Friday, February 26, 2010

On the Trail of the Best Green Chile Cheeseburger

For those of you who don't live in New Mexico, I just want you to know that Beez and I are doing our best to explore the new Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail interactive map. We'll report back to you from time to time about our findings.

A couple of weeks ago we drove up to Hatch, home of some of the best and hottest green chiles anywhere. We were headed for Sparky's, which is the only restaurant in Hatch to make it onto the trail. What we found was disappointing--Sparky's was closed, and on a Wednesday. The best I could do for you was to snap these low quality photos of the place with my phone.



On the way out of town, still hungry, we stopped at a place that looked like absolutely nothing from the outside, located as it was in an old gas station building. The only thing it had to recommend it was a steady stream of what looked like local cars pulling into the parking lot. We took a chance, went in, and are so glad we did. It's called Sugar Bears Bistro. You'll want to remember that name, although I can't provide any sort of explanation for it.

We had the best fresh tortillas chips ever, served with a choice of salsa or queso. We took the queso, and it was delicious. The green chile cheeseburgers were fantastic, as were the home-baked buns, the fries, and the onion rings. The waitress and the other customers were so friendly that we could barely hold back from hugging everyone good bye when we left.

The menu features New Mexican, Italian, and American food, sometimes in intriguing combinations. Believe it or not, we are going to try the green chile manicotti next time we drive up to Hatch.

11 comments:

Kate said...

I enjoyed your restaurant review! Now to get out my map; sometime in March we're going to drive down to Las Cruces, and have been told to try a restaurant in Mesilla (no name, however...any suggestions?) And, what a coincidence. In your "you might like" photos, I recognized the Mission Church in Pecos, where we went yesterday! Great place to visit! Impressive and peaceful.

clairz said...

Kate, our favorite restaurant in Mesilla is Peppers, maybe because we first went there in the summertime and there is a fountain. There is a long discussion of favorite LC restaurants on City-Data, much of it by folks who haved lived here much longer than we have: http://www.city-data.com/forum/las-cruces/368626-favorite-las-cruces-restaurants.html

Powell River Books said...

Isn't it fun to discover a place like that. We went to a small taco place on our trip to the Washington coast. It is hard to get good Mexican food up here, especially chips. The restaurants seem to believe the only place to get chips is from a bag from the store. They are so easy to make fresh I'm not sure why they don't. But the soft tacos were great and she makes all of her own salsa. = Margy

the7msn said...

Duly noted and added to list of "must-go" places. Thanks for finding it!

Sylvia K said...

OK, now I'm starving for a Green Chile Cheeseburger and some chips and queso! Sounds fabulous! Hope you guys have a great weekend and lots of yummy food!!

Sylvia

T Fab P said...

Stop rubbing it in! We are going to try to make Beez' enchiladas this week and some green chile sauce too. Wish us luck. BTW we ate at El Comedors in Mesilla and found it to be very nice. They have outside area too but no fountain...

clairz said...

Peng, tell me you aren't making that green chile sauce with canned chiles. Do they have frozen chiles there in the supermarkets?

Don't forget to order your chiles from Hatch in August unless, of course, you will be here in person by then.

Quiet Paths said...

It's so great to find these little places which have true authenticity demonstrated in the way people treat their customers. Far from the big chain restaurants where people are just cows at the feeding bin. This would be right up my alley, so to speak.

Mar-Bear said...

Speacking of Peppers,
they have the "World’s Largest Green Chile Cheeseburger"!
One burger is big as a dinner plate.

Mar-Bear said...

here is a link to Peppers:
http://www.double-eagle-mesilla.com/menu/world%E2%80%99s-largest-green-chile-cheeseburger/

clairz said...

Mar-Bear, thank you for that link. I have been trying to keep Beez away from Peppers ever since he heard about the world's largest GCCB there. However, we've been wanting to go there (the salmon with green chile sauce is great) so I might need to write a second entry in this series of restaurant reviews.