There are a handful of breakfast places in the city that have a fanatical following, and The Farmacy is definitely one of them. Until recently you usually had to stand in a line outside a glass box on Mountain to order their delicious migas, and even then you weren’t guaranteed a space at one of their few tiny tables. When one lives in Albuquerque, one is not used to such New York standards of waiting and space constraints. Which is why they made the choice to relocate last year.The new Farmacy location (3718 Central Ave. SE) opened on Nov. 24. This spot, on the south side of Central across from Thai Vegan (now Thai Heritage), doesn’t exactly have a good record for keeping restaurants open. Most recently it housed another Thai restaurant (which like, seriously? All my sympathies, but who told you that was a good idea?), and before that it was an ill-fated Cajun restaurant called N’Awlins Mardi Gras. It’s been dozens of different restaurants over the last decade, each seeming to close its doors quicker than the last. ART construction is partly to blame for the frequent turnover, for sure, but it’s also just an unusually dead stretch of Central Ave. So Farmacy’s move there might seem like a misstep. But Farmacy owner Jacob Elliot says, “Our old location had also turned over and over and over, so we’re kind of used to moving into cursed places.”Walk into the new digs and you’ll know that they thought this one out. Farmacy’s fanbase has certainly followed them to this new location, though plenty of new faces are showing up as well, says Elliot. Here, a greater square footage and a bigger kitchen has allowed them to flex their culinary muscles a bit more and seat plenty more customers. The restaurant can seat 44 inside and just about as many on their outside patio, whereas the old location could only seat 12. Which doesn’t mean there won’t be a wait when you come to get brunch on a Saturday morning—it is still The Farmacy, after all. But it does mean you’re a lot less likely to be left out in the weather during that wait, that you’ll get a table a lot sooner and that you won’t be bumping elbows with the folks at the next table over.It also means that parking will be less of an issue. There’s a small parking lot behind The Farmacy, and the lot behind Thai Heritage is theirs to use as well. Considering the Thai restaurant isn’t open for breakfast hours, it won’t be stealing any parking real estate from them anyway.Those who are concerned about the fate of this Albuquerque institution in their new unlucky location need not worry: Every time I’ve visited, the place has been packed. Even on a weekday at odd hours. The core menu has remained, with some expansions: the waffle menu, previously only available on the weekends, is now available the whole week around. And they’ve introduced a kids’ menu as well. Their migas, biscuits and gravy and the Not McMuffin are all still there, as well as the daily fresh-made quiche. And you’ll get them a little quicker these days.
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