Wild Horse Restaurant and Saloon, 309 W. McKeown Ave., Patagonia. Open 10am-8pm Tuesdays through Thursdays, 10am-9pm Fridays, 8am- 9pm Saturdays and 8am-8pm Sundays. Closed Mondays. Reservations accepted. Phone: (520) 394-2344.
The clientele may have changed over time, but a constant among diners at the Wild Horse Restaurant and Saloon is the desire for a hot meal.
Cyclists, birders, hikers: they find their way to the cheerful dining room at the Stage Stop Inn in Patagonia. Some are guests of the inn. Others are one-offs, dropping in as part of an area day trip.
“We make everyone feel comfortable,” said Maria Gonzalez, the restaurant’s food service manager. She accomplishes this through familiar fare and rural friendliness.
First, food.
The ‘something-for-everyone’ menu includes American and Mexican favorites. Let’s start with huevos rancheros for breakfast, a winning combination of eggs, tortilla, green chili and cheese. This traditional large morning dish was first served on farms in Mexico but is now a favorite on both side of the border.
For lunch, an Arizona burger with its handmade beef patty topped with Swiss cheese, bacon, green chili and barbecue sauce. The burger is a holdover from The Home Plate, an establishment operated in that same location by Mike Slenk. (Slenk noted the name came from a swank establishment owned by Cincinnati Reds’ catcher Johnny Bench. Get it? “Home” as in cooking, and “plate” as in, well, plate.)
For dinner, how about the flat iron, a 12-ounce steak cooked to order and lathered with caramelized onions, bleu cheese or sauteed mushrooms.
“The burgers are a big seller,” Gonzalez said. So is the Mexican food as her Sinaloa/Sonoran heritage makes preparing such dishes practically genetic.
Augmenting the food is the level of hospitality diners experience when they walk through the door. You see, Wild Horse is a family affair. Owners are Lynne and Gerry Isaac, a husband-and-wife team living in Patagonia who took over in 2010. As to the Gonzalez family, daughters Destiny and Desiree work alongside their mom. And until her untimely death in 2022, so did Cenovia Mayer, the family matriarch. It was from her that Gonzalez grabbed the reins—an appropriate analogy given the history of the building.
Constructed in 1969 by Anne and Floyd Stradling, the brick complex included a hotel, restaurant and museum dedicated to the horse—the latter being a particular passion of Anne’s. Previously a general store owned by a Valenzuela family member stood at the site, an adobe structure that fell to the wrecking ball of progress.
That progress, it’s been written, came at the suggestion of John Wayne, a friend of the Stradlings who starred in area movies. And while the western wave of films may have passed, in 2023, the restaurant and inn experienced an influx of actors with the filming of A Cowboy Christmas Romance.
“We got to interact” with the crew, Gonzalez said. A side dining area, generally reserved for meetings or large parties, became the hair and make-up room. At least for a month or so the excitement of Hollywood returned to Patagonia.
Experiences like that are not an everyday, or year, occurrence. Mostly it’s tourists and locals who scooch their chairs under dining room tables. Kim Padilla figures into that latter group. She has two favorites, the cheese enchiladas and the club sandwich not, of course, at the same time. Spouse Ricardo is partial to the bacon cheddar burger.
“We did a tailgate party there,” Padilla said, noting the competing teams were Cowboys and the 49ers. “It was awesome,” she said. And it speaks to the family atmosphere that “outsiders enjoyed it was much as we did.”
Chili con Carne
(From the upcoming cookbook La Cocina de Cenovia)
2 lbs. chuck roast, medium diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion
1/2 tsp. Mexican oregano
1//2 tsp. ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. salt or to liking
1/2 tsp. black pepper
12 dried Santa Cruz chiles
In medium stock pot boil meat, 1/4 of onion, bay leaves, and two quarts water on medium for 3 hours or 30 in minutes in pressure cooker. Drain meat and set broth aside.
Toast chiles and onion on medium until half chard. When done, place in blender adding cumin, oregano, salt, pepper and broth from meat. Blend until pureed and add to meat in a medium skillet on medium heat simmer for 10 minutes and enjoy in a burrito or with some Spanish rice and refried beans. Makes four large burritos.