The warnings are still up, but so far it hasn’t been bad here at all. The wind blows here normally, and dust happens, but nothing big yet.
The New Mexican Tourism group provides a map of places to get green chili cheeseburgers, most of which are Blake’s Lotaburger stores. Lotaburger is almost entirely a New Mexico chain, clean, white, and brightly lit, selling the ubiquitous burgers, shakes, and fries. Their version is a regular cheeseburger with chopped green peppers on it, making it just barely something different from the industrial burger found everywhere in America.
The best burger in New Mexico is designed from the bottom up to be a green chili cheeseburger. The Owl Cafe in San Antonio (NM) has the best, and it has one characteristic that sets a good burger apart from the others: it’s very juicy and messy, amongst other design features that make these things special. But Sparky’s in Hatch might well be a contender for the number 1 title. I ate it with knife and fork, the only way to get it off the plate because of the mess.
I’ll be back in NM this fall, and as well as the burgers I’ll be looking for breakfast burritos. Those lucky enough to attend the balloon festival know these things well.