My wife insists on three meals a day and I usually go along with her on breakfast jaunts while we're on vacation. Scouting out a few places before we were in Santa Fe, one place seemed to jump out in terms of popularity from all the others. It was a restaurant called The Pantry that had been around since 1948. A place that has been open for 75 years, well, I just had to check it out.
Just after World War II while living in the Midwest, Wanda Myers told her brother George about the endless opportunities around Santa Fe. Wanda was friendly with some contractors who had helped build Los Alamos for the U.S. Government in the early 40's and they told her that Santa Fe was the land of opportunity for post-World War veterans. The contractors told Wanda that while there were a lot of New Mexican-style restaurants in the area, there weren't many places that served American-style cuisine.
George Myers had learned to cook during a stint with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Great Depression-era work relief program that was in place from 1933 to 1942 for unemployed single men in the age group of 17 to 28. Wanda convinced George to move to New Mexico in 1947 to set up a restaurant that would serve American classic foods.
Along with George's wife Delores, Wanda and George moved to New Mexico in 1947 and scouted for places to build a restaurant. George picked out a spot along what was known as the "Sante Fe Loop" of the storied Highway 66 just outside of the-then Santa Fe city limits. George built the restaurant by hand and included an apartment in the rear of the place for him and his wife. With Wanda's help, The Pantry opened in 1948. Not long after The Pantry opened, Wanda decided to do something else with her life and left her brother and sister-in-law carry on without her.
By the mid-50's, the pace of business was wearing on George Myers. He decided to lease out the restaurant in 1955 to George and Franny Bernsten who expanded the restaurant after George and Delores moved out of their apartment. The Bernstens ran the restaurant for a few years before giving up the lease. George and Delores continued to own the restaurant and leased it out a few more times before their son Max took over as the co-owner of the place in 1998. Max had a partner in former restauranteur Stan Singley.
Stan Singley was the long time manager of the local Luby's restaurant in Santa Fe. Stan eventually retired in 1993 and was involved with real estate in and around the greater Santa Fe area for the next five years. Max Myers worked at the restaurant as a young man, but got into the banking industry at an early age eventually becoming the president of Century Bank In Santa Fe. With his parents getting on in age and looking to get completely out of the business, Max convinced his friend Stan Singley to join him in the restaurant.
In 2010 Singley's son Mike joined his father and Max Myers in the business. Mike Singley had just graduated from the (now closed) Le Cordon Blue culinary school in Scottsdale, AZ and was brought in as an apprentice to learn the ropes and eventually take over the restaurant's shares from his father. Mike Singley continues to run The Pantry, as well as two spin-offs of the original restaurant - Pantry Dos which opened in 2019, and Pantry Rio which opened in 2020.
We had passed The Pantry a number of times during our trips between our hotel on the southwest side of Santa Fe and to the downtown area along Cerrillos Road. (see map) We pulled into the parking lot next to the adobe structure with bright blue awnings on the front around 9:30 on another beautiful New Mexico morning. There were a lot of cars in the lot and we figured that we would need to wait for a table when we went in.
But little did we know that the place was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. As you come in the front entrance, there's a dining area off to the side. Artwork from local artists hung from the walls - similar to many other restaurants we went to during our time in Santa Fe. The Pantry was certainly a vibrant place that morning.
There was a counter area that was part of the original Pantry when it opened in 1948. The kitchen was behind the counter and featured the old-style serving window that was a beehive of activity with the waitstaff picking up orders to take to tables. 60's and 70's classic rock music was playing in the background in the restaurant. My wife remarked that it seemed like most of the places were in during our trip to Santa Fe were playing classic rock music for their background music. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
We thought we'd have to wait as there wasn't any room in the dining room or at the counter. But a lady came up and asked how many there were in our group. When we told her two, she grabbed a couple menus from the holder and said, "Follow me!" She took us to another room behind the kitchen area - the original residence of George and Delores Myers that had been turned into a larger dining area in the 50's. The original wood beams hung from the ceiling over the heavy-duty wooden tables and chairs in the dining room. More art work was hung on the walls and a large mural of an old map of the region around Santa Fe hung on the far wall of the restaurant. Later on, I noticed that there was a little bar area off to the side - The Pantry did offer alcoholic beverages. But I knew we were going to have a busy day of driving and sightseeing that I didn't want to start of the partying too early with a bloody mary as an eye-opener.
Our server that day was a lady by the name of Josephine. She was pleasant and gave us a few moments to run through the menu after she brought us both a glass of orange juice to start out. While The Pantry was touted as a breakfast spot by many of the locals, they also featured salads, burgers and sandwiches, as well as traditional New Mexican cuisine such as Carne Adovada (slow-cooked pork in a chile sauce), stuffed sopaipillas, and chile rellenos. They also featured comfort food items on the menu including a house-recipe meat loaf, slow-cooked beef brisket, and and open-faced hot turkey sandwich.
But we wanted breakfast and they had a number of traditional breakfast items including pancakes, French toast, and a house-made corned beef hash. The stuffed French toast sounded interesting as it was coated in corn flakes, then stuffed with cream cheese, blueberries and strawberries. However, a lot of the items on the breakfast part of the menu had a decided New Mexican twist. There was an omelet stuffed with a chili relleno, the Lindo's scramble featured scrambled eggs with roasted chile peppers, avocado and spinach, and they had a large breakfast burrito like many of the other places we went to for breakfast around the Santa Fe area.
When Josephine came back to take our order, my wife was ready. She got the smashed avocado toast seasoned with sea salt. 2 eggs made-to-order came on the side with some Pantry potatoes. My wife got scrambled eggs as her choice. Once again, the potatoes were the New Mexican-style of fried potatoes that we were trying to figure out what they did to them. We guessed they rolled them in flour or corn meal and added some ground chile pepper to them, then flat-grill fry them. My wife remarked that the avocado toast would have been more than enough for her as it was a large slice of multi-grain toasted bread with a thick layer of avocado on top. She wasn't able to eat all that was on her plate, but she made a serious dent in all three items.
I ended up getting the 3-egg cheese omelet with sausage, mushrooms and chopped green chile peppers added. It, too, came with the Pantry potatoes on the side. When Josephine brought the omelet out, she looked at it and said, "Oh, wait. I think I got the wrong plate for you." She took it back and I waited. Moments later, she came back and said, "Oh, no. I had the right plate all along." She said that she thought she had a Durango omelet - ham, mushrooms, green onions, sour cream and cheese. "What you ordered looks similar to a Durango omelet," Josephine said as she put the plate down in front of me. "I had to go make sure that yours was what you ordered."
Indeed, it was. I asked Josephine for some Cholula and she brought over a new bottle for me to use. The omelet was huge as were the portion of potatoes on the side. But the combination of the sausage, mushrooms, green chile peppers and cheese mixed in the omelet with the outstanding green chile sauce on top was scrumptious. I had a few bites of the potatoes with some Cholula poured on them. In my mind, the jury was still out on New Mexican-style potatoes. I don't eat potatoes all that much and while these were good, they didn't consume me to the point where I missed them when we went back home.
After our visit, it was easy to see why The Pantry is one of the top breakfast places in Santa Fe. Actually, many of the later day items on their menu made it sound like their food was pretty damned good all day long. The portions were generous and what my wife and I both had was very tasty and filling. I thought I would get sick of having New Mexican-style breakfasts while we were in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, but I couldn't quit ordering something during breakfast with a green chile sauce. And the breakfast at The Pantry was one of the best we had during our visit to New Mexico.
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