Choosing a table inside Carmelita’s Cocina feels a little bit like dining in a crowded bazaar. It’s Santa Fe’s scaled-down answer to eating in the marketplace—ordering New Mexican classics in the shadow of a dizzying array of goods for sale, much of it from the estate of Carmelita’s late mother or made by Carmelita herself.

I have to admit that I stumbled into Mama Pacha (1722 St. Michael’s Drive) after a trip to Lowe’s supermarket to purchase squeeze- cheese, Lay’s Limón potato chips and a box of partially-hydrogenated-everything crackers for an epic road trip with my kids. We’d be driving out of Santa Fe armed with junk food like they’d rarely experienced, and this entirely uncharacteristic additive and preservative binge had taken on the status of a special mission.

Stu Dickson has landed in a new kind of paradise. After 15 years in senior management positions with Tommy Bahama Tropical Cafés (plus 20 additional years in the restaurant business), the new owner o