Bobcat Bite is a restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 located in Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 off of the historic Old Las Vegas Highway. Bobcat Bite specializes in steak

Steak

A steak is a cut of meat . Most are cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, improving the perceived tenderness of the meat. In North America, steaks are typically served grilled, pan-fried, or broiled. The more tender cuts from the loin and rib are cooked quickly, using dry heat, and served whole...

, chop

Meat chop

A meat chop is a cut of meat cut perpendicularly to the spine, and usually containing a rib or riblet part of a vertebra and served as an individual portion. The most common kinds of meat chops are pork and lamb. A thin boneless chop, or one with only the rib bone, may be called a cutlet, though...

s, and hamburger

Hamburger

A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

s.

Origins

The historic building that houses Bobcat Bite was originally a trading post

Trading post

A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

. Later it became a gun shop until Rene Clayton converted it into a restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

. Her daughter, Mitzi Panzer, operated the restaurant starting in 1953. Since then owners have included Don and Millie Cowell, Don and Shelba Surls, Bob and Judy Amos, and the current owners, John and Bonnie Eckre.

The name refers to accounts wherein bobcat

Bobcat

The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...

s were known to come down from the nearby foothills

Foothills

Foothills are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills to the adjacent topographically high mountains.-Examples:...

 and visit "bobcat friendly" diner

Diner

A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...

s that would serve the animals fresh scraps.

Menu

Menu

Menu

In a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....

 items include hamburger

Hamburger

A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

s, cheeseburger

Cheeseburger

A cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese that has been added to it. Traditionally, the cheese is placed on top of the patty, but the burger can include many variations in structure, ingredients, and composition...

s, Bobcat Bite's famous Green chile Cheeseburger, chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

 sandwiches, assorted grilled sandwiches, 10 oz. New York strip steak, a 15 oz. hamburger steak, pork chop

Pork chop

A pork chop is a cut of pork cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra, served as an individual portion.-Variations:...

s, a 16 oz. ham steak and a 13 oz. rib eye steak.

Atmosphere

The exterior of the restaurant is a pink adobe

Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...

 building with traditional Southwestern

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 style paintings of kachina

Kachina

A kachina is a spirit being in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices. The western Pueblo, Native American cultures located in the southwestern United States, include Hopi, Zuni, Tewa Village , Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo. The kachina cult has spread to more eastern Pueblos, e.g....

 like figures painted on each side of the door. The restaurant's famously tiny capacity only sits 24. At the entrance hangs a dry erase board where those waiting to dine must write down their party's name and size. As a table becomes available the name is erased and the party is invited to enter.

The inside of Bobcat Bite's walls are prominently decorated with pictures of wild bobcat

Bobcat

The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...

s. The restaurant offers unique hours, serving customers from 11:00 AM to 7:50PM mountain standard time Tuesday through Saturday.

Publicity

Bobcat Bite is well known among citizens, visitors and tourists of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

, and has been featured in several articles

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

, including those in the Albuquerque Journal

Albuquerque Journal

-History:Its earliest predecessor, the Albuquerque Daily Journal, was first published on October 14, 1880. The newspaper is owned by the Journal Publishing Company, a family-owned business headed by president/publisher T.H. Lang; it is operated by the Albuquerque Publishing Company...

, the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

, and The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

. Bobcat Bite also appeared in the 2004 documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 Hamburger America, and was mentioned in the Food Network

Food Network

Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....

's program, "Top American Restaurants: Bon Appétit picks the best", hosted by Alton Brown

Alton Brown

Alton Crawford Brown is an American television personality, author, actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats and the mini-series Feasting on Asphalt and Feasting on Waves, and he is the host and main commentator on Iron Chef America...

, in 2007.

Awards

Bobcat Bite's burgers, specifically the green chile cheeseburger, have won many local, national, and international awards.

• GQ magazine listed Bobcat Bite at #12 on its list of "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before you Die".
• The Santa Fe Reporter awarded Bobcat Bite with "Best Burger" in 2002, 2003, and 2004.