The Range Cafe, a 33-year-old New Mexico culinary institution, has eliminated dinner service at four of its six locations as the locally-owned restaurant chain adapts to rising costs and changing customer patterns that have squeezed restaurants statewide.
Only breakfast and lunch will be served at Range Cafe locations on Central Avenue, Rio Grande Boulevard, Wyoming Boulevard, and Coors Boulevard in Albuquerque. The original Bernalillo location and Los Lunas restaurant will continue full dinner service.
The decision reflects broader challenges facing New Mexico’s restaurant industry, which employs more than 82,000 people statewide and generates over $2 billion in annual sales, according to the New Mexico Restaurant Association. Nationally, restaurant employment growth has stalled in recent months after the industry added nearly 68,000 jobs earlier this year…