Barbecue With a View Above Albuquerque

The road into Albuquerque’s foothills begins to bend and climb near the route to the Tram, trading ordinary city blocks for a more open, elevated stretch of landscape. At the end is a barbecue restaurant where the windows look out across Albuquerque and the meal starts with warm homemade bread and honey spread.

It is a destination dinner in the pleasantly old-fashioned sense: a place that asks you to make the drive, settle in, look around, and give yourself time for more than one course. The barbecue is the reason to come, but the Western setting, roomy portions, patio seats and wide-ranging menu give the outing plenty of layers.

The approach is winding, and a missed turn can mean circling back around before trying again. There is a free on-site lot with ample parking, though, so the final arrival is simpler than the climb suggests.

Inside, the restaurant goes all in on a Western theme. The décor is dense with visual details rather than limited to a few token cowboy touches, giving the dining room a deliberately theatrical, roadside-destination character. Even the restrooms carry the theme through.

Large windows bring the setting back into view. From the right seats, Albuquerque and the surrounding landscape spread out below, a useful reminder that this is not just another barbecue stop along a commercial strip.

The entrance includes photographs of celebrities who have visited over the years, another bit of visual browsing before the food arrives. Booths, indoor tables and a bar area provide different ways to settle in, while the patio offers a more open-air option.

A front-patio table can be especially pleasant around sunset, when the view becomes an accompaniment to dinner. Patio conditions naturally depend on the weather, so the indoor room remains the reliable choice. The dining room can run cool enough that a light sweater is not a bad thing to have along.

Before getting serious about brisket and ribs, make room for the homemade bread. It comes with a honey spread or honey butter and has developed a following of its own, which is no small achievement in a restaurant built around smoke and meat.

The bread is a gentle opening to a substantial meal: soft, sweetened by the honey, and easy to keep reaching for while everyone studies the menu. It may carry an additional charge, but it is one of the small extras that gives the table a more generous feel from the start.

The central decision is how broadly to sample. Brisket, pulled pork, turkey, sausage, beef ribs and pork ribs anchor the barbecue menu, and the three-meat and five-meat combinations are made for diners who would rather compare than commit.

A three-meat platter can bring together brisket, sausage and pulled pork, or sausage, brisket and ribs, with sides rounding out the plate. For a couple or a table eager to taste across the menu, the five-meat platter opens the field even wider.

Brisket is one of the marquee choices, prized for its tender texture, smoky character and full beefy flavor. It works neatly as a standard barbecue plate, but it also shows up in less expected forms, including brisket tacos and brisket fries.

The tacos arrive as a notably ample order, one that can easily extend beyond a single sitting. Brisket fries take the same smoked-meat idea in a more indulgent direction, useful when the table wants something built for sharing rather than a conventional entrée.

Turkey deserves attention in a smokehouse lineup that could otherwise be dominated by beef and pork. Served with the restaurant’s homemade barbecue sauce, it is juicy and flavorful enough to hold its own among the richer choices.

Ribs are another strong route, available in both beef and pork versions. They bring the deeper, slower kind of barbecue meal many diners came up the hill hoping to find, while pulled pork offers a softer, shredded contrast to sliced brisket and sausage.

Sausage is not treated as an afterthought here. The County Line sausage platter is a named menu option for diners who want to put it at the center of the order rather than using it as one more item on a combination plate.

The green chile cheese sausage is the more distinctive variation. The chile-and-cheese component is noticeable, adding a New Mexico-appropriate spark to the smoky, savory sausage. It is a good choice for someone who wants heat and local flavor without straying far from barbecue tradition.

The side list gives the meal plenty of room to go creamy, crispy or comfort-food heavy. Creamed corn, beans, macaroni and cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, fried okra, loaded baked potatoes and salad all appear among the choices.

Creamed corn and beans make a particularly natural pairing with prime rib, which is served with au jus. That plate steps a little outside the usual barbecue-combination formula while staying firmly in the territory of hearty American dinner-house food.

The loaded baked potato is substantial enough to deserve its own attention. Topped with real bacon, it is not a token side dish and can turn an already generous meal into a leftovers situation.

Fried okra offers the crisp counterpoint that a plate of soft, smoky meats sometimes needs. Garlic mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese take the more familiar comfort route, while a salad can be a welcome bit of freshness among all the richer choices.

The wings go through a more involved process than the usual bar snack: smoked, grilled and then fried. They arrive with ranch and blue cheese dressings described as homemade, making them an appealing starter for a table that wants something to pick at before the larger platters arrive.

Margaritas and beer are available for the drink order. The larger margarita serving is genuinely large, easily stretching across several glasses, so it suits a long lunch or an unhurried dinner more than a quick stop.

The staff helps keep a large menu from becoming a puzzle. Service is welcoming and prompt, with useful menu guidance for first-time visitors navigating meat choices, platters and sides. The room has accommodated requests as particular as sitting near a television for a football game, a small sign of an operation comfortable serving diners with different agendas.

Dessert is not a dainty finale. Bread pudding, blueberry cobbler and peach cobbler are all on hand, and the portions continue the restaurant’s generous scale.

The bread pudding is notably large, a sensible choice for sharing after a five-meat platter or a meal built around ribs and loaded potatoes. Blueberry cobbler also arrives in a generous serving, while peach cobbler offers a more traditional fruit-forward finish.

Leftovers are common after combination meals, individual entrées and dessert, so there is no need to order with restraint merely for appearances. This is food meant to fill the table.

The mix of booths, tables, bar seating and patio space makes the restaurant workable for couples, families and larger groups. Parties of nine or more have found room, and a larger lunch group does not look out of place in a dining room built around platters and passing sides.

Reservations can vary with the day and time. Some meals have been planned ahead, while others have begun with immediate seating, so the rhythm is not rigidly one way or the other.

Live music has occasionally brought old country tunes into the room, an easy fit for the Western surroundings. It is a bonus when it happens, not something to count on. The dependable pleasures are the winding foothills drive, the big-window view, the honeyed bread, and enough smoked meat to make choosing just one thing seem unnecessary.