Heading east on I-10 from Deming, we espied several billboards touting Las Cruces as “The Real New Mexico.” Yeah, it’s a branding effort designed to attract more visitors to the City of Crosses, but there’s a lot of truth to the city’s official new slogan. New Mexico’s second most populous city does have A LOT going for it. For culture, weather, history, beauty and cuisine, it’s easy to build a case that Las Cruces may well be the real New Mexico. That may especially be true about New Mexican food. Every time we dine at a restaurant in the Las Cruces area, I extol the deliciousness, piquancy and authenticity of the food and lament the “dumbing down” of New Mexican cuisine in the Albuquerque area. Mostly I lament that we don’t visit often enough.
My friend Steve Coleman, an El Paso resident who shares his reviews on Steve’s Food Blog visits far more often. I’ll admit to a bit of jealousy when I read his entertaining and thorough reviews. That’s especially true when he visits New Mexican restaurants and indulges in red and green chile that actually bites back. Most of it comes from area purveyors who seem to send all the “mild” chile to the Duke City area. Don’t get me wrong. For me chile is about more than piquancy. It’s about purity (no unnecessary ingredients like cumin) and mostly about deliciousness. Las Cruces does chile the way it should be done!
In July, 2023, Steve visited La Nueva Casita. His review was so intriguing that I quickly got over the grammatical faux pas (in Spanish, adjectives are always placed after the noun; the appropriate name would be La Casita Nueva) and focused on just what a great find Steve had uncovered. Steve quipped “Just when I thought I knew all the best New Mexican restaurants in the Las Cruces area I found that I had neglected a restaurant that has been open since 1957 and which gets top reviews.” I had never even heard of La Nueva Casita (or maybe my pretentious pedantic brain wouldn’t allow me to register on account of the grammar issue).
Steve noted “the all important benchmark dish of red enchiladas is probably the best I have had in southern New Mexico, enough so that I do not think it is necessary to travel to northern New Mexico for a true taste of the state’s namesake cuisine.” Best in Southern New Mexico? So good he didn’t find it necessary to travel to Northern New Mexico? Wow, that’s an endorsement. La Nueva Casita jumped to the top of my list of “must visit” restaurants in Las Cruces. I thanked the weather gods when our return trip home forced us to reroute first to Tucson then to Las Cruces. Any excuse to visit La Nueva Casita.
La Nueva Casita is located on Mesquite Street, less than a mile from Nopalito’s, another superb New Mexican restaurant in Las Cruces. Established in 1957 and located in the Historic Mesquite District along the original Camino Real Route, La Nueva Casita is a staple of downtown Las Cruces. So, shame on Steve and shame on me for not having known about this stellar restaurant. Neither of us will make that mistake again. Unlike the burgeoning downtown areas in many cities, downtown Las Cruces is surprisingly devoid of retail businesses, but it’s replete with charm and grace.
Signage on La Nueva Casita’s walls labels the restaurant as “Mexican” and the menu indicates “From the moment you walk in, our friendly staff will make you feel right at home. Our purpose is quite simple, to provide delicious, authentic, made from scratch Mexican cuisine, at a value that can not be beat.” Neither Steve nor I would ever classify the restaurant or its menu as “Mexican” unless Nueva Casita insisted we do so or we would be barred from future visits. It’s the type of New Mexican restaurant Las Cruces still has in abundance. It’s the type of New Mexican restaurant I wish was more common in metropolitan Albuquerque.
That means a restaurant that still serves complementary chips and salsa, a restaurant where the salsa is muy picante and the chips are thick, homemade and low in salt. “How piquant,” you ask. After not having had New Mexican food in two weeks, my first few tastes of the salsa elicited hiccuping. Of course, my “tastes” include loading chips up with as much salsa as they can bear. It’s an outstanding salsa, some of the very best in the Land of Enchantment. So are the chips which we also enjoyed with con queso. I’ve always contended Southern New Mexico is the standard-bearer for con queso.
Like Steve, my benchmark dish at New Mexican restaurants is enchiladas. At La Nuevita Casa, an order of enchiladas rewards you with three stacked enchiladas with red or green (or Christmas style) with options for onions (free), chicken, ground beef and a fried egg for a pittance more each. Steve loved the complexity and heat level of the red chile, noting that the piquancy does not overpower the flavor. My choice was enchiladas Christmas-style. I found both red and green chile delightful with the red chile edging out the green chile for piquancy. That red is magical. Enchiladas are served with refried beans, a healthy serving that tempers the heat level somewhat. I requested a bowl of fideos, short, thin, vermicelli-like noodles in a sauce. My Kim and I agreed Mexican oregano was very prominent on the fideos, maybe a bit too prominent.
My Kim wrestled with two potential choices of entree: Tacos Estrellas (seasoned pork, beef and chorizo served on three corn tortillas with guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo) or Fajita Tacos (choice of beed or chicken in house marinade, grilled fajita style with bell peppers and onions, served on warm flour tortillas wirh cheese, guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo). It proved an excellent choice. She asked for and received flour tortillas, the right choice for moist, tender, marinated beef. She also substituted avocado slices for guacamole which our server told us included jalapeños. We’re very happy to report the fajita tacos tasted like very good fajitas you would scoop up with flour tortillas.
After two weeks of having good good (though mostly very inauthentic) tres leches cake, we were relieved and happy to find that La Casita Nueva’s rendition is traditional and authentic. In the Phoenix area, we experience everything from ice cream flavored tres leches cake to a tres leches carrot cake. Tres leches literally means, “three milks” and the tres leches cake at La Nueva Casita is an ultra light sponge cake soaked in a sweet milk mixture. Other versions may be good in their own right, but you can’t beat the real thing.
Whether or not you consider Las Cruces “the real New Mexico,” there’s no denying New Mexican food at the City of Crosses is among the best in the Land of Enchantment. La Nueva Casita ranks right up there with the best.
La Nueva Casita
195 North Mesquite Street
Las Cruces, New Mexico
(575) 523-5434
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LATEST VISIT: 5 January 2024
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$
BEST BET: Pastel Tres Leches, Enchiladas, Chips and Salsa, Con Queso, Fajita Tacos
REVIEW #1375