Alex De Vore
Food, Oct. 4: “Mystic Flatbread”
Why care about decor?
What a weird review of a new restaurant [High Desert at The Mystic] especially since the demise of so many great places due to too much expense or not enough staff. Why so many words on the reviewer’s thoughts on the decor? Especially when it’s obvious it is just not their taste, the owners must [have] thought it beneficial to their taste or brand. I salute any restaurant opening up in Santa Fe in these extremely tough times to make a living that way.
Lisa Glickman McDonough, via Facebook
Santa fantasy
They did decorate it that way “for their brand”...without any consideration of where they are, whose land they’re on and which distinctive cultures they are appropriating. Creating a “fantasy” of Santa Fe meant to be lived by a mostly white, well-heeled crowd disrespectfully erases the people whose whole millennia old culture and tradition the hotel’s “look” is stolen from. I think that part of what the hotel is doing is definitely worth mentioning in a review.
Lauren Stutzman, via Facebook
Entire experience
Restaurant reviews should not be limited to food; they should reflect the writer’s entire experience of (and opinion about) the atmosphere and decor. I found this review very helpful and thorough in nailing a certain type of aesthetic (very much proliferating in town these days) that seems to be mostly geared toward tourists’ idea of what Santa Fe should look like.
Molly Boyle, via Facebook
Cover, Oct. 4: “Lives in Limbo”
FEMA is FUBAR
Our congressional delegation is FIGMO. FEMA set up its office a year after it should have and still is sitting on over 90% of funds. Our congresswoman [Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández] lauded the FEMA opening. If she was doing her job, the office would have been opened over a year ago. She should be, and is not, proactive. Her standing on the sidelines will only enable FEMA’s slow rolled. She needs a push.
Ed Brown, Santa Fe
