The popular Italian restaurant Cafe Cafe was robbed in the early hours of Dec. 8, with burglars making off with the restaurant's safe.

Co-owner Donalee Goodbrod tells SFR she is offering a reward of "a lifetime of pizza" to anyone providing information that leads to the arrest of the criminals.

As it happens, SFR held its employee holiday party at Cafe Cafe on Dec. 5, as it has for the last few years. The restaurant was named "restaurant of the year" two years ago in SFR's annual restaurant guide, and one of our "40 favorites" this year.

Unfortunately, Goodbrod says, tips prepared for employees who worked at SFR's party, along with several days worth of receipts, were still in the safe when it was stolen.

It appears that the thieves broke into the restaurant through the roof, she says: "It looks like [somebody] set up the ladder in the back of the building. We just found a three-pound hammer back there. They went up on the roof and tore a hole in where the air conditioning and heating unit is next to the vents. They came down through the vent, through the kitchen ceiling-there's electrical damage-and then they knew where to find the safe. They knew where to find the safe. They didn't disturb anything else. They went to the safe, it was bolted down, and it looks like they just ripped it right out of place and then busted through the back door."

Goodbrod and partner Kirsten Griffin received a call from their alarm company at approximately 3 am, and subsequently met police at the restaurant shortly thereafter. Goodbrod says they were able to clean up the damage in time to open for the day.

She acknowledges the thieves appear to have prior knowledge of the restaurant, and says she has heard there have been two similar restaurant break-ins in Santa Fe in the past few weeks (SFR has pending calls to both the city police, as well as two restaurants Goodbrod mentioned).

"I have to say, I'm just really happy no one was here," she says, "because it just seemed like such a violent and desperate act."

>Anyone with information on the robbery should call Goodbrod at 466-1391.