Farm and Table Restaurant, North Valley. Photo by Patrick

Restaurants are typically a difficult business to get into. A successful restaurant must have three important things to thrive. First, a restaurant must have a comfortable environment that is warm and welcoming for all customers. Secondly, a restaurant should have reasonable prices, so that people don’t feel like they are paying too much for what is served to them. Above all, a successful restaurant has to have amazing food: the type of cuisine that makes your mouth explode with flavor as soon as you remove the fork from your lips, the type of food that leaves you talking for weeks after you leave.

Sol Harvest Farm Greenhouse. Photo by Patrick

Married couple, Cherie and Joseph Austin, have created something that meets these three expectations and more. Farm & Table is a new restaurant located in the North Valley of Albuquerque. What separates Farm and Table (F&T) from other food establishments is that they are dedicated to serving locally grown produce and meats to their customers. By working with a number of different farms and ranches around New Mexico, F&T is able to fill up eighty percent of its current menu with local food!  F&T’s onsite farm, Sol Harvest Farm – visible from the restaurant patio – grows for the restaurant and also for a small CSA. Additionally, the best part about F&T is that they are dedicated to the concept of community. By working with local growers, ranchers, and other local businesses, F&T showcases some of the best foods New Mexico has to offer.

Farm & Table Restaurant Interior. Photo by Patrick.

When you first walk into F&T, you instantly feel at home. The interior is decorated in a warm southwestern style: stucco walls, maroon stained cement floors, wooden tables and chairs. F&T also displays beautiful local art on their walls. The size of the main dining room isn’t very large, but this only adds to the comfortable environment. When you sit, the waiter or waitress brings a plate with two different styles of bread served with rosemary infused olive oil, made in the South Valley.

The menu is clean and easy to read, and showcases the salads, appetizers and entrées that use locally grown produce and/or meats. The back of the menu offers a little info about what is in season and what ingredients you might find on your plate. The customer can learn what locally grown produce and meats are being offered that month, as well as where the products are from. The entrées include a wide range of fine dining cuisine, with dishes such as pan-seared duck breast over an apple puree served with an asiago polenta cake and braised local cabbage, as well as a more traditional menu item like the Farm and Table burger, comprised of local grassfed beef, Tucumcari cheddar and New Mexico green chile. All dishes are priced reasonably for the quality of cuisine.

Farm & Table is doing something beautiful; the owners hold a lot of love for the state of New Mexico and its community. They are bringing back a sense of community between growers and restaurateurs. You can taste it in their cuisine. With their warm environment, reasonable prices and food that takes your breath away, it’s easy to say that Farm & Table is by far one of the best local restaurants Albuquerque has ever seen.

Posted by Patrick