Some background for the sake of perspective: I lived in Colorado for nearly twenty years, and made frequent trips to New Mexico. As a chile-head, many of those trips coincided with the September harvests. My DW is a professional artist, and had never been to New Mexico, but was interested in scoping out the Santa Fe art market. After being transferred to California, and searching in desperation for the kind of Mexican food (they didn’t call it New Mexican in Colorado) I craved, I realized that I needed to raise my own plants and do it all myself. So, for me this trip was all about getting my chile-fix with restaurant food and checking out some old stomping grounds that I hadn’t seen in fifteen years. For DW, it was mainly about the art, with some curiosity over my old anecdotes.

Sunday 9/14
We flew SW out of Oakland, leaving late Sunday morning, 9/14, and arriving at the ABQ Sunport around 2:30. We picked up our rental car and drove directly to Santa Fe, arriving at Bishop’s Lodge around 4:30. I picked up Bishop’s Lodge on Priceline for $79, and the Lodge adds a “resort fee” of $14.50 per person. The total rate was a discount over their list prices, but to my mind did not offer a dramatic value for what we received, particularly as we never used any of the resort facilities. The room was in the North Lodge, and as reported around the web, was “musty-smelling.” However, it was very roomy with a fireplace, separate sitting area for TV viewing, and a very large bathroom. After opening the windows for a few hours, the musty smell was negligible. The Lodge also provided a welcoming amenity of chips and Chimayo salsa, which was kind of neat. For Sunday dinner, I had made reservations on-line at Maria’s. We arrived promptly at 7:00 and were shown directly to a table. Maria’s has a reputation as offering a connoisseur Margarita menu. I have to say that the menu was extremely extensive, although many of the items feature mixtos rather than 100% tequila, and I don’t think any of them actually contained squeezed lime. Curious for a connoisseur, but maybe that’s just me. I ordered a “Silver Bullet” which did knock me on my butt. Fortunately, DW is our designated driver. For dinner, I ordered the beef blue corn enchiladas, smothered green and DW had a bowl of green chile stew with chicken. My meal put me into a state of déjà vu. The chile smothering the enchiladas was very tasty though only moderately spicy; but the meal reminded me about the use of ground beef in SW cuisine, which I had completely forgotten. DW loved the stew and was especially glad that it was offered with chicken, as she doesn’t eat beef, pork, lamb. It was the first time that DW had seen sopapillas. Her first reaction was “greasy fried dough—yuk.” But then she tasted them. And when I pointed out the honey bottle, she was hooked. By the time we left an hour or so later, Maria’s was packed.

Monday 9/15
My game plan for the week involved three meals per day, even though we don’t usually each that much in real life. Monday morning was breakfast at Tia Sophias. We took the short drive into Santa Fe and parked in the public lot near the cathedral. We paid for the day in advance and asked about in-and-out privileges. The attendant told us that in case he wasn’t working, just tell the attendant that Ramon said it was okay. I add that small tidbit, because it was really indicative of the kind of friendliness we encountered during the week. We strolled down San Francisco to the restaurant and were told to just seat ourselves. I went for the huevos rancheros, green, and DW had a bowl of oatmeal. Our server was a real character, friendly with lots of wisecracks. My meal was again delicious, though not overly spicy. (Since the last time I was in NM, I’ve made a number of trips to Thailand, and I’m starting to wonder whether the food has gotten less spicy in NM, or if I just have too much scar tissue in my mouth?)

Most of the Canyon Drive galleries are closed on Monday, so the agenda involved shopping and hitting galleries around the Plaza followed by an afternoon restaurant tour with the Santa Fe Cooking School. After breakfast, we took a slow walk down both sides of San Francisco, dropping into galleries and shops. We then swung by the Plaza to look over the wares of the licensed Native American artists. Before the trip, my DW had mentioned that she really didn’t care for turquoise and silver and doubted that she would buy anything. Famous last words! It was fun looking over the jewelry and other wares laid out on the blankets down the sidewalk. All of the people were friendly and eager to talk about their work. We stopped at one blanket where the elderly artist asked where we were from. When we answered California, he looked at us and said “Northern California…probably Sonoma County.” We were stunned, and he just smiled. As we chatted, he proceeded to tell us about the time that Robert Mondavi stopped by and bought jewelry from him. We made one pass through all the vendors and went back to buy a turquoise and silver bracelet that DW really liked. (Hooked!) What surprised me was that compared to 20 years ago, much of the jewelry was not “traditional,” but rather was very contemporary.

We still had about 90 minutes before the restaurant tour, and DW was ready for a cup of tea, so we headed to La Fonda Hotel. I remember reviews that said that La Fonda had a great Margarita and it was already into the afternoon, so I figured what the heck. All I can say is that the reviews were very, very wrong. Whatever the bar used in place of lime juice tasted like Gatorade mixed with Sweet Tarts. If I had gotten this drink in a neighborhood bar of a big Eastern city, I would just chalk it up as what I deserved. But to get this for $12 at the bar of a four-star hotel in Santa Fe was inexcusable.

On to better things. We walked over to the Santa Fe Cooking School. We often like to take a cooking class as part of our trips, but the schedule for the week either had dishes we already do well, or dishes we didn’t want to learn. So, with a little sense of disappointment, we signed up for the afternoon restaurant walking tour. The idea behind this particular tour was to feature examples of the four cultures that make up present-day Santa Fe: Native American, Mexican, Spanish and Anglo. We started in the demonstration kitchen with David giving a brief history of the school before introducing Chef Rocky Durham, who would be our guide. Rocky gave us a brief history of Santa Fe and during the talk, David passed out samples of green enchiladas with chicken and plain red enchiladas, kind of to establish the “red or green” frame of mind. We then headed out for our first stop, Los Mayas Mexican restaurant, to establish the difference between Mexican and New Mexican cuisine. We were greeted at the door by the owner, Fernando Trillo and seated at a long table. (There were about 20 in our group.) We each were served a frozen agave wine Margarita with a serrano pepper garnish, and which tasted much like the tequila version (and so, so much better than La Fonda’s). Fernando described the history behind the dish we would be served, chile en nogada, which dates back to the 1820’s, and as it notably incorporates the colors of the Mexican flag was associated with the Battle of Puebla. The dish itself was a roasted chile stuffed with pork, beef, raisins and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, served in a sauce of crushed walnuts in cream and covered with pomegranate seeds. It was absolutely spectacular. However, I mentioned that DW doesn’t eat pork, and seeing that, Fernando instantly had a waiter bring a vegetarian selection, which turned out to be a cactus (nopales) in a chile/goat cheese sauce. Also spectacular. While we ate, Fernando picked up a guitar and serenaded us with a masterful Spanish classical piece (Albeniz?). The entire group was in high spirits as we left and this was only stop #1.

As a group, we walked across the downtown to the Institute of American Indian Arts. In a conference room, we met Lois Ellen Frank, part Kiowa, chef and soon-to-be PhD. Frank is also the author of a James Beard award winning cookbook on Native American cuisine. As she served us helpings of a delicious bison stew (it was a lot like a Texas chili, only better), she gave an absolutely mesmerizing extemporaneous lecture on the impact of the “discovery” of the Americas on world cuisine, with a focus on pre-contact, early merging, and post-contact menus. Next up was a short walk over to La Boca for a sampling of Spanish tapas. After last year’s trip to Spain, we had come to think of tapas as reheated food served to a throng of shoving people in an atmosphere of dense cigarette smoke. If our meals in Spain were anything like this, we would have left with a totally different impression. At each place serving was a small glass of a tasty Spanish sherry. After a short welcoming talk and a little Q&A with the owner and chef, James Campbell Caruso, we were each served a plate of four tapas: a Carpaccio wrap, warm tuna on bread, a small pork empanada, and I’m going brain dead on the fourth. I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite from the four. While serving our dishes, they seamlessly brought my DW a plate of four vegetarian tapas: a carrot hummus, a grilled eggplant with a complex veggie topping, artichokes with goat cheese, and one other that I’ve forgotten. I should mention that we provided no advance warning that DW ate only veggies, chicken and fish—we figured that we would just work it out between the two of us—yet both Los Mayas and La Boca handled this instantly and graciously. As several in our group began to share the fact that we were getting pretty full, Rocky told us that we would be getting a full entrée at our final stop, the Coyote Café.

At Coyote Café, we were seated along the long curved counter that runs across the back of the room. While we were being introduced to chef and owner Eric DiStefano, we were served a Spanish wine that was described as a cross between a pinot gris and a viognier, which turned out to be a very apt description. Our meal was a seared sea bass over wasabi mashed potatoes with wild mushrooms and asparagus over a lobster sauce. Folks, it doesn’t get much better than this. Taste, smell, presentation were all flawless.

The tour ran from 2:00pm to around 5:30 pm and cost $115 per person. Rocky shared with us that one of the things that makes this fun is that the chefs are very competitive and all try to outdo each other. When we signed up, we were expecting a little nibble at each stop, kind of an amuse bouche tour. Instead, there was no chance that we would even think of eating again that evening. In fairness, everything we were served was chef’s choice, so there are no guarantees, and perhaps I’m wrong to oversell this. But, knowing what we know now, I’d plan a vacation around this event.

Tuesday, 9/16
Today was planned to be a gallery day. We started the morning with breakfast at the Plaza Café on Cerillos Rd. I had their breakfast burrito with corned beef hash, green, and DW had just one egg and toast. Corned beef hash smothered green was a first for me, and it actually worked quite well. I so much prefer the Southwest version of burritos vs. the California version that seems to strive for weight above all. Again, I was a little surprised at the lack of heat, but the flavor of the sauce was right on the mark. We spent the rest of the day going from gallery to gallery, with DW showing her portfolio to several. Compared to my last trip out here, the galleries were much more contemporary. Mid-day, we called a halt and drove to the outskirts of town for lunch at Horseman’s Haven, reputed to serve one of the hottest green chile sauces in town. We had some trouble finding it, but eventually spotted it on the opposite side of the street from what the address we had indicated. DW had an a la carte enchilada with the green on the side, just in case. I had the chicken enchilada dinner. I was planning to get a side of “Level 2” green, but I was still stuffed from breakfast. HH did not disappoint, as the regular green was about the same heat level that I make at home. After checking in at a few more galleries, we returned to the Lodge to kick back for a few hours. The plan for dinner was supposed to be India Palace, but we decided to have a drink at the Coyote Café rooftop Cantina first, in large part because we were so impressed by their entrée from Monday’s tour. We grabbed a seat along the outer wall and spent a couple hours just enjoying life while waiting for our two prior meals to digest enough to make room for a third. As darkness fell, we walked over to the India Palace to find it closed. In fact, it looked closed for good. Since we didn’t really need another meal, we just headed back to the room.

Wednesday, 9/17
Our original plan had us going out to Taos on Thursday, but we decided to move it up a day. We headed up Bishop’s Lodge Road to where it eventually met up with Highway 285. I was remembering some great meals at Angelina’s in Espanola, but when we hit the town, I just couldn’t get my bearings. The town seemed so much larger than I remembered, and nothing really looked familiar. After our second pass, we decided to stop at Joanna’s for breakfast, huevos rancheros Christmas, for me and oatmeal for DW. Another winner! As we headed up HWY. 160, the low road to Taos, I remembered how I found Angelina’s in the old days. Doh! But, Joanna’s was darn good anyway, so all that was lost was the opportunity for a little nostalgia.

We took the scenic drive down the low road without stopping, arriving in Taos mid-morning. We pulled into a lot outside the plaza to find a sign on the attendant’s booth that said “If I’m not here, you can pay me when you leave.” Refreshing! We made a slow tour of the plaza, stopping in virtually every shop. It seems that I remember more galleries and fewer souvenir shops on the plaza back in the old days. Also, more of the neighboring streets had become built-up and that appears to be where some of the galleries wound up. However, since we hadn’t bought any of the obligatory tchotchkes, we did make use of the souvenir shops.

Time for lunch and we drove up to Orlando’s. We were seated outside where we enjoyed the perfect weather. I had their combination enchiladas and DW had a taco salad. She loved the fact that her salad had an actual assortment of veggies, instead of the lettuce-heavy versions we often suffer through. The enchiladas were also terrific. After lunch we headed out to the Pueblo. We stopped in a few of the ground-level shops and finally were enticed into a small shop by an elderly grandmother standing in the doorway. She had little in the way of merchandise, but she did have some bakery goods, including a pumpkin bread, fresh out of the oven. After we paid for the bread, already in a zip-lok plastic bag, the grandmother carefully wrapped the baggie in paper towels “to keep it away from the dogs.” Precious.

After circling the Pueblo, we headed out of town on the high road. This was a slower ride than the low road, as the high road goes through several towns, and also maintains a much slower speed limit. We stopped in Chimayo to visit the Santuario, which DW hadn’t seen before. It was after 5:00 and the church was virtually deserted. Even aside from the association with miracles, the church is a fine example of an early Spanish mission church.

After kicking back at our room for an hour or so, we headed back to the Coyote rooftop Cantina for dinner. I had the duck quesadillas and DW had the fish tacos. We both really liked the ambience of the rooftop. Nice menu, nice drink menu, good value and friendly staff made for a very pleasant overall experience.

Thursday, 9/18
This day was intended to be another gallery-hopping day, but we made such a good dent in our target list, that we spontaneously changed plans. But first, it was breakfast time at Café Pasqual’s. We arrived around 9:30 and though all seats were filled, there were only a couple parties ahead of us. When taking our names, we were asked if we would be willing to share one of the communal tables and we gladly agreed. After about a 10-minute wait, we were shown to a table for two. I was kind of looking forward to a community experience, but I was too hungry to wait. I had the Huevos Motulenos, a strange, but tasty array that included eggs, black beans, green chile, peas, feta cheese and fried bananas. DW had an a la carte of eggs and English muffin. Pasqual’s had a very upbeat vibe with a morning breakfast buzz and a friendly and efficient staff. When paying, I bought one of their cookbooks, realizing only later that it was autographed by the owner and chef!

After breakfast, we decided to drive up to Bandelier National Monument. For some reason, it seemed like a really long drive out there, and a very quick drive back. The main parking area was just about full, with only a few empty spaces. We got oriented with a walk though the museum and headed out on the self-paced walk. The free trail guide provided interesting insight into the settlement that we walked through. Walking up the trail to the cave dwellings provided a good perspective on the layout of the dwellings on the floor of the valley. The trail up the side of the cliff is much easier than it first appears. So, in case you have any doubts, give it a shot; it’ll be worth it. There is a little of everything on this trail, from a great kiva and settlement on the valley floor, to cave dwellings and petroglyphs along the cliffs.

After the aforementioned quick drive back to Santa Fe, we decided to forego another Southwestern meal and instead go to Dara Thai on Cerillos. We originally intended to hit Mu Du Noodles, but they were closed, so we continued on to Dara. I ordered a spicy noodle dish and DW had Chicken with Cashews. We ordered both dishes hot (5 out of 5) and they were both close to being hot. Chiang Mai was one of the trips where we had attended cooking classes, so after lunch we were eager to discuss recipes and availability of ingredients with our very friendly host. We were surprised to learn that fresh Thai chiles are not available locally; they buy theirs frozen. After lunch, it was time for a roasted chile purchase. As I mentioned, I’ve been growing Big Jims, Chimayos and Sandia for several years now. But this was a pretty cool summer in Sonoma Valley and my yields were way down. So, we stopped at one of the roadside roasters and bought a mixed bushel of Big Jims and Sandias. Afterward, we kicked around town again. We tried to see what SITE was all about, but that was also closed, so we headed to a couple of the Palace Ave. galleries that we hadn’t checked out before.

Again, back to the room for a little R&R, and toward evening we decided on Tomasita’s for our last meal in Santa Fe. Tomasita’s was packed. We were given a pager and told that the wait would be one hour. It turned out to be only 40 minutes before we were summoned. I ordered stuffed sopapillas, Christmas, and DW had the shrimp tacos. The sopapillas were great!

Friday, 9/19
We had an evening flight out of ABQ, so the plan was to take a leisurely drive down the Turquoise Trail into Albuquerque. We had taken our haul of chiles and repackaged them into gallon-sized Zip-lok bags and packed them into an empty duffel bag that we brought to transport the chiles. The bag of chiles was heavier than our regular luggage! I wasn’t sure how things would work out at the airport, but I was counting on the fact that I certainly couldn’t be the first person to show up at Security with a haul of roasted chiles.

First we had breakfast at Bishop’s Lodge. It was kind of overpriced, but I never had bread pudding French Toast before, so it was worth a few experience points. From there, we headed up to the Tesuque Flea Market, taking HWY 285 up to…Flea Market Road, what else? What we both found curious was that maybe half of the vendors sold imported goods, like Persian rugs, African masks, Afghani artifacts, etc. Of course, the other half sold Native American items, and turquoise and silver were readily available. Many of the vendors freely offered Friday discounts, as there weren’t many customers. They were also more than willing to spend some time chatting, so it was an enjoyable couple hours.

We headed down HWY 14, stopping first in Cerillos, where we learned about the local turquoise mines. Local Cerillos turquoise is green, by the way. From there, it was a short drive over to Madrid, where we stopped for lunch at the Mine Shaft. Since this would probably be my last meal in New Mexico, I had the green chile stew while DW had a roasted veggie wrap. The stew was disappointing. It was a small portion, lacked flavor and hadn’t even been warmed through. DW loved the wrap, and even re-created the dish at home a week or so later. But the ambience at the Mine Shaft is so cool, that I didn’t really care that much about the meal. I’d go back in a heartbeat (though I’d probably get a burger.) After lunch we spent a couple hours going in and out of the quirky shops, before heading off to ABQ.

We got to the airport early, so we spent some time in one of the viewing areas, watching the planes. I haven’t done that since I was a kid. Finally, we gassed up and dropped off the rental car. When we got to the airport, I saw a TSA guy coming out of the office, so I asked whether roasted chiles would make it though carry on. He just chuckled and said that they were fine. That was a relief; I really didn’t want to check them into baggage.

And that concludes our five days in Santa Fe. It was a little bit of a homecoming for me, though not much turned out to be familiar. DW got some insights into the local art market. Mostly, it was a nice, relaxing change from our more recent vacations, where we rushed from one must-see to the next. Beyond itinerary, the thing that really made it relaxing was the open, friendliness that we ran into everywhere. Nobody was in a hurry. Everyone took the time to chat and took the trouble to be hospitable. So many of the little memories still bring smiles, like Ramon the parking attendant or the Taos Pueblo grandmother, wrapping her pumpkin bread. Some of the trip reports that we had researched complained about surly staff, but fortunately, we didn’t see that anywhere.

Thanks for the fantastic trip report!

Once we saw someone in the Albuquerque airport trying to get a black trash bag full of chile onto the plane. It didn't work. How did you get roasted chile home without it spoiling?

Lee Ann

Wonderful trip report. We lived north of Santa Fe in the late 70's and you brought back some wonderful memories. At that time, it was easy just to park in the plaza and go to the movies, eat a meal or shop at the
small department store in "town".

Now I'm hungry!

Lucci

chiguy- (is the "chi" for Chicago?)

LOVED the report. You've made up my mind to do a 4-day weekend there with friends. You've also sold me on the restaurant tour! (It reminded me of years ago how a group of 8 of my friends and I would look through the Friday Entertainment section of our local paper and pick a new ethnic restaurant to dine at every Saturday night. It was a blast and exposed me to Portuguese, Cuban, Indian, Thai and a dozen other cuisines. I'm wondering now why we stopped!)

Thanks for the detailed trip report! It was inspiring!

Paula

What a wonderful report! You really captured what we love about the area-- chiles (of course), kindness of the Santa Feans and the beauty of the surrounding areas.

I was in a workshop in SF and ate at Tia Sophia's every morning. By the third morning, they knew my name and had my tea on it's way as soon as they saw me. I felt like a local!!

Sorry to hear about India Palace. That was a favorite of ours. DH (who has made many trips to India) said it was the best this side of Dehli.

Glad you were able to take your chiles home. Nothing like the fall with the smell of the chile roasters and pinon burning.

Thanks for such a great report.
BeachGirl

Yes, great report. My DW and I were there the week after you; did a lot of the same stuff. But, wish we had known about the restaurant tour. DW would have loved that!! Next time.... As it was, we did get to La Boca one night. Tapas were interesting, well prepared, and tasty, though I didn't think the place quite lived up to the hype. The highlight for my wife was Robert Duvall being seated a couple tables away.

Lee Ann
“…black trash bag full of chile…” Hilarious! Yes, I really didn’t want to be that guy.
“How did you get roasted chile home without it spoiling?” We planned ahead by bringing gallon-size zip-lok bags (hats off to DW!) and an empty duffel. When we got back to the room, the chiles had cooled enough to re-pack them into the four zip-loks, which we then packed into a second set of plastic bags, and ultimately the black trash bag before putting them into the duffel bag. Bishop’s Lodge had a fridge in the room, so they stayed cool overnight. I was most concerned about the liquid in the bags, since that seems to be the point of contention nowadays. I had all my arguments ready (“The human body is 55 – 75% water.”) which I assumed I’d lose if it got to that point. But they passed under the x-ray without a question. When we got home, we peeled them and re-packed them into smaller freezer bags. I’ve already made my first batch of mean green from them and it was great!

Lucci
I bet the change from the late 70”s is huge. I started going in the early 80’s and my last visit was around ’90, and I hardly recognize the Plaza area. I started with a list of about 25 restaurants and whittled it down to about 15, but I just couldn’t eat that much!

Paula
“(is the "chi" for Chicago?)” Yep. You can take the boy out of Chicago, but you never get Chicago out of the boy.
“…a group of 8 of my friends…” That is too cool. We should try and start something like that. Even once a month would be really a treat.

BeachGirl
“…Tia Sophia's every morning…” Maybe you remember the male waitperson? Maybe 40-ish, sandy hair. He cracked a little joke every time he walked by. Great guy.
India Palace—Yes, that was a disappointment. DW is from South India, by way of Malaysia and the UK, and so we were looking forward to it. The sign is still up, but it was dark at 7:30pm. By the way, your reports and responses were extremely useful in our planning. Thanks for all your contributions.

Beachbum
I know the feeling. There were plenty of things we missed, even though most posters feel that 2-3 days in Santa Fe is enough. We didn’t really have any high expectations when we went into LaBoca, and maybe that helped them to exceed our expectations. We had seen the good reviews, but on the other hand, we came back from Spain pretty bummed about tapas.

“(is the "chi" for Chicago?)” Yep. You can take the boy out of Chicago, but you never get Chicago out of the boy.

Yeah, I've lived in D/FW area for almost 20 years, but I'm still known as the "windy city gal".

(and despite the recent meltdown, I will never give up my Cubbies!...or my Bears!)

Cubbies??? I vaguely remember a team by that name. But I'm a die-hard baseball fan, so the White Sox are my team.

Great report--it makes me want to visit SF and chow down.