I‘d be hard-pressed to think of a single time in my entire life when I’ve felt particularly patriotic, though I’m all for workers taking any and all days off that are coming their way. This was hard to reconcile on the Fourth of July this year, though, as I traveled the width and length of the city in search of a late lunch with a pair of hangers-on. Santa Fe restaurants, it turns out, love the freaking Fourth, and everywhere we looked turned up naught but chains we didn’t want to visit, closed signs, near-misses and workers doing that thumb-across-the-throat gesture as we approached.
And then came Santa Fe Capitol Grill (3462 Zafarano Drive, (505) 471-6800), a Southside restaurant that I’ve often brought up during “Where the heck do we eat?” convos, and that others I know have shut down. I’ve never been entirely sure why, however, other than people have their favorites and I get pretty sad when someone suggests places that aren’t among mine. Now, though, having tasted a variety of dishes from the lunch menu, I can report pretty much all good things—and the staff went out of its way to make sure we received a solid holiday meal for America’s birthday.
Like almost every other non-chain restaurant that day, Santa Fe Capitol Grill had indeed planned to close a little early. We arrived at 3:07 pm, a mere few minutes after the holiday cutoff time, but one in my party, sweating from the heat and irritable from the long journey, rushed inside to make our case. “No problem,” the host told him. “Come on in!” Now, I am absolutely not suggesting we all go around to restaurants after they close to demand service. I even tried to stop this guy from bothering the staff—I begged him! But he moved like some kind of hunger-spurred super-viper, all wriggly and blindingly fast. And he cackled as he went, even. I apologized profusely to the host as I entered, but even then the spartan but enchantingly clean interior of the restaurant beckoned with the siren call of air conditioning, of nachos and burgers and, unexpectedly, spring rolls. The incredibly kind host was pretty much just like, “Dude, it’s fine.” And so it was.
People work up an appetite when tearing through town in the heat, so we started with the appetizer menu’s seared ahi with crispy baby spinach ($17) and the aforementioned spring rolls with fresh mixed greens, basil, mint and avocado ($13). In both cases, the little Southside oasis delivered, though the spring rolls easily won the taste-off. While the ahi was indeed as fresh and tender as seemed possible, the spring rolls proved particularly tasty and refreshing. Packed tightly with fresh leafy greens, the mint gave just the right contrasting flavor to the perfectly ripened avocado, and the rice paper wrapping held up as we tore through the generous portion with reckless abandon. The included sesame sauce was a pleasant complement as well, and though we didn’t add shrimp for an additional $3, this dish could easily work as a main for someone who did.
Choosing the main event dish felt more challenging, but did come with some great conversational fodder for the next time some jerk tells me they don’t think they like Santa Fe Capitol Grill. The restaurant has numerous sandwiches for anyone’s tastes, from a turkey club sandwich ($16) and pastrami reuben, to a turkey melt with green chile and a good old-fashioned tuna melt (all sandwiches are $16, save the habañero chicken sandwich with ranch dressing, which clocks in at $15). And that’s not even getting into the entrees, like chicken fried chicken ($17), fish and chips ($17), the prime rib burrito ($19; what a brilliant idea) and Asian short rib rice noodle salad ($18). Again, I’m forced to ask why I’ve been getting bad advice about this restaurant for years. This menu is a banger.
In the end, one of my companions chose nachos with chipotle pico, red chile crema and the requisite beans and cheese ($13). For larger appetites, it’ll run $6 to add carne asada to those nachos, which looked fantastic and smelled even better. My other companion listened to his heart and ordered the 10-ounce ribeye with sides of garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus ($30). Perhaps you wouldn’t expect that at a Southside bar and grill in a strip mall, but the steak was reportedly fantastic all-around, as was the asparagus. Hot tip? Asparagus is so easy to cook well and almost always tastes fantastic, so if you see it on a menu, try it. At Santa Fe Capitol Grill, they know what to do.
I myself wanted the restaurant’s most classic item, its namesake Santa Fe Capitol burger that comes with Hatch green, bacon and cheddar. At $16, this burger was so much bigger than it has any right to be, but the real clincher was the bacon, which somehow had crispy edges and a tender inner section.
Of course, you shouldn’t eat huge bacon burgers all the time, but some of the salads and lighter options at Santa Fe Capitol Grill have me thinking I might have to visit more often and work my way through. Oh, I’ll still get that burger when I’m too weak to fight myself, though maybe not always with bacon. Whatever happens, after our fortuitous Fourth of July sojourn—the one where the staff welcomed us in when other eateries would not—everyone can just go ahead and consider me a fan for life.