Dinner in Santa Fe

We had definitely worked up an appetite after visiting Meow Wolf. Sliding through a washing machine door, walking in a refrigerator and making music with dinosaur ribs are strenuous activities. I recommend getting dinner reservations any night while in Santa Fe. We found an open table at the Santacafe, a restaurant known to be frequented by the famous and infamous. A distinction we would discover to be accurate.

Santacafe is located in an historic home built between 1857 and 1862 by Jose Manuel Gallegos. Gallegos was a controversial priest and politician who was defrocked in 1842. This building now home to Santacafe has been used as a boarding house, governmental offices and for a time the First Episcopal Chapel of Santa Fe.

This southwestern bistro has a beautiful courtyard–although sprinkled with snow–and elegant dining rooms. We were quite pleased that there was a table for two waiting for us on such last minute notice. Our white paper covered table was in a small room in the back of the restaurant with perhaps 3 other tables.

The restaurant serves American cuisine with a Southwestern pizzazz. Caroline chose the pan seared duck with spinach cannelloni, roasted baby carrots and rainbow kale with seasonal herb cream topped with a cranberry and grape compote.

I had to shake my head and wonder where had the child of mine gone who would eat only peanut butter sandwiches and chicken nuggets for years. Wow! Children really do grow up as do their tastes. I suppose my mother is reading this and thinking I should be one to talk. Most children will eat peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate milk as a child–not me. Today, I think there is nothing better than crunchy peanut butter but I still won’t touch chocolate milk.

I chose a Southwestern dish of roasted blue corn chicken enchiladas with Chimayo red chile sauce, calabacitas, black beans and Asadero cheese with pico de gallo. Calabacitas are a type of squash and Asadero cheese is a white Mexican cheese.

While waiting for our main courses we munched on Shiitake mushroom and cactus spring rolls. We tried to make conversation about our plans for the next leg of our trip, but our voices were drowned out by the table next two us where one very loud man and two equally loud women were seated. They were discussing the ability and/or inability of some friend of theirs to get insurance for a home. The conversation between the three was argumentative at times and included many four letter words that are not appropriate in a fine dining establishment or even at the local McDonalds.

A waitress noticing my discontent asked me if everything was alright? I replied that the food was good but the noise level was much to high for me to hear anything but the conversation at the neighboring table. A glance at the other two tables in our room let me know that I was not the only one annoyed. The waitress looked over at the loud table and smiled at me while saying, yes some people are loud.

The boisterous threesome finally finished their meal, their dessert, their after dinner drinks and coffee. They refused to make eye contact with me–as I glared at them but the man decided to come have a word with Caroline. He touched her shoulder and told her how much he liked her herringbone patterned down vest. We were both a bit disgusted.

After finishing our meal, our waiter came over and talked for a few minutes. He apologized for the loud party and explained that sometimes famous people behave rudely. He went on to tell us the actor’s name and the film in which he starred. I won’t tell you the name for I am hoping that this was just a one time occurrence of obnoxious behavior. However, you might know him from this line “Why are you screaming? I haven’t even caught you yet.”

After this encounter we were eager to get back to the Pueblo Bonito Bed & Breakfast and we made sure we double locked the door!

Joy