The Fork

Survey Says...

Hey, buds. What’s up? How are you? You well? We’re OK. We were actually just kind of laughing because during the pandemic we’ve been so mightily slam-dunking on the “We just really need to eat in a restaurant!” set, but now we’ve also been eating in restaurants (just a few places we trust and that are taking the distancing thing seriously). In other words, we’ve become that on which we once yukked, but it did get us thinking that it was time for a good, old-fashioned Fork Survey (TM), whereby we’ll hopefully get some insight into what diners and food fanz are doing now that the CDC has said we apparently don’t have to worry about masks in public places. Yikes.

Anyway, if you’ve got a sec, please respond to our queries and then we’ll synthesize that data using the Fork-puter in the Forktress of Solitude, and then we can hopefully all learn something (or at least be scared by the more blasé members of the class who don’t care about waiters). Onward!

Did you lean into takeout and/or delivery during the pandemic, or did you eat out whenever possible?

Did your tipping habits change? In other words, did you access your humanity and part with an extra couple bucks so as to help out the people who had to keep working in public service jobs during the insanity?

Now that we apparently don’t have to mask up in public spaces like we used to, will you change your mask habits?

If so, why? If not, why? Do you plan on getting into it with workers who ask you to mask up as if it’s the worst civil rights violation of our lifetimes? (it’s not)

Have you been avoiding restaurants, and do you think you’ll return to places you love and/or trust?

Anything else you’d like to add?

Yeah, we’re curious. See, we worked in the biz for a very long time and also love a lot of people who are in ye olde server jobs, so we really just gots to know.

Listen to this while you answer the survey.

Also

-What do you know about the Good Food Foundation Virtual Mercantile? It’s not just a tongue-twister, it’s this online thing that’s meant to help food-based businesses recoup a little after COVID. On that list, you’ll find numerous New Mexico businesses, including Apple Canyon Gourmet Inc., Cervantes Food Products Inc., Heart of the Desert Pistachios & Wines, Heidi’s Raspberry Farm, Montoya Orchards, New Mexico Desert Farm and The Bossy Gourmet. Visit the link above to find out how to help.

-If you want to grow your own food, you might know about the Santa Fe Extension Master Gardeners (we talk about it, like, alllll the time). Anyway, the little org that can—and does—is helping to facilitate some cool events as part of its Let’s Grow series, including basic composting, water conservation and more. These things are free, but you’ve gotta register, so email Linda Hinckley at lhinckley47@gmail.com or Vicky Jacobson at vjake46@gmail.com.

-Reminder that the Santa Fe Farmers Market hours change starting June 1, and you’ll now be able to hit those Tuesday and Saturday markets at 7 am instead of 8 am.

-Speaking of the Farmers Market, local nonprofit YouthWorks opens its YouthWorks Café right there at said market on Sunday May 16. From 10 am to 3 pm, you’ll be able to get down on the foooooooods. And while we’re talking YouthWorks, did you know it partnered with local orgs Alas de Agua Art Collective, Three Sisters Collective and Reunity Resources to get a plot of farmland going? It’s true, it’s called Full Circle Farm—and an SFR staffer even stopped by the other day to check out the opening festivities. Check out a few photos:

Buncha beautiful clouds up in there. No bad at all. Note that there were apparently many more revelers on hand, but that our shutterbug was reportedly too busy watching poets perform to worry about snapping shots all dang day.

More Tidbits

-Sounds like Uncle Ben’s rice will now be known as Ben’s Original—another example of a thing that’s not really doing anything but that people feeling guilty will point to and be like: “See? Racism is over!” It isn’t, and this isn’t anything.

-HuffPost asks the perennial question about whether it’s rude to have an overly complicated drink order when you go to coffee shops. We’ll link the story right here, but we don’t need to read it to know that yes, it’s rude. Drink coffee like a person.

-We were looking around the internet for cool food stories and checked out the Buzzfeed food section for any cool stories. Instead we found a baffling array of bullshit. Like that last item, we’ll link it, but we aren’t about to read everything because it’s all too intense and kind of gross.

-Gird yourselves for the following item about how Congress’ SBA funds for restaurants, which were earmarked at $28.6 billion, might not made a dent in the $65 billion in applications. According to Eater-dot-com’s Elazar Sontag, things are looking bleak for eateries in America. Learn more here.

-Thrillist-dot-com gets into the mezcal with this super-cool history/buyer’s guide. Yes, it’s handy. Yes, you will probably get drunk.

-Ah, the suburbs. They’re more than the setting for tour-de-force films like The ‘Burbs and Suburban Commando—they’re also chock-full-o’ food, and Vice is taking a look at what that means. The short version? There’s more than meets the eye to non-city dining.

-Lastly this week in not-from-around-here food stuff, catch up with chef Liz Rogers of Cincinnati who is the mind behind Creamlicious Ice Creams, the only Black-owned nationally available ice cream brand in the country. Thetakeout-dot-com has all you need to know.

Finally

In the print edition of SFR, we yoinked some micro-reviews of popular local restaurants from our Restaurant Guide. Is there ramen in there? Only one way to find out.

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A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence

Number of Letters Received

25

*That’s better.

Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader)

“Have you ever had a really good pizza?”

*Of course!

Actually Helpful Tip(s)

“I’m going to encourage you to get the sugar bites from Anthony’s Grill.”

-OK, we will! In fact, even SFR’s Riley Gardner loved Anthony’s Grill when he visited. You can read all about it here.

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Smell you later,

The Fork