By Jo Mixon
The Pub owners Steve and Shelley Larson
After ten months of renovation, The Pub ‘n Grub at 52 North Angel Fire Road opened for business on Dec 7, 2012. Stylishly elegant in design, yet warm and casual, The Pub is a full service family friendly restaurant. Owner Shelley Larson’s personal interest in old English and historical “Williamsburg” cooking, gave her a desire to create an English Pub atmosphere for her venue. Most of the Pub’s recipes are from the Daughter’s of the American Revolution cookbooks. The menu has standard pub foods such as Shepherd’s Pie, Fish and Chips, and Chicken Pot Pie. It also includes rib eye steak, pasta dishes, crab cakes, salads, and a variety of burgers. Everything on the menu is homemade. In the mornings, the aroma of fresh baked bread fills the air from their kitchen. Even the burger buns are made fresh daily. Nightly specials are written on a chalkboard where you enter at the top of the stairs. On Tuesday the special is a $15.00 Rib Eye Steak. Thursday is pasta night. Friday enjoy the fish fry specials and on Saturday look for a beef or chicken special. And they don’t leave out the kids, Bear Lindsey who was enjoying a boy’s night out with his dad, ordered the macaroni and cheese. I ordered a crab cake. It was deliciously prepared with just the right amount of spice. And for the dessert lover, choose from an array of decadent sweets at low costs ranging between $2.50 and $5.00.
The food menu is the primary focal point, but the Pub also has a great variety of adult drinks and kids drinks. Along with their nice wine menu, there are twenty taps behind the bar. Nineteen are craft beers (their preference is on local breweries) and one tap is Way Too Cool Root Beer from a local New Mexico root beer brewer. It made me want a root beer float. I decided to try and wait until my grandson visits this summer to indulge! And we’ll enjoy it on their newly remolded deck. This outdoor area seats twenty people and is equipped with propane heaters.
Shelley was very excited to tell me about her new partner, Chef Jarred Johnson, who is also her son-in-law. Her prediction is together they will turn the Pub into one of the most frequented and sought after establishments in the entire Moreno Valley. Not only is Jarred bringing two decades of experience to the restaurant, he is bringing Shelley’s daughter and granddaughter with him. They will be in Angel Fire on Wednesday. She couldn’t be happier!
Shelley quit her job and moved to Angel Fire last June but she and husband Steve have been property owners here for four years. Steve’s job gave him the flexibility to live where-ever he chose and the mountains were more desirable to him than the hotter climate of Albuquerque. They like to purchase homes in need of upgrades and restore them together. This was their mission when they purchased property in Angel Fire. Steve became a full time resident almost immediately to work on the properties, but Shelley remained in Albuquerque until their house sold. Her career was in the environmental science field. The last twenty years she has worked in Industrial Health and Safety. She was employed by the state of Virginia when she and Steve met. His job kept bringing him to New Mexico for many months at a time until in 2007 they decided to move. Shelley had never been to New Mexico until then, but she said the moment she stepped off the airplane, she felt at home. They are both avid outdoor enthusiasts, so Angel Fire was a natural progression for them. Steve is 100% involved as co-owner of the Pub plus he owns and operates another business he recently opened in Angel Fire….. that’s another story, so hold that thought!
If you haven’t eaten at the Pub n’grub yet, check it out you won’t be disappointed. They will be open week days from 3:30 pm to 9:00 pm and week ends from 3:30 pm to 10:00 pm, closed on Wednesdays, for the remainder of the ski season. During April and May they will be open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for dinner and Sunday for lunch. On the Memorial Day weekend the Pub will launch its summer schedule opening for lunch and dinner everyday except Wednesday.
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