A Year in Mad Flavor

In any American town the size of Santa Fe or larger, the restaurant/food scene is commonly a fluid, ever-shifting beastie. But for gastronomes and chefs alike, the changes aren't always welcome. Closings, major buyouts and staff changes, lawsuits and plenty of rumors and conjecture simply come with the territory.

Yet, as I sit here on New Year's Eve day with a huge glass of wine sifting through my notes—looking back over the last 12 months' worth of food-related happenings here—it becomes clear that we experienced many more ups than downs. Even without the wine, I'm pretty optimistic that things will get exponentially better in 2015.

Let's get the bad news out of the way first. There were a few restaurant closures, although some of them came with silver linings. Peta Palace, the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern joint that replaced Istalif Cuisine in the bottom floor of Plaza Mercado, bit the dust. Local staple Guadalupe Café, which shared its locale with The Pink Adobe, is but a memory. The Pink, however, now has brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

The internationally beloved Tecolote Café was evicted from its Cerrillos Road location in April, and while the owners hoped to be open by November of last year in the St. Michael's Village West Shopping Center (in a space formerly occupied Yummy Café), predictable Santa Fe delays have pushed the opening to sometime in the beginning of this year. It won't be long. The Green Owl Café, also on St. Michael's Drive, has shuttered permanently, and there are no whispers of a reopening anytime soon.

Lease disputes between the owners of Coyote Café and landlords have set up a potentially rocky future for the iconic location—one that helped put this city on the global culinary map to begin with.

"New" Kids in Town

It seems impossible that so many restaurants opened this year; but you know what? We'll take 'em. Bert's Burger Bowl chef-owner Fernando Olea reopened, relocated and renamed his more-upscale restaurant Epazote (now called Epazote on the Hillside) from downtown Santa Fe to Old Las Vegas Highway. Chef/owner Rachael Lobb opened the eclectic counter-service eatery The Kitchen Window, where sandwiches, sexy desserts and New Mexico staples reign supreme, in the Design Center. Chef Joel Coleman (formerly of Mauka and Koi) and his business partner Josh Johns brought extremely approachable, beer-friendly fusion cuisine to the North Guadalupe Street corridor with the opening of Fire & Hops.

On Johnson Street, snuggled next to the O'Keeffe Museum, Georgia restaurant has become an oasis for fine-dining denizens who are looking for something beyond the chile-infused sameness. Next door, Melinda Gipson's Sweet Lily Bakery opened last summer with little fanfare but huge payoffs for the sweets-inclined. Former Aqua Santa/Standard Market/Café Escalera owner Brian Knox unleashed his Shake Foundation, a labor of love with chile cheeseburgers and hand-blended shakes as its…um…foundation. Jalapeño's, once a go-to place for the chilehead set of state workers on Old Santa Fe Trail, relocated to Cerrillos Road in the former home of Café Olé, and added "Barrio Café" to its name. In the old digs of Hidden Chicken at Pacheco Street and St. Michael's Drive, gastropub Loyal Hound brought modern comfort food to a thriving neighborhood in dire need of a local hangout with headier options than lazy bar fare.

Pizza Centro extended its piece of the local pie by adding a third location, this one in the San Isidro Plaza Shopping Center across from the Regal Stadium 14 cineplex. And on Marcy Street, The Beestro doubled-down on its mastery of curbside soups, salads and sandwiches with a nighttime sit-down creperie upstairs—with wine!

The local specialty-foods retail market got a huge boost last year with the opening of Barrio Brinery, whose house-made pickles and other fermented goods are the thing of dreams; Cheesemongers of Santa Fe, which offers everything from cut-to-order, hard-to-find, sustainably-crafted cheeses and farmstead products to brined olives and chocolates; Verde Juice, which will make all your retail and home-delivered cold-pressed-juice dreams come true; and the Santa Fe Honey Salón & Farm Shop on Juanita Street, a great place to taste and buy New Mexico-produced honey products. Not far away from there on Camino Alire, the George RR Martin-owned Dragonstone Studios is hoping to secure a restaurant tenant on the immediate.

Happy Hours

It wasn't a bad year for alcohol producers, either. The Santa Fe Brewing Co. announced a $10 million, 52,000-square-foot expansion project that may see the company produce 200,000 barrels per year (up from 30,000 barrels) by 2020, adding more than a handful of jobs to the local economy. Second Street Brewery partnered with the Santa Fe Conservation Trust to produce Boneshaker Bitter, a frothy fundraising beverage that has the taste of trail-walking freedom all over it.

After leaving their coveted downtown spot in the Santa Fe Arcade, Marble Brewery opened its Santa Fe Tap Room in the Luna Center on Cerrillos Road. The Santa Fe Arcade spot is now home to Draft Station, which pours from 14 taps overlooking the historic Plaza. Santa Sidra Cider and Santa Fe Cider Works finally found their roots, putting the 2012 bumper crop of New Mexico apples to very good use.

There are plenty of surprises coming in 2015, including the return of a few familiar faces from the local culinary scene that may surprise you. While they continue to hammer out details, let's leave the rumor and conjecture to the past, and revel in the one thing we know for certain: 2014 was a banner year to be a hungry, thirsty, adventurous person in this town. Keep it up, Santa Fe. You've done us proud.

Santa Fe Reporter