Oh, hi, Fork Pals! It's us—The Fork. Le Fork. Le Fourchette. Forkster. Fork-Face? Whatever you call us, we're here. It's the end of the year. We're tired. So tired. Do you know how hard it is to churn out this high-quality jazz week after week? So hard. But we're here, this is the final Fork of 2024—let's look back at everything we talked about this year.
In January, we defended the noble bologna sandwich. And that's a hill on which we'll die again and again. Honestly, we don't know what's in bologna and we don't care, because it tastes good. Our rec? Oscar Mayer, baby. We also waxed philosophical about Real Burger and then had readers yell at us about Real Burger.
Come February, we broke down what trends we thought might pop up in 2024. Of course, we didn't really track any of it ultimately, so we can't say whether we were right or not. We also went big at Burrito Spot (we still love their rolled tacos with guac and cheese and chicken), pondered where to find the best green chile cheeseburger in town (we loved the Milagro one, but still preferred and continue to prefer the one at Ortiz) and took a trip down memory lane involving foods our mom used to make. We also ordered a breakfast sandwich from a pop-up called The Meltdown that turned out to be a shell company for fucking Denny's—and it was every bit as good as you'd assume a Denny's sandwich would be.
March kicked off with a little bit of data science, by which we mean hastily sourced online maps claiming this and that about New Mexico's food habits (apparently we New Mexicans love Cheetos, mushroom pizza and, somehow, pizza with carrots). We also penned a love letter to the restaurants of San Isidro Plaza like The Plaza Café Southside and La Plancha and such—and then had readers yell at us about San Isidro Plaza. Lastly in March, we dropped a dope-ass scone recipe (you're welcome).
April came in like a lion (which was weird, because that's usually a March thing) with a primer to local smash burgers (and a most excellent clip from a '90s cartoon about Pog-based superheroes (watch it through that last link and thank us later). We also had a killer sandwich at French joint Clafoutis, caught big feelings for The Ranch House and learned there's an even cuter kind of tangerine than the already-pretty-cute tangerine. Then we ate a million of them. Then we slept.
May came with a bunch of nay-sayers trying to stop us from writing about our then-new air fryer (and y'all wrote us A LOT of letters about it). We still love that thing. We also reminded everyone that if they're not willing to tip, they don't deserve to eat at restaurants, and we stand by that—tip or die, we say. We also became slightly obsessed with beets, crowned our three favorite local sandwiches and composed sheer poetry to our beloved New Baking Co., whose croissat breakfast sandwich sings to us across the void with siren-like magnetic powers.
June also came in like a lion, which was also weird, but since it was hot, we compiled a list of cold and sweet treats from hither and thither. We also hailed Casa Bonita as an excellent local haunt while searching for dining options in Midtown, used the phrase "hither and thither" in a missive outside of this one whilst munching on our favorite local Caesar salads and had a few nice meals at hotel restaurants like Agave and Luminaria.
As often happens, July came next, and we kicked off the month with a still-controversial opinion piece that clearly and succinctly explained how sad we were/are at not having access to a greasy spoon diner—and no, Joe's doesn't count. And then readers yelled at us about that opinion. After that, we became enamored with dining at Vietnamese joint Pho Ava followed by paletas at the aptly named Paleta Bar, and we still think y'all should be doing that as often as possible.
When we made it to August, we published our annual personal Best of Santa Fe list, an accompanying piece to SFR's annual Best of Santa Fe poll. Therein, we were all about burgers served in crepes and fish and chips and cookies. It's a cool list, man. Chef Fernando Ruiz also opened his new restaurant Escondido right around then, and while we did not review it per se, we still let our droves of readers know it was goooooooood. And it's still good. We like tacos. And bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers, too. Also mocktails. We also found the best cajeta in town (spoiler, it's made by Ghost Town Goats and available at Picnic NM inside the CHOMP food hall) and splurged on one of the most incredible meals of our life at boutique hotel The Mystic—a dinner designed by The Sioux Chef himself, Sean Sherman, and executed by local maven/chef Nicole Appels. Heads up? Tobacco ice cream sounds terrible yet is PHENOMENAL. Oh, also, the dinner event featured a bunch of Indigenous dancers from various tribes, and that part was wildly cool.
We headed out of town in early September to try Laguna Burger, an Indigenous-owned company that kicked our ass in the best way possible. The following week, we dined at Chili's, which was better than we anticipated but still not high on our list because we're local til we die! Did we like the huge mozzarella sticks? Sure. But that's hardly a reason to become a regular. Luckily for us, local restaurants abound, and we were back in their warm bosom the following week while finding our newest obsession—the French dip at Dr. Field Good's. They serve it every Tuesday, and it is by far our favorite li'l dipper in town.
October was pretty OK, too, and we once again headed outside town to The Fruit Basket in Velarde. It was a fun little day trip, and we still recommend it to anyone who likes fresh fruit and weed. We named our favorite vegetarian dishes in Santa Fe, too, including avocado tacos from the Plaza Café Southside that are to-die-for, a healthy brothy greens dish at Modern General and some of the finest udon you'll find around here courtesy of BODY Café and chef Joel Coleman. We also took a big fat dook on travel writers who act like slapping Geronimo and Sasella and The Shed on a listicle is in any way innovative and found out firsthand why Joe's Dining isn't actually a diner—and why we should never trust our readers any farther than we might throw a cake underwater (a fun and folksy saying we read in an Encyclopedia Brown book once in ages past). The strangest October happening? We tried an apple cider donut for the first time. We don't know why we missed out on those before, but it turns out Whoo's Donuts has a damn fine one.
We realize November feels like mere moments ago, because it kind of was, but we had yet another burger, this time from Five Guys (do we have a burger problem?). We also questioned their commitment to SparkleMotion (and asked why they can't drag a dang broom across their floor). We gorged ourselves on berries and cream at the behest of Tina Fey, sort of, and then came Thanksgiving, which was fine.
Which just about brings us back to now. Seeing all those Forks listed out like that makes us realize that you're incredibly lucky to have us. Like, that's not even all of them, and not a single one is a bunch of boring shit like, "Did you know The Shed exists?" But we couldn't do it without you, dear readers. So, from the bottom of our sucking black void where hearts usually go, thank you.
We know we've been known to crack a joke or two, but we appreciate your reading, your letters, your kindness and your anger. Santa Fe remains one of the finest food towns around, which is insane given how small this city is. We want to eat everything, and we realize how lucky we are to bring y'all along for the ride. There will be no local/non-local news sections this week, as we're kind of feeling the senioritis over here. As for our NYE resolution? We're going to say "brekkie b" more often. See you in 2025!
Rod Stewart singing "Auld Lang Syne"
We know this is early, but deal with it.
A totally scientific breakdown of The Fork's correspondence
In this week's print edition of SFR, Sagche's Coffee House does dinner now, and it's pretty grat.
Number of Letters Received: 24
*Seems we weren't the only ones who have feelings about gooses.
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader):
"I can't read this anymore."
*K, bye.
Actually Helpful Tip(s):
"You should tell people where to get goose if they want to eat it."
*The one place we've found that seems to have eatin' gooses right now is La Montañita Co-Op. Here's a link.
Tired but pretty OK,
The Fork
