Modern General Feed & Seed: the healthy brunch on Cerrillos.

Modern General Feed & Seed is on Cerrillos Road, in a stretch of town most visitors don't naturally end up in, and it's worth the small detour. It's a fantastic healthy brunch option — great juices, avocado toast, real coffee, and the kind of gluten-free options that don't taste like an apology.

The dish you don't want to skip is the Acai Teffcakes. Teff is an Ethiopian grain that takes well to a small fluffy cake — these are topped with acai and fruit, and they're the order. Pair them with their coffee in the morning and the day starts right.

What makes Modern General useful for a longer Santa Fe trip is the way it doubles up. It's a brunch spot in the morning. It's a coffee stop and pastry case in the afternoon. We've made it both bookends of a Saturday more than once — breakfast there before driving up to the trailhead, coffee there on the way back from town in the late afternoon. The room is bright and busy without being loud, and the staff move quickly.

Practical notes. Cerrillos Road is the long commercial corridor that runs from downtown southwest toward the highway, so you're not walking here from the Plaza — this is a drive. There's parking on site. Both of our houses are a short drive away on Old Las Vegas Highway, which makes it the natural stop on any day that's heading to or from Cerrillos, the south end of town, or the Albuquerque highway.

It's also the right call for any guest in your group with dietary restrictions — gluten-free, dairy-free, plant-forward. The menu was built for this, not retrofitted to it, and it shows. Combined with Revolution Bakery (also Cerrillos-adjacent, gluten-free, sells out fast), you've got a real morning routine for visitors who can't eat at half the breakfast spots in town.

If you're heading out of town for a day trip — Bandelier, Tsankawi, Ghost Ranch — fueling up here on the way is a smart move. Same goes for an Albuquerque day trip. The drive is just long enough that real food and good coffee at the start make a difference.

It's not a destination breakfast on your first Santa Fe trip — Pasqual's, Pantry Rio, and Clafoutis are the names you'll see on every list. But for anyone staying a week, or anyone with dietary needs, or anyone who just wants a morning that's not about chile and tortillas, Modern General is the answer.