The road to Madrid reveals why Highway 14 is called the Turquoise Trail, especially in fall. The rain has been kind to northern New Mexico this summer and as we reach the tail end of the harvest season, it’s striking how much it has affected the higher elevations. As I headed north through Cedar Crest in late August, the landscape was a mixture of serene blue and green, a Turquoise Trail indeed.

I’ve been traveling to Madrid more and more over the years because the town’s eccentric nature speaks to me. Whether it’s for CrawDaddy Blues Fest or the annual Christmas parade, the eclectic village always seems ready to party and raise your spirits. Live music seemingly plays on a continuous loop on this stretch of the highway. On any given weekend you will find bikers, desert hipsters, and hippies converging in the village. Not quite equidistant between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the village does sit between the two cities, making it kind of hard to tell who’s coming and going to where. Judging by the amount of cars parked in the mountain town on a typical weekend, all, regardless of their point of origin, tend to agree that Madrid has much to offer. It’s gotten to the point where you can find humorous signage warning visitors not to park in certain areas, and a local entrepreneur has taken to offering five-dollar public parking in the few open spaces left.

When I arrive in Madrid, I immediately go into Wi-Fi mode; cell service ranges from unreliable to nonexistent, which can provide a comical experience if you’re trying to communicate via phone with someone within the village. Tip: You’ll have to hop from Wi-Fi network to Wi-Fi network, courtesy of the town’s few restaurants, to do that. There are no hotels in Madrid, but a few Airbnbs are available, with advance planning, for the adventurous. The village itself is small enough that once you are ensconced into a cozy Airbnb, you can walk to any of the three main destinations for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Starting with breakfast and lunch, Refinery 14 fills that slot nicely. In the space that once housed The Hollar, Refinery 14 is still finding its footing—refining itself, so to speak. I spoke with many of the locals in their galleries and shops, and they are all pulling for the place, probably because it is one of only two real restaurant options in town. Weather permitting, it’s hard to resist their fantastic patio, but an interior dining room is available as well.

I was too late for breakfast, so I opted for their New Mexican take on the Cuban sandwich, something Refinery 14 calls, naturally, The New Mexican: a roast pork and sliced ham sandwich with pickled Hatch chiles and monterey jack cheese with house chips. Service wasn’t spot on, but the sandwich was as satisfying a Cuban as I’ve had in New Mexico, and the green chiles added a nice flavor without being so hot as to overwhelm the pork, ham, and cheese. For some reason, I was intrigued by a drink called The Bitter Orange and I had to order it. The Bitter Orange arrived with a generous selection of floating orange slices surrounded by equally plentiful small ice cubes. Visually, the combination really worked, and in addition to the aesthetics of the drink, the pairing of soda water and orange bitters with the fresh fruit hit the spot with a nice balance of citrus, sour, coolness, and bitter. I’ll go back up to the mountain for another one of those. 

While some go to gallery hop or boot shop, you can’t really say you visited Madrid unless you pay a visit to The Mine Shaft Tavern. A popular destination for live music, the Mine Shaft is also the town’s other restaurant (the kitchen is open from 11:30 am to 8 or 9 pm, depending on the day of the week). This particular night, my friend Bud was playing pedal steel with a local New Mexican honky tonk band, so I grabbed a table and ordered up my go-to when I’m at the Mine Shaft: the Mad Chile Burger, made with roasted Hatch chile, chipotle dijonaise, and aged cheddar. I always upgrade to the New Mexico Wagyu, which, according to my server, is sourced from a place about “five miles down the road,” and it’s always worth it. The plate comes with a generous portion of fries with great seasoning and two chile rellenos, in case you didn’t feel like you got your chile fix from the burger.

The morning drive back always calls for coffee from Java Junction. It is the lone shop in the village that is dedicated solely to coffee (well, almost; they also serve pastries and offer lodging in the form of a pet-friendly suite). If the Mine Shaft is Madrid’s evening living room where you have dinner, the drinks flow, and music plays, Java Junction is Madrid’s morning community kitchen, where people recover and discuss community happenings as they nurse their coffee.

There’s no indoor seating, but the patio is really where you want to be anyway, both for people watching and (especially if you’re coming up from Albuquerque or farther south) soaking up the cooler weather that higher elevations provide. The coffee is sourced from Aroma Coffee of Santa Fe and the espressos are from illy, so you can be certain you are drinking good stuff while you take in the local flavor. There is plentiful merch inside, including Java Junction tees that say, “Bad Coffee Sucks,” which everyone would surely agree upon. As with the Mine Shaft, I consider a stop at Java Junction quintessential to a true Madrid visit.

To the chagrin of some locals and the satisfaction of many others, the village is about to get slightly larger, with more amenities arriving in the coming months (think brewery), so it will be fascinating to observe the next iteration of this tiny community of creatives up in the mountains. Change is inevitable, and everything I’ve observed in the last few years has been positive. If the community can walk the fine line of sustaining the character of the village while navigating the tricky terrain of expansion, Madrid will have even more to offer in the coming years.

Jason Asenap
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Jason Asenap is a Comanche and Muscogee writer and filmmaker based in Albuquerque. You can find his writing in Variety, Esquire, Alta Journal, Grist, High Country News, Salon, and New Mexico Magazine.