Southwestern Decor

The building itself once housed the quarry's rock crushing machinery and has been artfully adapted. The adobe red interior is adorned with Native American pottery, wooden carvings, vivid paintings and a variety of artifacts reflecting the culture of the Southwest. Low walls of limestone separate several dining areas, with broken stone arches and rustic portico sheltering a row of cozy booths. Tables of polished pine, with sturdy, straw-seated chairs, are complemented by vases of dried flowers resting on flagstones and lit by lamps with pierced metal shades. High overhead, one can peer beyond the Southwestern surroundings up to the corrugated roof and scaffolding of the old rock crusher building.

The bar, crowned with mosaic trim, features such favorites as the "Coyote Margarita" and the "Blue Moon" (their classic Coyote Freeze and Blue Curacao combined), and sports a ceiling treatment reminiscent of wagon wheel spokes.

Distinctive Menu

The menu offers authentic Southwestern cuisine, using indigenous ingredients (including more than 200 types of chilies), with attention paid to distinctive dry spice rubs and moist pastes, as well as Canyon Cafe's signature fire-roasting, a process that brings out the full, rich flavor of chilies and peppers. Dishes are innovative while staying true to their Southwestern roots and have earned the restaurant listing on Zagat's Top American Restaurants Honor Roll. Starters range from South Texas Tortilla Soup to Pecan-Crusted Crab Cake, with fresh salads including the Pueblo House Salad and Blackened Salmon Caesar.

Popular entrées include Desert Fire Pasta (shrimp and fresh mushrooms with angel-hair pasta in a jalapeno cream sauce, topped with Parmesan cheese and pico de gallo); Southwest Chicken Piccata (chicken lightly sautéed with cilantro butter, mounded over rice atop roasted tomato sauce, all topped with tri-color tortilla strips and roasted calabasitas), and Chile Rubbed Sirloin (a mild blend of seven herbs and spices on an 11-oz. sirloin, fire-grilled and served with seared garlic spinach and herb-roasted potatoes). The restaurant offers a complete wine list, as well as its famous, non-alcoholic "Red Rock Lemonade," a delicious strawberry blend.

The Banana Burrito

The signature dessert is the incomparable Banana Burrito. This incredible edible consists of a fresh banana wrapped in a fried flour tortilla with chocolate chips, sliced in half and standing at attention on your plate in a sea of caramel sauce, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream drenched in chocolate syrup. (We are told there is no wrong way to eat it as long as you get it in your mouth!) Other taste-temping treats from the dessert menu include the Cinnamon Bunuelo (fried tortilla bowl dusted with cinnamon sugar and filled with two scoops of caramel-covered vanilla bean ice cream) and the Blueberry Cheesecake (baked with fresh blueberries and topped with berry puree).

You can extend your Canyon Cafe experience by purchasing its new cookbook, Canyon Cafe: Bringing the Southwest Experience Home. Composed of 128 pages with index and glossary of herbs and spices unique to Southwestern cuisine, the book is divided into four complete "experience" menus, one for each season. All are culinary "travels" well worth taking. From first sight to last bite, the Canyon Cafe is indeed a treat for the senses and a remarkable Southwest experience.

Canyon Cafe

in the Quarry Market

255 E. Basse Road, Suite 600

210-821-3738

Lunch:

Sun.-Sat., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Dinner:

Sun.-Thurs., 4 to 10 p.m.

Fri. & Sat., 4 to 11 p.m.