After spending over 4 hours buying a new car on MacDowell, my husband and I were starving and ready for a nice big drink! He had the idea to backtrack to Carlsbad Tavern; the perfect spot to unwind, relax and enjoy some great food.
We sat at the bar (late afternoon and the place was pretty empty) and the bartender was delightful! Also, a couple of the servers were off duty and sat down to chat. We enjoyed the banter and the obvious friendship and felt priviledged to be included!
They have a nice happy hour menu (early 'bat' specials, ha ha) with appetizers and drink specials. But we went straight for the blue corn enchiladas (one chicken and one shrimp is how they come, but you can have them other ways) on their regular menu. Delicious! And the margaritas are really good...tart with lots of lime, not like those extra sweet ones you sometimes get in Mexican restaurants. The menu includes other New Mexican specialties and burgers that are supposed to be out of this world.
We inhaled our food (and a couple margaritas!) and felt so much better driving home in the new car!