CANCELED: Cowden Cafe Grand Opening Barbecue buffet and a Cowden Ranch lecture

The barbecue-and-live-music portion of this event has been postponed while the Cowden Cafe operators repair fire damage to their historic Plaza Cafe. In the meantime, the Cowden Cafe is open for business, serving soup, sandwiches, salads, luscious desserts and gourmet coffees from 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Sunday. Customers don’t have to be paid museum visitors if they enter through the Washington Avenue doors. Show your support for the Plaza Café by dropping by for lunch or a snack.

Author Michael Pettit’s lecture that was to accompany the grand opening has been rescheduled for 2 pm on Sept. 26 in the History Museum Auditorium. Pettit, a great-grandson of the Cowden family ranchers who founded the legendary JAL Ranch (and for whom the café is named), will speak on “Historic and Contemporary Family Ranching in New Mexico.” Following his lecture, enjoy coffee and dessert featuring New Mexico-grown fruits generously provided by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.

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The History Museum’s Cowden Café, operated by the owners of the famous Plaza Cafe, celebrates its grand opening with a ranch-style barbecue with live Western music by Sid Hausman, plus a free lecture about the Cowden Ranch on Sept. 12. Take a break from the Santa Fe Fiesta to enjoy a $9.99 buffet. Feast on barbecue chicken, brisket, fruit cobbler and more on the café’s second-floor terrace from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm.

At 3:30 pm in the History Museum Auditorium, author Michael Pettit will talk about “Historic Ranching in Southeast New Mexico and Contemporary Family Ranching in New Mexico.” Pettit is a great-grandson of the Cowden family ranchers who founded the legendary JAL Ranch that at one time occupied much of what is now Lea County, east and south into Texas. Its legacy was detailed in Pettit’s book, Riding for the Brand: 150 Years of Cowden Ranching (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), which won a New Mexico Book Award for Best Southwest History. The lecture is free with museum admission. Sundays are free to NM residents.

From 1883 to 1915, the JAL Ranch (for which the southeastern town of Jal is named) was the open-range home to 40,000 head of cattle and a part of New Mexico history that included the likes of Oliver Loving, Charles Goodnight, skirmishes with Comanches, and tales of gutting out the pioneer life in dugouts and covered wagons.

“These were family ranchers; they weren’t lonely cowboys,” Pettit said. “Theirs is the story of generations of ranching, where the women and the children were critical to its success.”

Sid Hausman, who will perform during the Cowden Café barbecue, is a Tesuque-based singer-songwriter, illustrator and ranch wrangler who performs at cowboy poetry gatherings and folk festivals throughout the west. He also offers historical programs and children's workshops to museums schools and libraries.

The Cowden Café has been quietly open for the past several months, but chef Andy Razatos said it’s ready for its spotlight.

“Come enjoy the museum and, while you’re there, enjoy some great food,” he said.

The menu: barbeque chicken; carnitas (slow stewed pork); smoked beef brisket; stuffed baked potato; baked beans; ranch house cole slaw; buttermilk biscuits with fresh fruit jam; stone fruit cobbler; cowboy lemonade and coffee.

Open daily from 10 am – 4:30 pm (11am – 7 pm on Fridays), the café serves gourmet soups, sandwiches, salads and sweets, along with French-press coffee, Greek frappes, teas, lemonade and sodas (a beer-and-wine license is coming soon).  Customers don’t have to buy an admission ticket to the museum to eat at the café, if they enter through the Washington Avenue doors. Besides great food, the cafe also offers free wi-fi and an outdoor terrace with seating for up to 50 people.

Brothers Andy and Daniel Razatos own the Plaza Cafe, founded in 1905 and taken over by Dionysi Razatos in 1947. A longtime favorite among locals, tourists and the occasional celebrity, the restaurant whips up a mix of Greek, New Mexican and down-home American cuisines.