2 Best Restaurants in Old Mesilla, Southwestern New Mexico

Pronounced cho-pez, it looks like a run-of-the-mill adobe building from the outside, but inside the 150-year-old former Benavidez homestead you'll find happy locals and many turistas eating well-seasoned Mexican food and drinking ice-cold beer and tasty margaritas. Bikers join the convivial crowd in the bar next door; like the restaurant, it's still owned by the Benavidez family. It's worth the 15-mi drive south from Old Mesilla for the local flavor.

Chandeliers, century-old wall tapestries, and gold-leaf ceilings set the scene at this elegant restaurant inside an 1848 mansion on Old Mesilla's plaza. Some say ghosts, including one of a young man who incurred his mother's wrath by falling in love with a servant girl, haunt the property. Continental cuisine, steaks, and flambé dishes are served, formally, in the main restaurant. The restaurant has its own aging room for its renowned steaks, and you can sample all sorts of delicious alcoholic infusions from the bar (the chile vodka makes a fantastic Bloody Mary). Pepper's, the adjoining Southwestern-style café, has more casual fare including chiles rellenos served with colorful tortilla chips. The Double Eagle Sunday Champagne brunch is excellent and a good deal (reservations are recommended).