Normally, if someone were to offer me a nice little cup of “vegan-aise,” I would look around for a stick with which to beat him. The only mayonnaise I’ll eat is the fresh-made, lovingly whisked variety, preferably created shortly after stealing a warm egg from under a hen. It’s not snotty; I just think mayonnaise in a jar from the store tastes like…nothing.

Selling burritos and tacos on the south side is a whole different game compared to peddling them downtown. Local favorite Bumble Bee’s Baja Grill has acknowledged that it can’t compete with the increase in taco carts and burrito stands on the other end of town. The solution: hamburgers.

In tandem with the cupcake craze that has finally swept Santa Fe, artisanal olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar shop Oleaceae has brought upscale oil and vinegar tasting to town. How exactly these fads take hold is beyond me, but there’s nothing wrong with spending a gluttonous half-hour swilling vinegar from stainless steel containers in the small, charming shop.

It’s all about pies and macaroons if the fashionable foodie hype is to be believed. Cupcakery is passé, claim the fashionistas—never mind Vogue magazine’s declaration that “owning a cupcake bakery is the career fantasy of our times.” And yet Santa Fe is happily drowning in cupcakes.

Santa Fe’s new Taco Bell lurks among historic and innovative new buildings at the gateway to the Baca Railyard and downtown Santa Fe like a tumor among pearls.

When the Green Onion, more typically called the “Grunion,” shut its doors and left St. Michael’s Drive with a dearth of cheap beer, alcoholic quiz games and greasy onion rings, we lost more than just a skeezy bar. We lost the identity of the road, the soul of St. Mike’s.

To honor SFR’s roundup of Santa Fe bars, I took in the famed tapas offerings at Santa Fe’s oldest extant bar, El Farol. The name translates to “the lantern,” a classic tavern signifier of warmth, respite and camaraderie—and El Farol does not disappoint in this regard.

On the one hand, it’s a bad idea to walk into a restaurant like Shibumi Ramenya with a head cold. You’re not going to be able to taste the full range of flavors or grasp the balance of ingredients in the carefully prepared dishes. On the other hand, it just might cure you.

Ireland, so recently famous for an economic boom and an attendant uptick in cultural vitality—including culinary cunning—is taking the economic bust with particular difficulty. As one Irish

A firestorm of closures and changes tore through Santa Fe’s restaurant scene in the past year. From a high elevation, it looks like utter devastation. But a closer, ground-level view reveals that, just as the carnage of a forest fire encourages healthy new growth, Santa Fe’s culinary future is bright despite the burn.