After this week’s edition of The Fork, we’ll only have one more for the rest of the year. Which is to say that you’ve got two more 2022 Forkings left (including this one), so you better savor the moment. And, since the closer we get to the annual week off SFR staffers take, we’re feeling lazy as heck and have thrown together the newsletter version of the clip show. That’s right, Fork Frenz—it’s the big fat year in review!
In early January, we made a bunch of predictions about upcoming food trends, and you know what? We were right on every last freaking count. Restaurants did indeed try harder, with new chains coming to town, outdoor dining options going bananas and some places even opening up little grocery stores. Plant-based options are indeed plentiful, too, and everyone we ever met totally bought an air fryer. God, we’re smart. Later that month, we talked about getting healthy (something we didn’t personally do, but do as we say and all that...), and it was also the first announcement that a little eatery called Mille was planning to open, which our reviewer was all about the following month; Madrid’s Mine Shaft Tavern turned 75 (with 15 years under current ownership) and The Food Depot was forced to cancel its Souper Bowl event because COVID was bumming everyone out. That seems like so long ago—or at least an era when we were more willing to not do things while pretending nothing was wrong. We also ate a lot of Goldfish that month.
Come February, we were all about French toast and making better pizza. Dairy Queen in Pojoaque tragically closed (RIP Orange Lazarus...or is it Julius?), Blue Corn Brewery changed its name to Hidden Mountain (and we made ranch dressing jokes) and the folks behind Paloma opened Esquina Pizza. We also conducted our semi-annual reader’s survey, which is kind of like asking everyone to dunk on you for fun. We learned nothing of import. Naw, jay-kay. Or are we not jay-kaying? Naw, we are, and you can see the massively skewed results of that survey here. Of course, there’s no real oversight for a food newsletter from a free rag written by a reverse Phantom of the Opera (which is our term for someone who does not live in a catacomb), so we either did or didn’t do the things you wanted and no one complained. USA!
March came next, as it usually does, and we got into info on tangerines (while also calling Florida racist), as well as a breakdown of National Food Days (which include Eat Your Noodles Day and Potato Chip Day). We’re pretty sure other food things happened, but we just realized this edition is becoming too long.
April brought Easter for weirdos, wherein we wondered aloud why some people need to do gross-ass Easter food and also asked the readers if it was time to start eating chicken again. Many said yes. Many said no. We’re still immobilized by fear (and we maintain it’s weird to eat birds). April also found our local Farmers Market being named the sixth best in the country, Rudy’s BBQ announcing it would later open in Santa Fe (which it did do) and we got a new pizza joint called Santa Fe Pizza Gallery. We’ve yet to eat there, but it’s on the list.
In May, we ate so many vegan corndogs (and liked it) and Second Street Brewery’s Mariah Cameron Scee won a bunch of design awards for her beer can designs. We also taught everyone a lesson in popsicles.
In June, July and August (the summer months), we made fruit salads, sourced some cocktail recipes from the fine folks at Santa Fe Spirits, talked cherries (another valuable history lesson!) and told everyone to watch that show The Bear WAAAAAAAY before anyone else told everyone else to watch that show The Bear. We named our favorite coffee joints, Open Kitchen’s Hue-Chan Karels shared a special recipe, we said goodbye to the Choco Taco, talked gratitude (which included a cake recipe), and took a look at fall fruits. Y’know, written out in list form like that, The Fork suddenly seems very impressive. That’s a lot of cool topics for a mere three months. Tell us we’re great. Tell us now!
Which, of course, brings us to September-through-now-ish, wherein we waxed poetic on an out-of-town vegan restaurant, got into the world of eggs, checked out some more national food days and made snack recommendations. We questioned the existence of Coke with coffee, offered up some cool food-based YouTube channels and started eating hot dogs again. We brought you pumpkin recipes and vegetarian Thanksgiving ideas; we delved into comfort foods. During these months, a whole bunch of other stuff happened, too, from the Vineyard Restoration Fund, which raised money for vineyards; the arrival of a new bevvie at Altar Spirits, plus burger contest winners and 100 pounds of undeclared cheese.
We’d keep going, but we’ll honestly be shocked if everyone read this far. We’ll be back next week (though we’re taking the following week off, as we said), so be prepared for that. Thanks for making 2022 a...well, not a blast. What’s the opposite of sucky? Fun? No, not that far.................................Less sucky? Anyway, thanks for making 2022 suck less.
Please just let this year end, God!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKO6XYXioc
Also
-Our spies (by which we mean a guy we know) tell us that The Pink Adobe and its sister/attached bar The Dragon Room have sold to the owners of The Inn of the Five Graces, which is pretty much just right over there on De Vargas Street right around the corner from the ol’ PA (nobody calls it that). No word on whether anything will change, though if rumors we’ve heard ring true, the place will likely stay the same. Still, since everything is changing, don’t be surprised if the changes are a-coming. But again, we do not have any concrete info about any changes or no changes, so don’t take this as us saying there’ll be changes. Or no changes. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. We just like typing the word “changes.”
-Sad restaurant news as French spot La Tour Experience has closed its doors. Just last April, our reviewer loved it, saying that we should pray “La Tour Experience is the restaurant that finally keeps its footing in that strange liminal space downtown.” That spot at the corner of Cerrillos and Manhattan has housed numerous other eateries over the years and always seemed kinda cursed. This one particularly stings because owner/baker/chef Lynda Amrani was offering up some of the finest pastries and brunches this side of anyplace. Le sigh, Santa Fe...le sigh.
-Second Street Brewery announced earlier this week via social media that it will serve up chicken pot pies at its Rufina Taproom and Railyard locations on Tuesdays for the next however long. A staple of the sadly-shuttered original location, patrons were reportedly missing that bad boy.
-If you’re reading this on the day it comes out, being Dec. 15, you’d better hurry to Felipe’s Tacos for your final chance to dine on food from Felipe Martinez. That’s right, nerds, if you somehow missed it, Martinez is retiring, and this is his last week of service before up-and-coming restauranteur Rodrigo Rodriguez puts his on spin on the place. We wish Rodriguez well, but we’ll miss Martinez something awful.
-Lastly in local news this week, we hear that a recent benefit event at hard kombucha outpost Honeymoon Brewery met its goal, which means owners Ayla Bystrom-Williams and James Hill will now build a hybrid indoor/outdoor space for concerts and the like. It won’t be massive or anything, but with bartender Kyle Perkins upping his game with live music events in recent months, it was time to add some more space and comfort to the operation.
If you liked last week’s Orson Welles video, check out this one, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i7ycxiog40
¡CONTEST WINNER ALERT!
Well, dear readers, we’ve come to the point where we’re ready to announce a winner of our You Donate to The Food Depot, We’ll Randomly Pick a Winner and Send ‘Em Something contest. Nearly 20 of you donated to The Food Depot in various amounts, and we think that’s grand! So we compiled your names, wrote them down and then hired one of those match genius chickens to peck out a winner with her beak. “Good job, Queenie,” we told her when it was over.
Anyway, we’re happy to announce the winner of the contest is reader Bridget B.! Bridget, we’ve sent you an email with directions, but in case you missed that, maybe this will let you know you won? As for everyone else, we salute you and encourage everyone to continue donating to The Food Depot. Here’s a link to do just that.
¡CONTEST WINNER ALERT!
Well, dear readers, we’ve come to the point where we’re ready to announce a winner of our You Donate to The Food Depot, We’ll Randomly Pick a Winner and Send ‘Em Something contest. Nearly 20 of you donated to The Food Depot in various amounts, and we think that’s grand! So we compiled your names, wrote them down and then hired one of those match genius chickens to peck out a winner with her beak. “Good job, Queenie,” we told her when it was over.
Anyway, we’re happy to announce the winner of the contest is reader Bridget B.! Bridget, we’ve sent you an email with directions, but in case you missed that, maybe this will let you know you won? As for everyone else, we salute you and encourage everyone to continue donating to The Food Depot. Here’s a link to do just that.
More Tidbits
-Chips Ahoy, being that terribly dry and weird choco-chip cookie that parents get their kids only when they don’t love said kids, has a new flavor coming in 2023, and it’s—you ready for this?—cake-flavored. Well, confetti cake-flavored (though we’d point out that confetti shouldn’t be considered a flavor). Maybe you care about this, or maybe you know you can get or make better cookies? (Idea: Pre-order some from the YouthWorks Social Justice Kitchen before Monday, Dec. 19.)
-Sam Kass—being a former White House chef, so you know he knows shit—recently took part in a discussion about sustainable foods, at which he announced that be believes coffee and chocolate will likely become scarce—and noticeably so—within the next 30 years. Choco we can live without, but we’re now praying for death before the coffee thing happens. We need it to live. We blame Red Bull for whatever reason.
-Heard about Ynsect? Why, it’s a company dedicated to insect proteins, and it is reportedly building a new large-scale farm to explore ways in which insects might become a part of our regular food supply. In partnership with flour milling company Ardent Mills, Ynsect’s new farm would join its two others in Europe. You know what? This doesn’t bother us. We saw Snowpiercer and have been mentally preparing for this for years. #InsectIngredients
-We’re really digging food writer Amy McCarthy, and not just because, unlike us, she’s a real human person. McCarthy’s most recent piece digs into the weirdness of food television, and we’re very much here for that. We’re not, however, all that pumped on that Dan Levy brunch show. Like, who asked for that? We have too many dumb shows now. Just watch The Bear.
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
In the print edition of SFR this week, find out why you need to get to La Fogata Grill ASAP.
Number of Letters Received
27
*23 of which were auto-replies, so you’re all dead to us now.
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader)
“You’re so dumb.”
*Dang!
Actually Helpful Tip(s)
No tips, just tops.
*We don’t even know what that means, but it sounds funny to us when we read it aloud.
One more to go in ‘22,
The Fork
