Santa Fe ??

Going to Santa Fe (NM) for a conference and have a couple of free evenings. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

mike

For what it's worth I thought I could help, and tried, but it turns out the restaurant I heard such good things about that I bought the cookbook, Elote Cafe, is in Sedona Arizona. And thinking about our Grand Canyon trip I'm not sure we even got over to New Mexico. I did dig around on Yelp! for Santa Fe but I won't presume to tell you the results, heck, you can do that yourself. If you don't have the Yelp! app on your phone just google Yelp Santa Fe NM best restaurants. There are some nice sounding Mexican places and a wine bar, at least.

I'd like to visit Santa Fe some day, and what with the Hatch chilis and my favorite chili powder coming from Chimayo -- I would have the same reasons to visit NM as I do to visit Iceland. Scenery, birding, and food. NM "Mexican" is worlds away from Tex Mex.

PS and one of the best American wineries for Bubbly (including California!) is Gruet in Albuquerque

[Jenise]

Red Sage. Loved it last time I was there. More names shortly....

I was there last year but had no great success finding places. So, forget I posted this.

Thank you all!

Jenise - Red Sage looks good online, if you have any others please don't hesitate.

cheers,

mike

It's been several years but my wife and I shared a very nice meal at La Boca. Very good food and an interesting selection of wines, too. So if you're in the mood for tapas, it's worth looking into. If you want to explore first, you should easily find it via Google.

As for Frank's advice about Gruet sparkling wines, you might want to exercise caution. It had been a go-to QPR sparkler around here for long enough that on the same trip we made a pilgrimage to the tasting room in Albuquerque, a weird building in an odd location, a faux castle next to an RV dealer on a frontage road with freeway traffic whizzing by. Gruet "partnered with" (read: was acquired by) a larger firm a couple of years ago and the impression here is that quality has suffered. There's a thread on this subject in the wine forum.

[Jenise]

Yes, Gruet is no longer exclusively New Mexico fruit. However, a bottle a friend shared a few months ago surprised me for how good it was, and this was post the conversation here about the supposed drop in quality. Our bottle did not bear that out.

Back to restaurants: Mike, I'm a big fan of the Coyote Café (and it's sister restaurant Geronimo). Coyote's been around a long time and it's chef-owner Mark Miller is probably the guy who put Southwestern Cuisine on the national map. When I was there last I was afraid it might have turned stale or that quality suffered in the long years I was gone, but I didn't find that on my plate. I also loved the more casual Mexican food at Tomasita's.

Yes, Gruet is no longer exclusively New Mexico fruit. However, a bottle a friend shared a few months ago surprised me for how good it was, and this was post the conversation here about the supposed drop in quality. Our bottle did not bear that out.

Back to restaurants: Mike, I'm a big fan of the Coyote Café (and it's sister restaurant Geronimo). Coyote's been around a long time and it's chef-owner Mark Miller is probably the guy who put Southwestern Cuisine on the national map. When I was there last I was afraid it might have turned stale or that quality suffered in the long years I was gone, but I didn't find that on my plate. I also loved the more casual Mexican food at Tomasita's.

Gruet was purchased by PreceptBrands almost two yrs ago. It says on the front label "Proudly Produced in NewMexico". But on the back label it says "American (Sparkling) Wine". Rather cynical false advertising I'd say.
Now, most of the wines is made from grapes imported from WashState/Calif/Texas. Over the the last yr, the Gruets I've tried are not what they used to be.

SantaFe restaurants:
I don't eat much at the high-end SF restaurants (Compound/Geronimos/Coyote/SantaCafe) so can't speak from experince.
I prefer more casual/interesting restaurants. Some of my faves are LoyalHound/Fire&Hops/TerraCottaWineBistro/LaBoca/DrFieldGoods/Vinegarette.
For samwichs, DrFieldGoods Butcher Shop is amazing. And the Cheesemonger shop is not to be missed. For Italian: IlPiatto/Andiamo are very good. For NM food, which I don't eat much: TheShed/LaChoza are my favorites. Tomasita's is a bit on the bland side and pretty touristy.
Tom

Back to restaurants: Mike, I'm a big fan of the Coyote Café (and it's sister restaurant Geronimo). Coyote's been around a long time and it's chef-owner Mark Miller is probably the guy who put Southwestern Cuisine on the national map. When I was there last I was afraid it might have turned stale or that quality suffered in the long years I was gone, but I didn't find that on my plate. I also loved the more casual Mexican food at Tomasita's.

Jenise,
MarkMiller has long been gone from Coyote...though I still occasionally see him around town. It was sold to
Eric deStefano, chef at Geronimo, and Quinn Stevenson. Don't know about Coyote, but Geronimo uses a 500%
markup (200% is more common, about 2X retail) , which I think is rapicious. When I commented to the owner one time,
he gave me this look like I'm a PoS (Kansas colloquialism) and said (condescendingly) "Our customers are willing to
pay our prices for the very best". Never darkened their door again.
Tom

[Jenise]

Shucks re the Coyote. Didn't realize it sold but now I understand why it's referred to as Geronimo's sister restaurant. The markup you speak of is awful. But I do remember thinking the markup in New Mexico about the highest I've seen anywhere. 300% seemed about the bottom of the range. 500% is asinine.

Vinaigrette--I did eat there, liked it a lot. Would add to your endorsement.