Rancho de Chimayó is back 14 months after a fire shut down the historic restaurant.

Other than the new kitchen and gift shop, little has changed — a conscious effort to preserve memories for aficionados of the way station on the High Road to Taos, 27 miles north of Santa Fe.

Diners are still greeted by rough-plastered, straw-flecked adobe walls, hanging ristras of red chiles and Marco Oviedo's bronze sculptures.

The dining rooms and stepped patio capable of seating 350 and the rustic bar with room for 40 more look the same as they did before the fire.

And except for some minor rearrangements, the menu is identical — with the $13.95 Platón Especial (guacamole salad, rolled cheese enchiladas, pork tamal, shredded beef taco, chile relleno, Spanish rice, refried beans and red or green chile) and $5.75 Chimayó Cocktail (apple cider, gold tequila and Creme de Cassis).

Rancho de Chimayó's grand reopening open house is from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday with regular service beginning Sunday. But its manager for 10 years, Holly Justice, said the restaurant has been serving since Sept. 26.

"We get a lot of people who are not from here, so they weren't even aware we had a fire," she said of the guests for the last three weeks. "We haven't been very successful at the soft opening because we've been extremely busy. And it's all been word of mouth."

Lunch and dinner are served seven days a week, and breakfast is available on weekends. "We are normally closed on Mondays beginning in November," Justice said. "But since we've been closed, we're going to stay seven days until January. Then we'll revisit that after January."

Arturo and Florence Jaramillo opened the restaurant in 1965 in the 19th-century house where Arturo had grown up. They modeled it after historic inns they had visited in Connecticut where Florence was raised. In 1984, they opened the seven-room Hacienda de Chimayó just across N.M. 520 from the restaurant. Since the Jaramillos' divorce in 1988, Florence has operated both properties.

The restaurant has been closed since the evening of July 11, 2008, when a fire broke out outside the kitchen in a woodpile believed to have been doused with kerosene. The flames ignited a roof eave, destroying the kitchen. Smoke damaged other parts of the 4,000-square-foot building.

Florence Jaramillo said a local man bragged that he had started the fire, though he was never charged. State Fire Marshal John Stadefer was not available for comment on the fire's cause.

Joseph Sisneros, Arturo's nephew, is back with his jewelry store inside the restaurant and a pottery shop in a separate adobe outbuilding just above the patio. He said that as a boy he worked as a dishwasher at the restaurant and started selling jewelry there in 1991.

Rancho de Chimayó's biggest change is the new kitchen with new appliances, electrical wiring and plumbing. But this won't be visible to patrons except during Saturday's open house.

Among the new features is The Company Store, a former dining room near the entrance, that sells salsas and preserves, T-shirts and hats, dishes and drinking glasses, ceramic crosses and Kokopelli images.

Rancho de Chimayó started selling these items years ago in its entrance hall and during the 14-month hiatus began marketing them online via www.ranchodechimayo.com.

Justice estimated 95 percent of the 75 staff members have returned. Waiter Elias Vigil of Chimayó said he's been working for film productions since the fire and plans to go part time soon so he can work on his own animated short film. "I'll probably always work here part time," he said.

Paul and Madeline Gefroh of Portland, Ore., enjoyed their lunch on the outdoor patio beneath the yellow cottonwoods on Thursday. They had dropped in on their way from Santa Fe to Taos on the recommendation of an old friend who had marked the restaurant on a map. They said they didn't know Rancho de Chimayó had been closed until they heard it when they stopped earlier at the nearby Santuario de Chimayó.

"People have been so friendly to us and taken such an interest in where we visit and what we eat," Paul Gefroh said. "The recommendations have just been fabulous."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.