In 2009 I had the great privilege of helping compile the inaugural New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail along with the scintillating, four-time James Beard award-winning author Cheryl Alters Jamison; the brilliant Kate Manchester, founding publisher of Edible Santa Fe; and one of New Mexico’s finest ambassadors, Martin Leger, then advertising manager for the New Mexico Department of Tourism. We discussed dozens of potential candidates for inclusion into the inaugural Trail. Narrowing down those “most worthy” was like selecting the best and brightest stars on a clear, cold New Mexico winter night.
Between the four of us, we had (over the years, not in one seating) voraciously consumed green chile cheeseburgers at an almost embarrassing number of restaurants, drive-ins, diners, dives, joints, cafes, roadside stands and even bowling alleys. Ultimately we narrowed down the number of selections to what we believed were the very best green chile cheeseburgers from throughout the Land of Enchantment. Our list was well vetted, our research meticulous (and delicious) and our bellies full. There’s no way we could possibly have missed any of the Land of Enchantment’s best green chile cheeseburgers…or was there?
During a long overdue visit to the Adobe Deli about eight miles east of Deming, I enjoyed what might well be the very best green chile cheeseburger I’ve ever had. Sure, I’m prone to hyperbole, but this burger checked all the boxes…especially memorability. What most set the Adobe Deli’s “Hamburger Deluxe” apart, however, is the freshness and moistness of a beef patty which is essentially ground steak, a thick half-pound of beef prepared to your exacting specifications. It’s one of the things Cheryl looks for in a great burger.
Surely this behemoth burger had to be on the Trail…but it wasn’t. How could we possibly have missed it? For one thing, the Adobe Deli is a bit out of the way, a culinary oasis in a landscape strewn with tumbleweeds and scrub brush . For another, the Adobe Deli is known for its locally raised steak. Diners drive far and wide to enjoy slabs of beef reputed (deservedly so) to be among the very best in New Mexico. Lastly, the Adobe Deli has become famous for its whimsical “destination like no other” ambiance. Visitors and guests find a labyrinth of museum quality antiques and taxidermied animals posed to simulate them in action. NOTE: Below the restaurant information section you’ll find several additional photographs that depict the uniqueness of the Adobe Deli.
But first, the green chile cheeseburger. The menu doesn’t actually list a green chile cheeseburger. It lists a “Hamburger Deluxe.” On the menu, this burger is subtitled “More than just a hamburger. It is a monster! The King Kong cuisine.” You can pile on as many ingredients as you’d like. As Chrissy, our wonderful server listed options I repeated “yes” to each one: grilled onions, bacon and of course green chile and cheese. I’ve found that five is the optimum number of ingredients for burger excellence. At first bite, I recognized the greatness of this burger. and in my mind’s eye can still recall its deliciousness with a clarity that leaves me drooling.
Though I can take or leave steak, the flavor of chopped steak and and paucal ingredients between buns is irresistible to me,,,when it’s done as well as the Adobe Deli does it. Only one burger’s beef in the Land of Enchantment is in the same stratosphere as the Adobe Deli beef. That would be the Monte Carlo Steakhouse whose beef is a also superb. Prepared at a “medium” degree of doneness, the beef patty at Adobe Deli ekes out Monte Carlo’s as New Mexico’s best. Trust me! It’s moist, juicy and so full of flavor it can make grown men swoon. Sesame seed buns are bursting at their edges with ingredients. Most prominently is the beef patty which has got to be close to a half-pound. Seriously, I may move to Deming just for this burger.
Sandwiches are served with your choice of French fries, onion rings or potato chips. The aforementioned burger additives (cheese, bacon, Hatch green chile) are a dollar apiece. On top of the $17 price of the Deluxe burger, it’s a twenty-dollar plus (with tax) investment in joy (and maybe lust). The sandwich menu includes such tempting offerings as a sausage and pepper hero, French dip and buffalo burger. There’s a separate section on the menu for sandwiches constructed with ubiquitous Boar’s Head products. Please tell me the “Deli” part of the restaurant’s name isn’t because of the Boar’s Head deli meats.
Like so many others who make their way to the Adobe Deli, it isn’t solely the culinary fare that drew us in. In some ways the Adobe Deli is like a Disneyland for those of us who love New Mexican and Old West history. As boldly declared on the website, it’s a “destination like no other.” Deli is the brainchild of native New Yorker Van Jacobson who launched the restaurant some forty years ago. Listen to Jacobson speak and you’d swear he’s got a Western cowboy accent. There’s no discernible New Yoik accent left. On the rural sprawl outside Deming, Jacobson has found his niche, a restaurant and watering hole unlike any other.
On an interview posted on Adobe Deli’s website, the host described Adobe Deli as a “full-on Animal House.” Former New Mexico Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson (no relation to Adobe Deli’s owner) raved about its “wild west atmosphere” complete with “stuffed animals, comical signs and other oddities making up the decor.” Even before we stepped inside, we were magnetically drawn to the working ranch trappings of the property. There didn’t seem to be any sense of order though thematically it’s definitely a place that definitely appreciates the Old West and has a love affair with New Mexico. Bric-a-brac and sundry Old West items were strewn about.
Step inside and the chaos continues. There is something to see everywhere you turn. PETA wouldn’t appreciate all the taxidermied animals, but most visitors do. Animals–everything from cougars and mountain lions to antelope and snakes–are staged in live action poses. We sat directly beneath a ferocious looking lion seemingly leaping from its perch to attack us–or at least our food. REMINDER: Below the restaurant information section you’ll find several additional photographs that depict the uniqueness of the Adobe Deli.
There’s so much more to the Adobe Deli than museum quality antiques, animals and my favorite of all those animals, the green chile cheeseburger. The menu–available for lunch, dinner and brunch–starts off with more snacks and appetizers than any three other restaurants offer. Sandwiches and Boar’s Head Deli sandwiches are plentiful, too. Then there’s the entrees section of the menu where you’ll find six colossal steaks, including a Porterhouse that “Takes two servers just to bring it out!” Despite the menu’s caution that “Horses, dogs, and children are to be kept outside, unless the children are willing to bus tables,” there’s a children’s menu and everywhere we turned at the restaurant, children of all ages were afoot.
Former Tourism Department Secretary Monique Jacobson raved about Adobe Deli’s French onion soup, declaring it among the best she’s had. We might have had similar inklings had we not enjoyed rapture with French onion soup at Silver City’s La Vie Est Un Bistro just three days previous. Adobe Deli’s version is very traditional and very good. It’s got a beefy broth and a curtain of melted Gruyere. Pierce that curtain and you’re welcomed by gloriously sweet, lightly caramelized onions and a small slice of disintegrating French bread. Epicurious may have said it best: “Leave it to the French to make a glorious, silky soup from a vegetable as ordinary as an onion.”
Among the seven or eight-thousand items on the “Snacks and Appetizers” menu, leave it to us to find one we didn’t like. We’ve had sweet corn nuggets at other restaurants and have usually enjoyed them. Corn nuggets, a variation of corn fritters, should always be crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. Where the chef failed is in using a batter that is too thick then frying the nuggets for too long. We sent them back and received a better batch.
Though she tends to prepare steak at least once every two weeks, my Kim will never pass up a thick slab of steak at every steakhouse we visit. Adobe Deli’s ribeye is at least an inch-thick and richly marbled. Moreover it glistens with moistness and the telltale sign of grill “stripes” that bespeak it how it was prepared. At a “medium” degree of doneness, this is one of the very best steaks we’ve had in New Mexico. High-end steakhouse restaurants offer a similar steak for two or three times the cost and I’ll bet it’s not nearly as good. Yes, this is Gil, the “take steak or leave it” blogger) declaring that this is a great steak. Regular readers know I much prefer baked potato to steak. My Kim, perhaps not wanting me to eat most of her baked potato, opted instead for Texas fries, gigantic planks of superb “best in New Mexico” quality fries.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our Chrissy, our wonderful server. Blessed with a cheeky sense of humor and iridescent personality, she single-handedly waited on tables, mixed and served drinks and generally kept everyone happy. We had such a good time with her.
The Adobe Deli is now home to the best green chile cheeseburger I’ve had in my decades of enjoying New Mexico’s sacrosanct sandwich. It’s also home to a tremendous menu of steaks and so much more. If you’ve never considered Deming a potential culinary destination, think again. A trip (or ten) to The Adobe Deli) will hook you.
The Adobe Deli
3970 Lewis Flats Road, S.E.
Deming, New Mexico
(575) 546-0361
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LATEST VISIT: 7 April 2024
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$$ – $$$$
BEST BET: Green Chile Cheeseburger, Ribeye, French Onion Soup, Corn Nuggets
REVIEW #1288
NOTE: There is so much to see at The Adobe Deli. Here are more photos of this unique restaurant with museum quality history and antiques. Warning: Some of the images depict violence by animals against other animals.
That French Onion Soup picture! Until I read the caption, I thought it was a glazed sugar doughnut topped with a slice of grilled cheese.
“Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do?”