Get yourself sidetracked

In Flagstaff, a college and railroad town on a mountain surrounded by extinct volcanoes, the food scene is booming, writes Dina Mishev

college kids and professors, hippies and tourists.

Upon walking into MartAnne’s Breakfast Palace, it’s easy to wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into.

Walls are redder than a fire engine, the linoleum floors are a black-and-white chequerboard, chairs are upholstered in glittery vinyl and hanging everywhere are paintings – some on wood, others on canvas, most with Dia de los Muertos-inspired subjects and all by local artist Emma Gardner.

If the outsize decor doesn’t intimidate you, the portion sizes you’ll see coming out of the kitchen while you wait for a table will.

One order of the house speciality, chilaquiles ($9.25), fried corn tortillas tossed with green onions, cheese and scrambled eggs, and topped with chilli sauce, is enough to feed two people.

MartAnne’s might be “The House That Chilaquiles Built”, as stated on a colourful sandwich board outside the front door, but there’s so much more, whether you’re studying the menu for lunch or all-day breakfast, including Cindy G’s Posole and pork green chile, which is made from the recipe of the cook, Alice Flemons, better known as “Ms Alice”, who helmed the kitchen for five decades under three owners and for as many name changes.

Tucked into a residential neighbourhood several blocks north of Route 66 in what once was a dirt-floored, brick carriage house, Brix is fine dining without fanfare, even if it was included on Condé Nast Traveler’s “Top 95 New Restaurants in the World” list the year after it opened (2007).

Dishes change based on the season and what’s available from local producers, but generally the menu is American comfort food, executed well and with imagination, such as hibiscus and Gorgonzola ravioli accompanied by a blueberry-green chilli jam and pear sherry sauce ($24) or beef tenderloin with asparagus and foie hollandaise ($38).

When weather keeps the patio from being used, which, sadly, is more than half the year – Flagstaff ’s at 2 100m, remember, and there’s a ski resort just outside town – reservations can be tricky; there are only about eight inside tables (although there are seats at the bar).

If you can’t get in at Brix, try sister restaurant Criollo Latin Kitchen. It has the town’s best happy hour (3pm to 6pm Monday through to Friday) that includes $4 prickly pear margaritas, a Sonoran hot dog my boyfriend had to eat with a knife and fork, and pork tacos I wouldn’t share. – The Washington Post