It's late and you're hungry.
It's possible to divide late-night eaters into two groups: sweet tooths and salt fiends. While some people eat late because they just never got around to eating during the normal hours, many others look to satisfy a leftover craving. You can always stop by your favorite convenience store for chips and chocolate or drive through your favorite fast food joint for quick-fix tacos. But Santa Fe has other options after 9:30 pm (though it could certainly use some more), from the greasy to the sublime.
If you want to walk on the salty side, head down to Water Street anytime before the midnight hour. At the
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Catamount, you can savor bar food classics like nachos, chicken fingers, burgers and fajitas, perfect fare to accompany playing a game of pool or watching one of the myriad sports showing on the Catamount's TVs.
If budget is your main concern, try Del Charro. There's a fine full bar and an array of $3 choices, including a generous quesadilla. A juicy burger runs you just $1 more. A mound of nachos is also $4; the enormous tortilla club is $5. If it's your sweet tooth that's throbbing, indulge in an ice cream sundae for $3. The cozy space is great for late night tête-à-têtes.
Find a more elegant space just up the street at the Hotel St. Francis bar. And far from chicken wings and burgers, the lengthy menu has inventive options such as lobster goat cheese rellenos and chile seared shrimp.
Sometimes you want something more substantial, and for that there's the Atomic Grill, Santa Fe's most dedicated late-night diner. Open until 3 am every night but Sunday, sometimes the Atomic is really the only option, but that doesn't mean it's not worth seeking out even slightly earlier in the evenings. The enormous chicken quesadilla is Southwest comfort food at its finest, or try a well-stuffed omelet any time of day, or an overflowing bowl of pasta. Food that can soak up the sins of almost any night-or day.
If you're inclined to entice your taste buds rather than just fill your stomach, the best choice is Swig, with its incredible pan-Asian tapas, served in Santa Fe's poshest atmosphere filled with the kind of girls that look like they never eat real food. But they're missing out if they don't eat Swig's. The Asian-influenced modern treats include a pork and shitake mushroom dumpling, spicy grilled lobster with rice vinegar slaw and a crispy brown rice cake, black sesame honey tempura shrimp with three sauces and panko fried calamari with two toppings.
Perhaps you've been up late reading about pesticides and growth hormones. Then head over to Café Oasis and try its organic, free-range and hormone-free goodies all served in an array of charming and creative spaces. It will make the worries of the world seem far, far away.
And if you're up really, really late, the Santa Fe Baking Co. opens at 6 am. But go to sleep, already.
Atomic Grill
103 Water St., 820-2866
10 am-3 am Monday-Saturday; 10 am-1 am Sunday
Café Oasis
526 Galisteo St., 983-9599
9:30 am-midnight Monday-Thursday; 9:30-2:30 am
Friday-Sunday
Catamount
125 E Water St., 988-7222
11 am-2 am Monday-Saturday; noon-midnight Sunday
Del Charro
101 W Alameda St., 954-0322
11:30-midnight daily
Hotel St. Francis
210 Don Gaspar Ave., 983-5700
11 am-midnight Monday-Saturday; 11 am-11 pm Sunday
Swig
135 W Palace Ave., 955-0400
5 pm-2 am Tuesday-Saturday
Santa Fe Reporter