A Review of the Bobcat Bite Restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe has a wealth of good hamburgers - from gourmet a la Canyon Road to tissue-wrapped drive-in varieties - but many local favorites are reasonably priced. Lacking pretension, they nonetheless satisfy.

The parking lot is full. The restaurant is small. The outside table is sticky, and there are a lot of flies. The server is hurried. We ask if they have beer, and she says, "If there was beer, I'd be drinking one." We have waited an hour and 15 minutes for the opportunity to sit down and bite into the restaurant's famous burger. Everyone in line thinks the wait is worth it. The squat, pink, adobe cafe, with sunset views from front porch facing the highway, has served bodacious burgers since 1953. The inside looks like a movie set from Deliverance: menacingly low viga ceiling, chipped linoleum floors, homey cafe curtains, and a counter that runs the length of the room. In fact, it appeared in the documentary Hamburger America, which showed at the Santa Fe Film Festival a few years ago.

"Santa Fe's best-kept secret" is no longer secret. Listed in a Gourmet article on "Americas Best Road Food," the Bite also made the list of "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die" in GQ. The burger is 10 ounces of inch-thick fresh ground chuck. Our "medium" burgers were almost dry once, juicy another time. A toasted bun, a large slice of tomato, some lettuce, and while cheese melting down the side. Grilled onions are by request, as is green chile or bacon. It's a jaw-extender. No Grey Poupon on the table here, just yellow mustard and ketchup. I took this one straight. And it was great - well worth the wait.

Here's the price breakdown for a Lunch or dinner for two at the Bobcat Bite:

One order of Coleslaw priced at $ 1.75, one bacon cheeseburger at $7.50, home fries also at $1.75, Grilled Onions at $1.95, the green chile cheeseburger for $8.60, and two iced teas for $1.25 each, which comes to a total of $25.04 before tax and tip.

The Bobcat Bite is located at 420 Old Las Vegas Highway in Santa Fe, New Mexico; 983-5319. They are opened from 11 a.m. until 8 pm on Wednesday through Saturday. The Bobcat Bite is closed Sunday, Mondays, and Tuesdays. No Alcohol is served and outdoor porch dining is available. Avoid peak hours if you don't want to wait.