Not too very long ago, your old pal The Fork was invited to a dinner with La Forkette, their brother and the brother’s partner. As we’re very rarely invited anyplace (since no one really knows if we truly exist), we were chuffed at the thought, and even more so when we discovered that the restaurant of choice was none other than La Fogata Grill.
A little more than two years ago, one of SFR’s writers visited the restaurant owners Jorge Santos and Eusebia Gonzales built, and in the time since has been raving about it to anyone who will listen. We had high expectations going in, and we were not disappointed. In fact, consider this whole piece a hearty “Here, here!” when it comes to La Fogata. Everything—and we mean Gary Oldman shouting “EVERYYYOONNNNNEEEEEEUGGHHHH!” style—we sampled was excellent, but we have some top recs and thoughts as of this moment:
Tableside guacamole, while fun, is not exactly worth the $17 price tag. Perhaps if you hailed from the Midwest and came here with stars in your eyes about how you’d have something better to eat than, like, frog eye salad, you could make a case for dropping the bucks. While the chips from Alicia’s Tortilleria were indeed crispity-crunchity and delicious; and while the guac was as fresh as you like; and while we and everyone we know want avocados at almost any turn; it’s a hard price to justify. It also felt slightly bad sitting there while our poor server had to spend the time mashin’ avos instead of, like, working for tips. This will represent the only item about which we weren’t extra-pumped, too, so we’re just getting it out of the way. Oh, and if you want an app that doesn’t come with a show, the elote only runs $8, and it is sooooooooooo good.
The bar has oodles of choices, and we were thrilled to see our dining buds rockin’ out with cocktails. We were driving that night, however, and sipped only from the sweet goodness of horchata. Santa Fe is lousy with horchata options, of course, but not since the hallowed halls of Felipe’s Tacos have we found such a good one. At La Fogata, they get how horchata is almost always better when it is subtly sweet, rather than bursting with teeth-melting sugariness. For a mere $5, you get a huge-ass mason jar, too (can any copy editors out there tell us if you’re supposed to cap the “M” in mason jar? What’s that? Google it? HOW DARE YOU!), and it lasted us the whole meal. As a reminder, though none of us tried it, La Fogata still serves a cocktail in a hollowed-out pineapple. We don’t know what it’s called, but one day we’re gonna have that bad boy.
The carne asada at La Fogata is a deal and a half, and we can’t believe we almost didn’t get it. We’ve been trying to do more protein lately (which isn’t to say we’re doing that carnivore diet thing, because yuck), and we figured that was a great way to do it. For $22, the dish comes with the grilled steak, black beans, rice, chile toreado, a side of guac and two big ol’ warm flour tortillas from Alicia’s Tortilleria. We love that La Fogata is offering something locally made instead of those disappointing Mission brand tortillas we could damn well eat at home (and we know you know that we mean you, some restaurants in town). Anyway, we managed to eke out two mini burritos from the dish with plenty of steak left over to eat—even if we were already full, because…we just couldn’t stop ourselves, OK? But we did skip dessert despite how hard we wanted that tres leches cake.
The chicken empanadas were reportedly excellent, too. La Forkette loves an empanada (no, but, like, LOVES), and the version at La Fogata is not only a wild value at $16 for two, it appeared they dropped ‘em in the fryer for just a sec, which meant a brilliantly crunchy exterior and pipin’-hot interior. Our dear La Forkette couldn’t finish the dish, however, but that only meant lunch the next day while we looked on, salivating, and elevated like some kind of cartoon hobo who just came across a pie cooling on a windowsill.
Chiles en nogada. We’ll say it again: Chiles en nogada. According to La Forkette’s brother, ‘tis a dish for which he’s searched high and low since a fateful trip to Mexico City some years ago during which he first sampled the poblano pepper dish with beef, raisins, almonds and pomegranate seeds. Oh, don’t get us wrong—we’re sure there are tons of menus that bear this dish all around the country. But, according to our lover’s brother, he’d yet to find one similar to the first he’d ever tried until this very night. At $25, it’s also a bit of a steal, especially since he told us how it tasted nearly identical to that version he’d eaten so many years ago. We even got a bite, too, and though we’d scoffed at the pomegranate seeds of it all, we can’t help but to keep thinking about how well they worked with beef and the poblano. Next time, this might be our order, though we can’t sleep on the empanadas or…actually, y’know what? Let’s just all hit up La Fogata all the time forever and ever. Eventually we’ll make it through that whole menu, and it’ll be the kind of journey about which you tell your descendants.
See!?!
Too Cute?!
And now, a special one-time section wherein we address some of the letters we’ve received lately from folks who claim that we’re trying to be cute in our writing style. We’re not “trying” to do anything, and certainly no one has ever accused us of being cute. Regardless, it’s not going to change (and certainly you must understand how your ireful insistence that we do something different pretty much just cements in our mind that we’ll never do what you want? It’s called being a person. Look it up!). Anyway, we write how we write, so maybe some of y’all would be more comfortable with the toned-down samey writing of an outlet like Edible or Pasatiempo? We were born this way, babies, and this way we shall stay. Smooches!
Also
- Delightfully named crepe joint Crepas-oh (say it like “que paso”) has finally opened its Eldorado outpost, marking its third location alongside its original Southside spot and its Railyard space. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Eldorado has some excellent dining options. SFR staffers are double-down with Crepas-oh, too, which you can read about right here.
- Chef Martín Rios (of Restaurant Martín, and a regularly invoked name in the James Beard world, no less) is set to host a special vegan tasting menu/wine pairing event to benefit the Roots Animal Sanctuary nonprofit org. When does this momentous occasion take place? 6 pm on March 16 at Restaurant Martín, of course. What’s on the menu? Wellll, all kinds of stuff, including roasted chiogga beets with a whipped citrus tofu; fried Brussels sprouts with mushroom espuma, toasted quinoa and a fermented chile vinaigrette; and a number of desserts including a coconut macaron (it’s macaron week, we guess), a pecan streusel, chocolate pudding and coconut ginger ice cream. The whole dang thing is just $150, which seems like a deal for all those options (note that they’ll add a 20% gratuity). There will be a silent auction, too, and if you’d like to know more about the Roots Animal Sanctuary or buy tickets for the event, visit the site here. Oh, and see the menu here.
- Word on the street is that Guadalupe Street REMIX Audio Bar is now serving vegan/gluten-free macarons, which is pretty awesome considering they also have kickass ramen. The Guadalupe construction situation has been out of control for ages, now, which we know has hit businesses in the area pretty hard, so if ever you’ve needed a reason to navigate the madness, delicious cookies might be it.
- And speaking of macarons, can we just remind y’all about Chainé from cookie maven Chainé Peña? Located in Burro Alley (which is that tiny street downtown with the street sign reading “Burro Alley”), the shop has adorbs coming out the wazoo (we dedicate that cutesy sentence to our fans), and Peña makes the kind of macarons you read about, baby. Interesting fact? She’s also one of the only people around who knows our true identity, thanks to an interview we did in 2019. We know her secrets, too, though, so it’s like mutually assured destruction should she reveal us to you. Don’t even ask her. Anyway, macarons are good, and here’s that interview with Peña: INTERVIEW WITH CHAINÉ PEÑA.
- SFR obviously reported the news when local biz geniuses Hilary Kilpatric and Andrea Abedi opened The Kitchen Table commercial kitchen/events space/all-around food-lover’s paradise in 2023. And every time they announce another member/food ’n’ drink person coming onboard, we’re always like, “Woah.” This time, it’s Beverly Crespin of Dragonfly Teahouse, a woman dedicated to looseleaf tea, catering, tea parties and so forth. Ummm, private tea party? We’d feel like the freaking queen. Cool stuff for tea-o-philes. And speaking of The Kitchen Table, it looks like the biz recently won the first-ever Local Hero Award from nonprofit Creative Santa Fe. That award comes with $5,000 in consulting services from UNMAnderson, the University of New Mexico’s School of Management.
- Looks like Southside Italian joint Rustica sold to Plaza Café Southside owners Leonardo Razatos and Giuliano Marcheschi in February after owners Josh Baum and Ann Gordon announced via social media that they were gettin’ out of the Rustica game some weeks ago. For now, we know that the folks from the Plaza intend to keep it Italian, but we have no menu info just yet. Fingers crossed, though if the avocado tacos at the Plaza indicate anything, it’s that we might expect something pretty good! Baum and Gordon’s Ranch House restaurant, which is all about BBQ and more, shall keep on keeping on.
More Tidbits
- Apparently Starbucks has cut 13 drinks from its menu, which seems like a wild number for a coffee shop to us. Like, how can you have that many to cut? Anyway, this doesn’t affect us because we only go to Ohori’s in Santa Fe, but if you’re one of those people who confuses liking Starbucks and Target with having a personality, check it all out here from the fine folks at CBS News-dot-com.
- Meanwhile, Stacey Leasca at Food & Wine-dot-com points out that compostable cups are awesome, it’s just that America has no place to compost them. It’s complicated, but think of it like that term “wishful recycling,” where you’re pretty sure such-and-such thing should be recyclable, so you feel good about tossing it in the right bin, only there’s no actual place for it to go so it hits the landfill anyway. If humans exist in 500 years, they’ll think we sucked, that’s for sure.
- Lastly in not-just-local news, some dorks at Eater-dot-com went and ranked a bunch of candy, giving Nerds Gummy Clusters the top spot. That’s objectively insane when Reese’s cups exist, but we have a feeling they’re kinda Heath Ledger’s Joker-core and just want to see the world burn. What else is on the list, you ask? Some Haribo gummy stuff, duh, and Sour Patch Kids, which are also easily better than anything Nerds ever pumped out on its best day. God!
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
Alex De Vore
Steak Frites from Bistro 315
A reminder in the print edition of this week’s Santa Fe Reporter, you'll find a story about how 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar hits a milestone this year. So, one of our writers obviously shows up to gorge himself. Then, later, he speaks with longtime owner Louis Moskow. Find it on March 12, buds.
Number of Letters Received
15
*Now we’re getting somewhere!
Most Helpful Tip (A Barely Edited Comment From a Reader)
“While the content is good, the writing style makes one cringe. Seems to be overreaching to the ‘cool cats’ out there. Comes across as a poseur. Relax. Right naturally is my message to The Fork writers.
*Right naturally is all we do, Anthony G! And you know you read us religiously, bro! So, what the heck?!
Actually Helpful Tip
“This reader found your insult to the Donald highly relevant. His rude, low and adolescent off-putting vulgarities make him unfit for the office he has claimed for himself. He ought to be instructed to do better or gotten rid of. Your correspondent walked right into that comeback. It was a sinkhole waiting to happen.”
*Fork fave Cheryl B. is referring to last week’s Fork, and also she loves us, and we love her right back. Or maybe it’s “write back?” We should ask Anthony. Anyway, Cheryl goes on to say it’s sometimes OK to end sentences with prepositions at. We agree. It’s fun to break writing rules, because these are all just symbols representing sounds that we made up anyways. Let’s keep having fun!
Fired up,
The Fork
