The waitress sets a mug of black coffee next to my menu on the diner-style table, three steps from the kitchen. It’s my first visit to Tsar Bucks at Golden Girls Café, making me an anomaly this weekday morning, and I’m soaking in the small-town vibes. Just as the café’s door swings open, my server—who is also the server—greets the entering patron by name, then grabs a menu from the pass-through and hands it to him as he settles into a chair by the window.

Picking up the coffee, I glance around and find a packet of powdered creamer at the center of the blue vinyl–covered table. After stirring and taking my first warm sip, I scan the breakfast options, drooling over the idea of either French toast or the country breakfast with biscuits and gravy plus two eggs and bacon or sausage. Pointing out to my husband, Brent, that the chicken-fried steak breakfast is available today, I decide on the item listed first: huevos rancheros with hash browns and beans.

Another man walks in and has a quiet exchange with the waitress before tying on an apron and joining her in the kitchen. They work alongside each other like they’ve been doing it all their lives. Later, I meet the father-daughter pair: owner Rick Roberts and his daughter Amanda Roberts. Rick, born and raised in Glenwood, opened Tsar Bucks at Golden Girls Café about a year and a half ago, in late 2023. Amanda, a nurse by trade, runs it with him.

A community of fifty-four people in southwestern New Mexico, Glenwood was founded in 1878. The village, originally a base for miners, now serves as a pitstop and retreat for outdoor recreationists. Birders, anglers, hunters, stargazers, and hikers frequently travel through, whether for the day or for a rustic getaway at one of several campgrounds in the area. The nearby (and recently rebuilt) Catwalk National Recreation Trail alone draws forty thousand visitors per year.

A long ways from anywhere, Glenwood is sixty miles from Silver City (population 9,377), sixty miles from Clifton, Arizona (population 3,780), and sixty miles from Alpine, Arizona (population 103). The neighboring communities of Cliff (population 132) and Alma (population 47) sit thirty-two miles and five miles away, respectively.

The town feels as sleepy as ever on this Friday morning. Pulling in, we parked in a dirt turnout under a cottonwood tree alongside Highway 180. The neon “Open” sign glowed in the window of Tsar Bucks, and the marquee out front boasted “Fresh Homemade Pie!” A rustic sign labeling the building as Golden Girls Café reads “Best Breakfast in Town” and lists operating hours that cannot be interpreted as accurate, as the sign dates to different owners. 

Tsar Bucks advertises being open four days a week—Thursday through Sunday—between 7 am and 10 am and again from 4 pm to 7 pm. “But we’re planning to be open more in the daytime,” Rick says, “for the travelers.”

In the kitchen, he cooks my eggs over easy to perfection, laying them over a bed of corn tortillas and a generous pour of rich red chile sauce. Simultaneously, he whips up Brent’s cheese omelet and the other customer’s biscuits and gravy. 

Once Amanda serves everyone and refills our coffee (nothing fancy, but brewed right and steaming hot), Rick sits down in the dining room to chat. He takes the chair across from the other patron, a volunteer firefighter who rents a mobile home from him. The two of them prove a wealth of local knowledge.

In between bites of chile and eggs (along with sips of water to counter the spice), I ask about things to do and people to meet in the village. Roberts hands me a printed events calendar, a newsletter compiled for residents and visitors to Glenwood. The 8×11 sheet lists activities at the library, the community center, and the park. They suggest stopping into the Glenwood Trading Post (a gas station, motel, and general store where locally made skin care products and handmade gifts can be found and where the kids can pick up a frozen treat). The two also endorse staying overnight at Los Olmos Lodge (except for this weekend because a wedding is scheduled) and checking out the Glenwood Fish Hatchery, where Gila trout are raised.

Rick recommends the Glenwood farmers market, due to open any day now, and says even the Glenwood Street Market on Saturdays is a good source for local fruit and fruit preserves. Answering a question he often gets from visitors, Rick reports that the Glenwood Tavern is the only place around to get liquor, and it’s open just three days a week. But farther up the road, he says, hungry people can get more fresh-baked desserts and downhome cooking at the Alma Grill, which his sister runs. Brent and I decide immediately to indulge in a tasty detour before trekking home to Silver City. Though our bellies were about bursting, our taste buds were already salivating again. We paid up and hightailed it in the direction of dessert.

📍5106 US 180, Glenwood, 575-539-2536

Sparsely populated but generously fed: Other places to eat in the more remote parts of Grant and Catron counties

Breakfast and burgers are the go-to at Alma Store & Grill, also in Catron County. Chow down while pouring over the Alma Grill Brand Display albums. Area ranchers and visitors alike share their unique identifiers alongside their names, their place of residency, and the type of animals they care for. These books are a piece of Southwest history and a living record of the ongoing agricultural endeavors that sustain our hunger for quality food. If you’re not too distracted by the reading material, remember to order a doughy, oversize cinnamon roll warmed up or cherry cobbler à la mode. Adjoined with the daily-open Alma Store, the Alma Grill serves diners from 7 am to 3 pm every day except Thursday.

📍4592 US 180, Alma, 575-539-2233

“Every morning, sometimes twice,” Becky Long bakes. The owner of Gila Valley Deli & Bakery churns out French loaves, cinnamon rolls, and turnovers along with cookies—oatmeal raisin, macadamia nut, peanut butter, or chocolate chip. But “the baked goods are not the focal point,” she emphasizes. 

Long’s deli sandwiches are assembled on the daily-baked bread, and the breakfast burritos (egg and cheese with sausage, bacon, or chorizo) sell out quickly. “We also do burgers and pizzas, sometimes a pulled pork sandwich special,” Long says. “All our ingredients are prepared fresh. We don’t over-chop things. I wouldn’t want to go somewhere and have somebody put wilted lettuce or an old tomato on my plate.” 

Without tables to sit at, the deli and bakery sells everything to go—perfect for peckish travelers on a lonely stretch of highway or hikers who forgot to pack a picnic for their visit to nearby Box Canyon. “We’re the only place around,” Long says.

The Gila Valley Deli & Bakery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm and Sunday from 8:30 am to 3 pm. 

📍8409 US 180 W, Cliff 88028, 575-535-2156