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Madison Toledo
16 October 2023
ENGLISH 1110
MWA2: Grandma's Restaurant

Grandma’s restaurant is a part of a complex. The building had a new paint job. It’s
connected to Bashas and that’s the only place where we have a grocery store and the small
businesses. Since it’s a small town the complex is all we have within a two hour drive to Gallup
or Farmington. It’s located three doors down from Bashas. The restaurant itself is located in my
hometown called Crownpoint. Crownpoint is between Thoreau and Farmington that’s if you ever
gone through. Or if you make your way to Farmington you pass Crownpoint. I’ve been to this
restaurant many times and they never disappointed me.

As you walk in the restaurant you see “Help Wanted” and the hours the facility is open.
You walk into the restaurant and you see empty tables with a couple people sitting down eating
or eating chips and salsa. You get to seat yourself either at a table or one of the booths. When you
find yourself a place to sit the waiters come over with a basket of chips and salsa. The waiter will
ask you what you like to drink. As you sit and wait you look around to see paintings hanging on
the walls. On one of the walls there is a painting of a black bull and a bull rider. Other parts of
the walls you have native designed painting. For some reason when you look towards the back
where the cooks are there are two big sombreros. When you look towards the front where the
checkout is, there’s a painting that represents the name of the restaurant. The windows are a little
dusty and a couple dead flies are sitting on the window seal but it’s the REZ of course you're
going to have a couple dead flies. They're better dead than flying around buzzing at you as you
eat.
The basket of chips is good and the salsa is very hot at times. As you sit there with your
menu you have good options. On the menu you have many good options with little sections. You
have your classic burgers; grilled cheese; salads;chili dogs. Then you have nice options with
different dinners. You have a classic steak dinner, Pork chops, shrimp dinners, lamb chops, and
Ripeye dinners. If you don’t want any of these you also have a big section of different burrito
choices, that vary from your breakfast burritos to your burritos with ground beef and beans. Like
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every other restaurant you have your choice of tacos, enchiladas and tamales. If it's your first
time here you have the section that says “YA-TA-HEY Crownpoint” with special dishes to try
such as: Stuffed Sopapilla; Navajo Tacos; Chili Burger and Navajo Burger. You have the choice
to also smoother your dish of choice in green or red chili. For the kiddos you have good options
between Chicken tenders and fries; kids cheese burger; hot dogs and my all time favorite when I
don’t want something big is a bowl of Mac and Cheese.

After deciding what you want to eat the waiters will take your order and take it to the
cook in the back. The cook is pretty chill and his name is Gary. The waiters are nice and the
service is fast. The waiters are people that I graduated with or seen during my time in school. No
hate or shade on them because everyone chooses different paths in life. In the next 10-15 minutes
your food will be brought out. The food is always smothered in Red or Green chili if you like it
to have chili. In my opinion my go to choice is the Chili dog or Green Chili Cheese fries.

Some feedback that I heard about the restaurant is since it’s really the only restaurant
within the small town of crownpoint it’s decent. It’s good to have a place to sit down and eat
other than having Bashas deli food. The food is always fresh and the food is good. The prices
aren’t too bad, they range from 9.50 to 15.00 dollars. The grandmas and Cheii’s always have
money to eat at Grandma's Restaurant especially first of the month or early mornings. But
knowing a Native, they always want more and something better. They don’t really appreciate
what we have within the small town. I know not many really enjoy Grandma’s depending on the
cook or how they treat the staff. But in my opinion I always love the food and it’s always nice to
sit down and eat dinner with my dad.

If you don’t feel like cooking dinner or you’re tired of Bashas deli, Grandma's Restaurant
is the best to go. First thing you hear when you walk in is KGAK playing on the radio. Or
someone plays their music that travels all around from the kitchen to the customers sitting down.
Depending on the time of the day, you could have many people sitting down talking to each other
or you could have the Grandmas and Grandpas sitting together drinking coffee talking navajo.
Everyone Is welcomed even if you're new to the place or if you’re a regular customer. The
people are nice, the food is good and the vibes are always positive.
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The complex has been around for years but Grandma's restaurant was built within the
complex five to six years ago. I remember the place under construction and closed off to the
public as it looked like no one touched anything for a while. Later in the months you started to
see the whole restaurant come together. I don’t even remember when this place opened but
everyone was excited to see Grandma’s Restaurant open for business. The company itself went
through a couple cooks and waiters before finding stable employees that stayed. The person that
was incharge of the place sadly passed away two or three years ago in a car accident. The wife of
the owner that passed away is now incharge and has been for two years now. She stops by every
once in a while mostly on pay days and the first of the month as I was told. I have no information
on the actual person that had the grand idea of Grandma's Restaurant. This was one of the
biggest things for Crowpoint to have since all we had was Bashas Deli and Gas station food. It is
good that the restaurant is only three doors down from Bashas because they help support each
other's business. But I really hope you come down to Crownpoint and stop in to try this
restaurant and tell me what you think!
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