EMMA PATTERSON, A 29-YEAR-OLD professional skier, never set out to build a restaurant. “It was never like, Oh, this is our ultimate goal,” she says of Rio Lucero Farms, which she and her father, Doug Patterson, have run on the outskirts of Taos for 15 years. Instead, the farm grew incrementally until its harvest outpaced the farmers’ market, and Emma began selling produce at a Wednesday roadside stand outside her mom Page Patterson’s former ceramics studio in El Prado. From there, she says, the business “just blew up.” 

Now the studio houses the Rio Lucero Farms market and cafe, opened in June, where the family’s bounty takes center stage. Inside the bright, airy space, tall windows look out on the farm. Fridges near the walk-up counter brim with just-picked bok choy, snap peas, turnips, and kale, while dramatic bouquets of black dahlias, bright orange zinnias, and spiky snapdragons fill mason jars by the register. 

Specialty drinks include a lavender latte and vivid blue butterfly-pea iced tea, while a grab-and-go case holds burritos and sandwiches. Pastries change daily, from blueberry hand pies and gluten-free raspberry-chocolate-chip muffins to savory turkey-and-zucchini hot pockets, but the fan-favorite chocolate tahini cookies never leave. A gift shop rounds out the offerings with trendy farm merch, Los Poblanos Inn & Organic Farm skincare products, artist-drawn greeting cards, and Taos Hum hot sauce.

The restaurant and farm shop are the latest evolution of a family property nearly 30 years in the making. Doug, an architect, spent four years gutting and rebuilding the former ceramics studio. During construction, the family discovered evidence of an even earlier incarnation: an old gas station, with original railroad-tie framing and car jacks still sunk in the floor. Doug preserved parts of that history while reinforcing the building with steel beams and wrapping it in reclaimed barnwood. The structure reads as a new-build modern farmhouse, with handcrafted wood furniture made by Emma’s younger brother, Jon Clay Patterson; wood-shingle siding; soaring rooflines; and a patio overlooking the fields. 

The farm itself runs on strict science. Emma holds a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and applies it directly to the soil: no tilling, crop rotations mapped three years out, and beds re-amended after every harvest. By her estimate, 99 percent of the vegetables served at the restaurant come straight from Rio Lucero Farms.

Chef Andrea Meyer’s Harvest Bowl layers sautéed greens over ancient grains (rye, farro, Sonoran wheat berries, red jasmine rice) with maple and pecans and a choice of spicy chicken and broth or tofu and miso. The Farmer Doug stacks bacon, a fried egg, cheddar, and green chile on a sesame roll, while a cast-iron German apple-sage pancake arrives lemon-bright with seasonal fruit, yogurt, and piñon nuts. 

Above the espresso bar, a hand-painted sign from the Land Institute co-founder Wes Jackson sums up the new space’s ethos: When people, land, and community are as one, all three members prosper. “This is a community thing,” Emma says. “It’s giving back, not trying to take from it.” 

RIO LUCERO FARMS

1208 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, El Prado; riolucerofarms.com