Restaurant The Bar at Rio Chama
Cuisine Type: 40 Favorites , Bar
505-955-0765
414 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe,
NM
Restaurant Information
| Meals |
Lunch Dinner |
|---|
About The Bar at Rio Chama
If you're looking for Santa Fe in a bottle, look no farther than the bar at Rio Chama. Here is the town's most symptomatic restaurant venue: a place for good, strong drinks, the half-baked study of demographic trends and the scandals of their sometimes-sauced ambassadors.
Rio Chama runs loud and spicy in local flavor and it's not just in the bar food. Service here is tasteful and discreet, but thankfully Chef Tom Kerpon's bar food is as brazen as ever. In the interest of diversity, the hulking platter of nachos are best enjoyed with a roasted green chile and cheese mantle and an order of meaty, robust Chama chile on the side. For maximum dipping pleasure, an order of chips y salsa, not for the hot, fresh chips, but for the ranchera and verde salsa and the habañero guacamole, will not go uneaten. The burgers and fries are magnificent, as are the ribs and the greasy crispy chicken tacos, which smoke the flabby hot wings and leathery potato skins of lesser establishments.
Speaking of smoke, you'll find ashtrays and an invitation to use them in The Humidor across the courtyard. Rio Chama bartenders are some of the best in town, making it one of the only places where ordering a classic cocktail won't earn you a blank stare. Even the staunchest purists are encouraged to examine the cocktail menu here: a tireless treasure, including six signature takes on the Manhattan. Barring a few grating names, these are some of town's most creative libations: the green-tini with green tea vodka and honey simple syrup, the margarita o-fashioned, with Hornitos, Cointreau, orange, cherry, bitters and sweet and sour, and the brisk but engaging Orange Kaffir lime gimlet, among many others. (A Qasimi)
Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday. $$$
