A time to eat — and mourn: Otto's Barbeque (Houston) is calling it quits

Houston Chronicle ^ | 12/8/07 | Allan Turner

[T-Bird45]

Love NM green chile cheeseburgers, too - best I had was somewhere out on a backroad between Santa Fe and maybe ... hmmm ... not sure where that little place is. Only went there with a friend who lived in that neck of the woods.

Mmmmm...I agree about the green chile cheeseburgers in NM. The place you are thinking of is probably the Bobcat -- it is on the old road to Las Vegas NM on the southeast side of Santa Fe. It has been featured on the TV as one of the best burgers in America. I stayed at a B&B just up the hill from there in the summer of 2006.

Another good place for a green chile cheeseburger is the Owl Cafe in Albuquerque NM. I will be eating one there on 12/27 en route to the Insight Bowl in Tempe AZ -- gonna go see my Oklahoma State Cowboys play the Indiana Hoosiers.

[Rte66]

Hmmm, nope - it wasn’t either one of those. I know where the Bobcat Bite is, on the road to Glorieta, but that’s a big restaurant compared to the little stand I was talking about.

Most of my backroad meandering has been north of SF. When driving in, we usually turned off the Mother Road (I-40, lol) at Clines Corners, so that’s where most of my “south of SF” experience has been.

Otherwise, when driving, I’ve more often gone through the pass into Taos and then south (TX Panhandle to Clayton to Springer to Cimarroncita, where my daddy’s Boy Scout camp was when he was young - old habits die hard!).

I’ve only gone from SF to Las Vegas twice and I know this stand wasn’t on that road. I’ve eaten there maybe 4-5 times, so it has to be in the areas I first said.

I don’t think I’ve eaten at the Owl Cafe and it sounds like I would remember it if I had! Lots of ABQ visits over the years and lots of food eaten.

Good luck to your Pokes - and wish my Sooners the same!

[Rte66]

Ha ha! I have no idea where that might have been. Wish I had all my Rte66 books here with me, but they’re in storage. I could tell ya right now where that was.

Somehow in my memory, I associate those old dinosaur billboards (I do remember them) with some caverns or a cave. I wonder if it was near Meramec Caverns in MO.

Otherwise, it was probably in AZ somewhere and I don’t know all the ins and outs going that way - though I have driven it several times in my lifetime, just not lately.

I’ve been wracking my brain over the cowboy hat-shaped diner. I’m just not sure where that might have been. The Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo isn’t shaped funny, but it’s memorable.

I’ll have to think about that one some more.