Hungry? Check Out Santa Fe’s Top 5 Food Finds
One of the great joys in exploring new places around the world is thoroughly sampling the local cuisine. I love supporting local businesses. They especially need a boost during Covid-times. Beyond that, I find the food and dining experience so much more interesting than at chain restaurants you find everywhere.
I absolutely love these restaurants. So much so that I visited each on more than one occasion during my five-week sabbatical in Santa Fe. In fact, I was knighted a “temporary local”, an honor I hold dear.
Tip 1: For an out of this world meal or Happy Hour that’s sure to delight your senses, check out Thunderbird Bar and Grill at the Plaza It’s in a great location with a second story outdoor balcony overlooking the beautiful Santa Fe Plaza, perfect for Covid-era dining (and also after life returns to normal).
Thunderbird has a fun Volcano Margarita that’s big enough for the whole table to share. It will definitely get the party started.
My favorite menu items are the Margarita Shrimp (no relation to the beverage), the T-bird Enchiladas, and the Thunder-Fajitas. All of this delicious food is served up in a fun, socially distanced atmosphere worthy of multiple visits.
Tip 2: If you’re hankering for a burger, look no further than the Burger Stand Burro Alley. This spot is just a few steps from Santa Fe Plaza. Look for the statue of the donkey laden with firewood and you’ll know you’re close.
There’s both indoor and outdoor patio dining, with a great selection of craft beer and burgers.
I loved the duck-fat fries and beer battered onion rings, a nice complement to the Green Chile Cheeseburger I ordered.
Bonus tip: If you’re in Taos, visit its sister Burger Stand restaurant located on Paseo del Pueblo (a main street near the Taos Plaza). I couldn’t resist the smell of the burgers cooking at this place either and I didn’t know the two restaurants were related!
Tip 3: If you’re looking for a fun wine place, stop by the Hervé Wine Bar just a block off the Plaza.
If you’re thinking Hervé sounds French, you’re right. The LesCombes family brought their winemaking prowess from Burgundy, France to New Mexico in the 1980s.
The wine is tasty and there’s a cute outdoor seating area with high top wine barrel tables - great if you aren’t up for an indoor dining experience just yet.
Over multiple visits, I enjoyed a nice Pinot Noir, a bold Cabernet, and a refreshing Pinot Gris.
When I visited in January and February, the indoor section was closed due to Covid, but it looks like a fun place for the next time I’m in Santa Fe. In fact, we weren’t the only ones who thought Hervé’s indoor area looked inviting. We had a chance encounter with Mario Lopez and his crew who were scouting this location for a holiday movie.
Tip 4: The best place for a quick non-alcoholic beverage and lunch is the Teahouse on Canyon Road.
This place was walking distance from my Casita and it beckoned me almost daily for a tea, or lunch, or both.
One of the best parts about frequenting a place as a “temporary local” is meeting the owners and learning their stories. Here’s the Teahouse story: Rich, who’s from New Hampshire, turned this former tea lounge with its requisite couches and lounge-y furniture into his first restaurant in 2013.
As a former tea lounge, the kitchen is tiny and not designed to crank out the quantity and quality of menu items they manage to create on a daily basis. Rich told me a 14 square foot kitchen with no grill does all the heavy lifting for this flavorful array of menu items.
Everything on the eclectic menu is one of Rich’s personal favorites. Why not? If you’re going to run a restaurant there’s no better place to enjoy your favorite meals! Rich says the eggs benedict seven ways are “to die for”. I believe him, although I can’t personally vouch for it as this part of the menu wasn’t available during January/February 2021.
For a healthy departure from my earlier burger-loving choices, I enjoyed the Goat Cheese, Roasted Pear and Pine Nuts with Chicken over Mixed Greens Salad. Totally worth it.
Since I couldn’t try the eggs benedict, my “to die for” lunch item here is the Italian Chicken Pot Pie.
Between me and the host of guests I brought here, we tried just about everything on the menu. It’s all fantastic.
I also made a game out of trying many of the different teas, matchas, and other infusions available from the pages-long hot drinks menu. My two favorites are the Manchester Fog (earl grey tea, soy milk, and sugar-free vanilla) and a flowering tea called the Volcano Flower Burst (a mild green tea with hibiscus, lavender, and amaranth flowers that expands before your eyes while it steeps in the cup). Other favorites include the Montreal Fog and the Bazaar Latte. My suggestion: visit often and try them all!
This is an incredible local find. I am so impressed they are finding their way to success with limited outdoor seating and lines out the door of hungry patrons patiently waiting for an outdoor patio table to become available.
The good news is the Teahouse reopens for indoor dining on April 1, 2021! Soon they will be able to serve even more hungry visitors lucky enough to discover this gem on Canyon Road.
Part of the slower “sabbatical” journey is to find at least one spot where you feel like a local. Get to know the owner and those who work there. It enriches the dining experience tenfold.
Tip 5: Expand your food comfort zone by exploring new tastes and menu items.
While in Santa Fe don’t miss the top rated African-Caribbean, fusion-themed, Jambo Café. When I visited, this was a “carryout-only” option with easy contact-less delivery to your car.
Bonus Tip: If someone you know is traveling, research the local restaurant scene and buy them a gift card for dinner. This is a thoughtful and much-appreciated gift, guaranteed.
Top recommendations from my visits include fried cornmeal plantain crab cakes, curry- encrusted pistachio goat cheese salad, a combination plate with chicken curry, goat stew, and chickpea berbere stew, Moroccan-spiced marinated chicken kebobs and a Lamu coconut (spicy) Pili-Pili shrimp over rice. I’d order every one of these dishes again in a heartbeat.
Summary: I hope this blogpost inspires you to think outside the box about eating “local” wherever you might live, and especially if you’re visiting Santa Fe. I’ll share more blogposts in the coming weeks about fun day walks exploring different parts of the city of Santa Fe as well as road trips to stunning locations about an hour’s drive time. Even if you’re not able to sabbatical here for a month, these short itineraries are sure to spark a desire to explore more of all this magical state has to offer.
Check out @travelistaliz on Instagram for more photos and New Mexico stories, visits to other corners of the Southwestern U.S., and even glimpses into other countries of the world I’ve found my way to explore. If you have any questions about this itinerary, reach out in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer.