On our drive through Baja backcountry between La Paz and Cabo, we stopped in El Triunfo, a dusty, desolate mining town that could easily double as the setting for a Wild West gunfight, or possibly a zombie apocalypse. Instead, Northern California native Marcus Spahr treated us to a flurry of wood-fired foods featuring local ingredients, in a truly unique setting.

After villagers left El Triunfo to work in Todos Santos sugar cane fields, they left the once-thriving silver mining town in shambles. We passed time waiting for our food by wandering through remnants of smoke stacks, crumbled brick walls and rusted machinery.

Spahr has worked hard to improve the space ever since he opened Caffe El Triunfo.

Spahr’s incrementally renovated the cafe both indoors and out, laying new brickwork, adding stone slab tables and planting cacti on ledges. We sat on the patio, under a brick and wood roof, with the sound of roosters in the distance.

Spahr is a longtime biker with tattooed arms and twin dangles below his beard.

Spahr was born in Oakland, grew up in Ventura County, and started ranching up north near Cobb Mountain in California’s Lake County. He moved to Todos Santos to farm things like mango, avocado, grapefruit. He ran Cafe Todos Santos for 16 years, beginning on October 7, 1993, and sold to chef Angelo Dal Bon from Tre Galline. He opened Caffe El Triunfo in 2008, looking for new challenges, better food, a better setting, and room to build a wood burning oven.

We arrived to find a mesquite oven with sourdough pain poilane boules in the hearth.

Spahr served slices of pan con santos with walnuts and dried cranberries; and crusty bread with rosemary, garlic and white cheddar.

We also received Gorgonzola and rich local mozzarella that looked like pats of butter.

House Salad (100 pesos ~ $8) incorporated crumbled goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, organic lettuces, dried cranberries and candied pecans with pitcher of tart balsamic dressing.

We walked over to Abarrotes La Escondida, one of El Triunfo’s variety stores, and bought a wheel of queso fresco (70 pesos), which they weighed on a worn scale.

For his crisp-crusted pizzas, Spahr uses a sourdough starter that dates to 2002 and features house-made tomato sauce that Cafe Santa Fe owner Ezio Colombo taught him and fresh mozzarella sourced from a ranch in town.

Margherita Pizza (180 pesos) incorporated only tomato, basil, mozzarella, and tomato sauce. Spahr punctuated the pizza with Grana Padano shavings and a drizzle of olive oil infused with dried chile de arbol.

Signature El Triunfo (240 pesos) pizza showcased local flavor, including smoky chipotle marinated arrachera (skirt steak), sweet corn kernels, and crisp, spicy jalapeño slices. This pizza had cracker like edges, and good give in the middle.

It also probably would have been good to try the ravioli, since Spahr described the process for learning how to make the pasta, or possibly the wood-fired pork sandwich.

Caffe El Triunfo’s sticky bun lived up to its name, with deep yellow color from egg yolks, a liberal cinnamon dose and sticky, chewy caramel ribbons.

We finished with espresso, which Spahr and his employees pull in the front room on a three-group lever machine that operates using propane.

Spahr has managed to breathe new life into El Triunfo, and it’s only fitting that he’s featuring wood fire, since flames once helped to smelt local silver to its most valuable mineral essence, a short walk from the caffe’s back door.

Our visit to Caffe El Triunfo was part of a Baja California Sur tour sponsored by Baja.com.