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Were this Sonoma or Boulder or San Francisco, the Grove Cafe and Market might just be another restaurant featuring simple, healthful cuisine using fresh, organic and tony food.

But this is Albuquerque, and the Grove, in the trendy EDo district, is as welcome as the shade its name portends.

Too few restaurants in this over-greased, over-served city offer such light, fresh fare in an ambience of airy, upscale, casual comfort. You feel good just being here; better after you finish dining on the Grove's honest, earthy food.

Certainly, there are those who will argue that the prices ($7-$8 average per entree) are high for what appears on first blush to be rather simplistic breakfast items, salads and sandwiches.

Ah, but what breakfast items, salads and sandwiches they are. Grove owners Jason and Lauren Greene have taken a Barbara Kingsolver "locavore" approach to their menu by offering local, organic produce and other hometown products when possible.

They've also committed to using higher-grade ingredients - havarti instead of cheddar, for instance - and using them with less embellishments. There is no excessive cacophony of flavors competing with one another, just the essential tastes singing in one pure, clean voice.

Recently, for example, the Grove presented a lovely salad ($7.95) featuring rounds of heirloom tomatoes hand-picked from Los Poblanos Organics in Los Ranchos. The tomato slices, each in hues far more interesting than hothouse red, were accompanied by a feathery nest of mustardy mizuna greens that glistened with a light aged zinfandel vinaigrette.

The pedestrian BLT here ($7.50) is elevated by the Grove's use of hunky applewood-smoked bacon, fresh-made guacamole, organic tomato, butter lettuce (the secret to any good BLT) on warm panini-pressed slices of crusty wheat bread.

A basic breakfast burrito ($6.25) becomes morning manna with sausage from the Albuquerque meat masters at Tully's, goat cheese, homemade green chile, scrambled eggs and a roasted jalape¤o salsa.

Salads are massive. My favorite is the chopped salad ($8.95) with iceberg and romaine, bits of tender turkey, boiled egg, applewood-smoked bacon, tomato, avocado and tangy Pointe Reyes bleu cheese, lightly cloaked with a homemade ranch dressing.

The Grove makes its own English muffins, and for $9 you can take home a half-dozen wonderfully spongy and buttery beauties. The restaurant also offers its signature cupcakes ($2) in surprising tones such as ginger and chocolate, red velvet and cream cheese.

The style of simplicity continues in the way each entree is served on silver baking trays and parchment paper.

It's also apparent in the open, semi-industrial style of concrete flooring, high exposed ceilings and one of the largest covered patios in the city, perfect for dining al fresco no matter the weather.

Ordering is in the style of Flying Star - stand in line, study the impossibly complex blackboard, order at the counter, pray for an empty table.

But where the Star provides a number placard for the server to find you, here at the Grove the servers are left to yell your name above the din and hope you hear them before the food grows cold.

Perhaps the Greenes will rethink this aspect of their otherwise lovely restaurant. They did can the plastic forks and paper plates after patrons complained that such landfill fodder was not in line with the restaurant's organic persona.

The Grove also offers a small but intriguing shop of gourmet pastas, cheeses, olives, vinegars, chocolates and cookies. You must try the lavender lemon biscotti by Albucookie, a local venture, like the Grove, naturally.