first-rate margaritas. 

Seasoned hippies, youthful hipsters, and everyone in between congregate at Java Junction for lattes, chai, sandwiches, breakfast burritos, bagels, pastries, and other treats. You can also pick up a number of house-made gourmet goods, from hot sauces to jalapeño-raspberry preserves. Upstairs there's a pleasantly decorated suite available for overnight stays.

Much of the seasonal produce, baked goods, and other ingredients used in this cheerful market-café's breakfast burritos, chilaquiles, and tacos are grown or made on-site (there's both a nursery and a bakery) or sourced from area farms and ranches. The market is stocked with interesting cheeses, crackers, jams, juices, chocolates, and other tasty snacks, making this an ideal place to stop before hiking.

Located near the southern end of the Turquoise Trail, just a 15-minute drive from Albuquerque, this friendly brewpub and brick-oven pizzeria has a lush, pet-and-family-friendly beer garden outside and a pool table and tabletop shuffleboard inside. The blistered-crust pizzas are delicious, and there's a nice selection of salads and sandwiches on house-baked focaccia.