The Taos Diner

Good Vibes, Great Food

Warm and Friendly

July 15, 2008

On Sunday mornings, you want a few good things: hot coffee to slam as soon as you sit down, your eggs and bacon and chile cooked right and served hot, and you want the staff not to chill the scene with attitude.

If you want the place to turn into your favorite so you can turn into a regular, you want something more: you want a vibe of good will and friendship to knit together the staff and your fellow diners. One place that has accomplished this evolution from good place to great place, especially for breakfast, is the Taos Diner, one door north of the Northside Bean. The pesky diners have been going there for ten years, through three owners and several fine teams of servers, and these days the Diner’s better than ever, thanks to a bunch of expatriates from T.P. (Tres Piedras, Pilgrim).

This past Sunday, Donna and I got there at 8:15 a.m. and immediately ran into friends before getting through the door. Sitting at one of the two outside tables were Shawna and Joel, whom we know through newspaper work and through their other server jobs at Shadows, Caffé Renato, and The Sidewalk Bistro/Café at the Plaza Theater (and they are two of the coolest servers in town). Inside, we met old friends Lynn and wife Pam, whom Donna remodeled a house for, at “our� table so we sat with them and caught up on the news.

Robert, a gentle young man from the Pueblo, is always there to take our drink order the minute we sit down, and dark-haired Alison (Ali), comes right over next. Warm, fun, and bright, she knows what we always have: one scrambled egg for Donna and the full House Breakfast for me: two over easy, small half-orders of home fries and beans, crispy bacon, biscuit, and a small metal ramekin of green. I learned “ramekin� at the Diner because I don’t need a full dish of green, and the quarter-cup ram is perfect for us to split. We also split the small portions of beans and home-fries to keep me from over-carbing my diabetes. Sharing not only feeds the gut, it feeds the heart.

Ali says, “I know the regular orders for about 30 people, so I can just say, ‘The usual?’�

The good feelings at the Diner flow from the owner, Annie Allalunis, who started waiting tables in 2000 when it was owned by Josh Wright, then bought it from Josh in 2004. “I grew up in Tres Piedras. My parents were hippie basket weavers, Bob and Patty. We want everybody to feel like family. I stress to our people that you’ve gotta be happy at what you do.� Bob, in his ponytail and backwards hat, buses tables and drops bits of history. Annie had a baby three years ago, Nicholas, and is expecting again. Her sister-in-law, Amanda, also had a baby while working there and she, too, is expecting again. Family is literal there. Annie named their second restaurant Nicholas’s. It’s an all-you-can-eat soup and salad place just finishing its first year on Paseo del Pueblo Sur just down from Dave’s Custom Cycles.

Annie’s T.P. contacts brought her the current servers, Clarissa and Cora, and sometime server Amanda. Kristin, a local Taoseña, has been at the Diner the longest, eight years.

“We really do like each other, and we like the customers,� says Ali. “Taos has produced people who are mild-mannered, open, fun, and easy to talk to. It helps us to be more friendly when the locals are warm and receptive.�

Of course food cooked right is the most important rule for a favorite breakfast joint, and the Diner doesn’t screw up anything. Eggs are always just right; bacon is crispy if you ask for it, not charred; green chile turkey sausage is moist and tender; pancakes fill a big plate, never mushy in the middle, and the fruit is fresh. A white board on the south wall announces three creative breakfast specials every day. Ali or Robert or Clarissa or Cora will be coming by with fresh coffee before you take two slurps out of your mug.

As soon as we were seated last Sunday and started talking to Lynn and Pam, two groups from the Pueblo came in and took tables in the newer half of the restaurant. Somebody got up to squeeze the shoulder of a friend or neighbor at another table; a new party of Anglos came in and sat by the Pueblo folks and chatting broke out; then Richard and Jamie came in, a couple Donna knows from Search and Rescue, so we went over to talk with them on our way out.

The Taos Diner is open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., seven days a week. The fact that the people who run it are open to having fun while they work makes the Diner my favorite place.

Email Steve about your favorite breakfast place at sfox@nets.com