Michael’s Kitchen

Michael’s Kitchen is bustling this morning, and we wait in a short line before the delightful, slightly harried hostess seats us. We pass the pastry counter on the way in: It’s chock full of glistening doughnuts and other drool-inducing pastries, including what looks like the tastiest cinnamon bun in Taos.

A sweet bun with a steak knife

The Cinnamon Buns come in plain, fruit-filled and raisin. We go for one of the plain to start. It’s warm, soft and doughy, less cinnamon-y than most and with a simple, sugary frosting. It’s so big it comes with a steak knife. 

The huevos in huevos rancheros are buried — or rather, smothered — beneath homemade green chile with bits of beef. The kitchen offers a vegetarian green as well. You will find a house corn tortilla under there somewhere, as well as pinto beans, cheese … and the two over-easy eggs.

The Breakfast Enchilada shows an interesting twist on a diner classic. The fill corn tortillas with scrambled eggs, diced onions, shredded cheddar cheese and green chiles. On the side comes a tomato-y rice and a small bowl of super fresh pinto beans.

Finally, we get Martin’s Breakfast Burrito. It is quite large, and smothered in both red and green chile. The soft flour tortilla is full of scrambled eggs, bits of salty bacon, cheddar, diced green chile and shredded hash browns. 

Decades of happy diners

Coffee and water refills are fast and plentiful, and the waitstaff has an extremely pleasant way about them. Many have been here long before the restaurant was named Michael’s. 

Originally built in the 1940s and named Spivey’s, the restaurant changed hands in 1972, when Michael Ninneman and his then-wife Carol stumbled upon it while on vacation. They made a life-changing decision to move their family from California to Taos. For three years, they tested recipes, then opened Michael’s much to the town’s delight. 

Michael would eventually sell the business to his step-daughter and her husband, but they didn’t tell anyone because nothing would change. As owners Gina and Derek say, it’s not about them, but what the restaurant offers Taos: reliable, comforting breakfast and tasty pastries from a kind, efficient kitchen.