Santa Fe Eating

Thinking about these places. Thoughts?

http://www.epazotesantafe.com/epazotesantafe/epazote.html

http://www.ranchodechimayo.com
http://sfshed.com/Restaurant.html

Am I correct that byob ain’t happening?

They are mostly less than exciting. The last time we were at The Shed, they didn’t serve alcohol. It is true that BYOB is nominally illegal in NM. There are a couple places where we can take our own wines, if we bring them in in the afternoon.

We haven’t been to Epazote yet, so can’t really talk about it. The website looks interesting. James Campbell Caruso from La Boca is highly variable, as is Rancho de Chimayo.

Both The Shed and their sister restaurant La Choza serve alcohol. Beer/wine/margaritas. Always have.

Only thing I can think of that might have occurred when Dick was there is that a server mistakenly brought a Shirley Temple to an adult by mistake.

Went to the Shed last summer and loved it. The food was great and everyone liked the margaritas. If you are up for a 15-20 minute drive try Terra at Encantado. Everything we ate there was outstanding.

Bob-

15-20 years ago, The Shed didn’t have a liquor liscense. It was recommended to us, so we tried it and couldn’t get an alcoholic drink. We went there a few times, but stopped going because of that. We’d heard that they got a liscense a few years ago, but haven’t been back.

Dick,

Just fwiw I’ve been going to The Shed since 1983. Have had margaritas and/or beer every time. While It is good in my opinion it is no longer my favorite place for New Mexican food. Had I been forced to have an iced tea with a New Mexican meal, I guarantee you that I never would have visited a second time.

Appreciate the responses. Perhaps a recommendation for one nice place that is not too expensive and has a good value driven wine list (non Mexican). We can trade ambiance for quality. Where is a good beer/wine retail? We are staying with friends in Eldorado at SF.

When I lived out there, I always liked the bar at Anasazi. I also liked the patio at La Casa Sena. Granted these are more “touristy” places and probably not high on the list for the locals, but I enjoyed them. Also, go to Ore House for a margarita and (free) chips w fire roasted tomato salsa.

The best wine shop is Susan’s in the shopping center at the corner of Cerrillos and St. Francis.

A good non-expensive restaurant is Andiamo, on Garfield between Guadalupe and Sandoval. They have a nice reasonably-priced Italian wine list.

When do you plan on being here?

The wine shop owned by Casa Sena adjacent to the restaurant has an exceptional selection though everything is full price.

Susan’s is excellent, too; I’ve been buying from her for years, when she slaved for others.

And, about 15 miles north of Santa Fe in Pojouque is Kokoman for a very broad selection of wines from around the world as well as a broad selection of tequilas and beers.

Some nice advice here…personally, for a nice, modest splurge, I would go to Restaurant Martin. It is an intimate, quaint house with excellent food and an above average wine list.
Cheers!
Marshall

http://restaurantmartinsantafe.com/

We are there the second week of June.

Gregg,

I like Restaurant Martin a lot, too. Chef Martin Rios has done well at several Santa Fe restaurants over the years and never disappoints me.

That said, consider another restaurant in the Railyard District called Max’s. At the moment, I think it to be the very best cooking in Santa Fe. It is not large so make a reservation early if you are interested.

Here’s a link…

http://www.maxssantafe.com/menu.html

The Suckling Pig entree and the Scallop entree are both extremely innovative and good but that’s just my opinion.

We only ate a couple times a year at The Old House in the Eldorado when Martin was there. The reason was the menu never changed and only a few dishes were very good.

Restaurant Martin got a good review in The New Mexican, so i guess we’ll have to try it.

Just wanted to report back on our experience in Santa Fe. Funny how things turn out, but we really didn’t eat out at too many places and mostly went out for lunches. We had lunch at Pasquale’s. It was excellent. No wait and they were very nice and helpful. I had the smoked trout hash with 2 poached eggs. The dish was really good, though the smoked trout was not really in a hash, rather it was chunks on top of a gruyere, potato cake with the poached eggs and green (tomatillo based) chile salsa. My wife and friends had the huevos rancheros which they enjoyed. We walked around the square and made our way over to a gallery were they had an exhibit to commemorate Dylan’s 70th. Some nice photos were hanging, along with few Annie Lebovitz photos. We had another lunch at Maria’s which was fantastic. Really good chile relleno and of course margaritas. I also had a chicken and green chile tamale, which was not bad (I’ve had better ones in LA, CA.). We did brunch at Real Food Nation which was another excellent meal though not very regional, rather just well prepared food. I’ll spare you with details, but just say the bagels were great (green chile and cheese). We took a day trip along the Rio Grande and stopped for lunch at El Paragua in Espanola. The food was really good, probably the best chile relleno I’ had on the trip. Terrific margaritas and salsas. Everyone enjoyed their dishes. The building is really cool. A bit pricey compared to Santa Fe places, but worth it. We made a stop at Vivac winery. We tried a few wines. Mostly Italian varieties, which were well made, low in alc., etc… I thought the Refosco was very nice.

We ate dinner out only a few times. One was an early dinner at La Boca. We made it for their happy hour which was a pretty good deal. We had a pitcher of Sangria and then a few Negro Modellos. Tapas were nice, a bit rich, but very filling. Good value, but not very special. I wouldn’t recommend it outside of the happy hour, though to be fair, we didn’t try items off the regular menu. Coincidently, our other dinner excursion was also for tapas, at El Farol. Talk about old and funky. We really had a good time. Very good Sangria. The stand out tapas were the deep fried avocados, boquerones, Manchego Polenta with romesco and the tuna ceviche in an avocado sauce. Really, everything was very good here. The menu has a lot of choices, so I look forward to returning. There was a really good band the night we went and people were dancing away by the time we left.

My friend is in a gallery on Canyon. We stopped in to see his stuff and the owner told us about this place around the corner that had tamales. So went and picked up a doz (chicken and pork) and brought them back to the house for dinner one night. I think the place is called Johnny’s Cash store or something like that. The tamales were pretty good. We also hit the Farmer’s market by the rail yard and picked up some really good things for dinner. We picked up a 4.5 lb french label rouge chicken. Brined it then roasted it. Amazing flavor-maybe the best chicken I’ve had in a long while.

We attended the Thirsty Ear music festival at the Santa Fe Brewing Co on a Sat. night. Great music from locals Anthony Leon & the Chain and Imperial Rooster. The Handsome Family and Calexico were there and were their usual awesomeness. Also caught The Meat Puppets a few nights earlier. Saw Felix y Los Gatos at a bar another night and enjoyed their good time sounds. We attended the opening of the 2011 Currents New Media show http://www.currents2011.com/. This was a great show, but one really needs to spend time and unfortunately, we were not there long enough. I’m sorry we could not return. Perhaps the most impressive thing we saw was The Due Return from Meow Wolf. I can’t really describe this adequately. Just go. http://www.theduereturn.com.

We were not bothered too much by the AZ. wild fire, though Santa Fe was a bit hazy at times and you could smell the smoke. It was very dry during our visit, this being the toughest element. All in all we had fantastic time and can’t wait to return. Thanks to all who helped our planning.

Glad you enjoyed your trip here. Please let us know when you return. Our phone umber is 505.983.6748.

Nice report Gregg…I look forward to hearing about it soon.

Cheers!
Marshall