According to Simply Beyond Herbs, “many people find lavender’s gentle fragrance helps center their thoughts and enhance cognitive abilities. It can provide a sense of mental freshness, enabling one to think and make decisions more clearly; this is particularly beneficial during intense work, studying, or when facing challenging tasks requiring heightened concentration. Whether used as an essential oil, dried flowers, or as part of a relaxing environment, lavender’s influence on mental clarity is valued by many who seek improved focus and a clearer mind.” Hmm, sounds like something we all can use.
If you’ve ever attended Los Ranchos De Albuquerque’s annual Lavender Festival, you can probably benefit from lavender’s calming effect as you vie for a parking spot up close and later when you try to exit the premises among catch-as-catch-can queues of impatient motorists. Lavender in The Village is the largest lavender festival in the Southwest, attended by 10,000 guests in 2023. Though the event showcases the myriad ways in which lavender can be used, we prefer smaller venues with fewer guests. One such venue opened its doors in April, 2024 to far less fanfare than the festival. That venue is Lavender Cocinita, a “little kitchen with big tastes.”
Fittingly, Lavender Cocinita sits on 4th Street in the Village of Los Ranchos, home to the aforementioned Lavender Festival. If you haven’t noticed the Cocinita during your peregrinations through the village, it’s probably beccause its signage isn’t especially prominent. Even if you’re doing the posted 25 miles-per-hour speed limit (and in New Mexico few do), you might just miss it. Lavender Cocinita is on the west side of 4th Street. Directly next door is the fabulous Busy Bee Frozen Custard, no longer just a food truck. To its immediate north is the El Camino Motor Lodge and on the east side of 4th Street is El Camino Dining Room, a “Better Call Saul” favorite.
Neither Lavender Cocinita nor Busy Bee Frozen Custard have storefront parking. You’ll have to park either behind the small strip mall that houses both or park on a side street. As of this writing (October 23, 2024) Lavender Cocinita is open every day but Wednesday and Sunday from 7AM to 3PM. Cocinita’s website invites you to “Start your morning off right with our artisanal coffee and espresso, paired perfectly with freshly baked pastries that are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth. Craving something more substantial? Dive into one of our signature breakfast dishes, breakfast burritos, creamy oatmeal cups, or refreshing yogurt parfaits. And don’t miss out on our iconic avocado toast, a local favorite that’s as delicious as it is nutritious.”
Noon had just struck when we first visited the Cocinita. Our initial assessment: “maybe it’s a good thing there’s no parking in front of the restaurant. This is a Liliputian restaurant with only a handful of tables along with seating along a windowside counter facing the Sandias.” Weather permitting, there’s also seating outdoors in front of the restaurant. Whether you’re able to secure a seat inside the restaurant, dine al fresco or you opt for take-out, this is a restaurant not to be missed. Best of all, the Cocinita is a sister restaurant to Busy Bee. Custard-blessed items are interspersed throughout the Cocinita’s menu.
During our inaugural visit, we had the restaurant to ourselves for about half the time of our hour-long stay. That gave us ample opportunity for palaver with two of the partnership’s owners. Chef and co-owner Alfred Sandoval is a self-taught cook with more than fifteen years in the restaurant industry. He’s a genial guy who’s rightfully very proud of his menu. We also became reacquainted with Helen Martinez, a co-owner who manages the Finance and Operations side of the partnership. The first time we encountered Helen was when she was running the Busy Bee food truck in an Alameda location. She’s the restaurant’s best ambassador, a high-energy lady with a heart of gold.
Having previously enjoyed Busy Bee’s fantastic custard, my Kim and I were very happy to find custard items on the menu. For her, a vanilla custard milk shake drizzled with chocolate syrup. If you believe shakes made from ice cream are terrific, you’ve got to have one made with custard. There is a significant difference in both flavor (custard is much richer) and mouthfeel. Custard is made with egg yolks while ice cream is not. My choice was affogato, also made with Busy Bee frozen custard. Affogato, a classic coffee dessert calls for a shot of espresso poured over vanilla ice cream or gelato. Once you’ve had it with frozen custard, you might not want it made with ice cream again.
Chef Sandoval warned me that many items are portioned so generously that we’d probably take half home much of what we ordered. “Surely,” I thought “how big could a Reuben possibly be.” We found out a Reuben (grilled Boar’s Head corned beef topped with melty Provolone, house- made red cabbage habenero kraut, in house Russian sauce on marbled rye) can be pretty sizeable indeed. Layers upon layers of thinly sliced corned beef matched the thickness of the lightly toasted marbled rye. Russian dressing, a creamy, slightly piquant, salmon-hued spread made from mayonnaise, ketchup, and other ingredients beats Thousand Island dressing every time. This version was terrific as was the red cabbage habanero kraut though it wasn’t nearly as piquant as you migh expect. The Reuben is served with fresh housemade seasoned potato chips. As Chef Sandoval predicted, we took home half the Reuben and more than half the chips.
My Kim had been jonesing for gyros, meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, then sliced and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread. We were surprised to find gyros on the Cocinita’s menu which describes them as “hot lamb and beef from vertical spit served on pita bread, topped with lettuce, red onions, cherry tomatoes, tzatziki sauce and crumbled feta cheese. Served with house made seasoned potato chips.” The lamb-beef amalgam is moist, tender, and super aromatic from applied seasonings, but it’s the tzatziki sauce that makes this dish a winner. It’s made on the premises by Chef Sandoval an is among the best we’ve had in the area. My Kim couldn’t finish her gyros either so we took about half of it home for lunch the following day.
Fellow trenchermen who may be thinking I’ve lost my appetite need not worry. One of the reasons I couldn’t finish my Reuben is that I also ordered a bowl of beans with red and green chile and shredded Cheddar cheese with two tortillas. You know you’re a native New Mexican when you consider pinto beans one of life’s greatest pleasures. I grew up feasting on them several times a week and so did many people in Peñasco. Cocinita’s bowl of beans was very reminiscent of the beans my mom prepared for us. Somehow, he also managed to ladle on both red and green chile, both of which were blanketed by shredded Cheddar. This is true New Mexican comfort food!
23 November 2024: Bon Apetit encourages readers to “roll up to Ursula, a New Mexican cafe in Brooklyn, any given morning and you’ll likely find a long line of people waiting for the same thing: chef Eric See’s breakfast burritos. He modeled his burritos after the ones served at Golden Pride, a drive-thru burrito chain he grew up with in Albuquerque. “There are two ingredients that are non-negotiable in New Mexican–style breakfast burritos: shredded hash browns and New Mexico chiles,” according to the chef.
Increasingly breakfast burritos are becoming available outside the Land of Enchantment where they’re ubiquitous and without doubt the best reason to get up in the morning. In the metropolitan Albuquerque area, choices abound. If you’re looking for a behemoth breakfast burrito you can’t finish in one sitting, such choices as Hello Deli and the Central Grill have long been popular choices. A burrito from the Lavender Cocinita won’t take a backseat to any. It’s roughly the size of a log you’d toss into a fireplace. Better still, it’s big on flavor. This burrito is constructed from two eggs, hash browns, Cheddar cheese and your choice of bacon, sausage, chorizo, avocado or pinto beans along with your choice of red or green chile. You can have it smothered or made with a gluten-free tortilla for a pittance more. Both the red and green chile are of the fiery variety born-and-bred New Mexicans love with the red chile edging out its green counterpart for piquancy.
23 November 2024: According to the New York Times “The biggest difference between burgers and patty melts is that burgers have buns and patty melts have bread. Not everyone agrees; there are those who argue that a patty melt is a subspecies of burger. I think, though, that the sandwich shares more with the grilled cheese than it does with a burger on a bun.” Regardless of where you stand on this contentious matter, we can all agree that both burgers and patty melts are absolutely delicious.
My Kim eschews burgers, but loves patty melts. She’s got a new favorite from Lavenver Cocinita, a one-half-pound Angus patty cooked to order with grilled onions and Provolone cheese on a marble rye bun (to which you can add green chile for two dollars more). The beef patty is thick and cooked to your exacting specifications, but it’s the marble rye with which my Kim fell in love. It’s toasted lightly and provides a nice balance of dark and light rye flavors. I’d be remiss if I didn’t rave about the housemade potato chips. They’re light, crispy and perfectly salted.
Lavender may have qualities which enhance cognitive abilities, but so does Lavender Cocinita’s menu which also has the effects of quelling hunger and pleasing palates.
Lavender Cocinita
6847 4th Street
Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 364-4501
Website | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 23 November 2024
1st VISIT: 21 October 2024
# OF VISITS: 2
RATING: 23
COST: $$
BEST BET: Bowl of Beans With Red and Green Chile, Reuben, Gyros, Afogatto, Vanilla Shake, Breakfast Burrito, Patty Melt, Potato Chips
REVIEW #1427
Better. It’s Better Call Saul. 😉
Thank you, Lynn. I’d better pay more attention.