ne time, roughly 1,000,000 years ago when our family first arrived in Santa Fe, we sampled a Napoleon (the pastry with all the layers and the custard and such) from the French Pastry Shop & Restaurant inside Hotel La Fonda. It was hard to move here from a large city, and you know how sometimes you just need to eat some sugary-ass thing to feel OK? It was like that like, woah, but it also introduced us to the crepe menu at the house that for-real-French-folks George and Nancy Zadeyan built—then later passed on to their sons Sarkis and Yannik. The rest is history, and that history is a book titled We Ate the Spinach and Cheese Crepes There About a Bazillion Times After That. It’s a good read and an apt title. And though we’ve also come to love crepes at eateries like Crepas-oh! over time, there’s still a little piece of our heart dedicated to being young and sad and then fixed by a spinach crepe.
And then a funny thing happened, though not funny like “ha-ha:” SFR moved off of Marcy Street some years back, and not having a dedicated parking space downtown practically removed any drive we had to do anything downtown. The French Pastry Shop & Restaurant sank to the bottom of our mind river like the one ring post-Sauron, and some things that should not have been forgotten were replaced by those three years we had Felipe’s Tacos delivered constantly because of the pandemic.
Smash cut to:
Ext.
Day
One young calendar editor and one amorphous gas being traverse the Plaza in search of midday comestibles. The sunlight is bright and cheerful, but the moods are dour—will they be OK?
Honestly, we kind of went downtown the other day in search of a fajita and a cookie, but when we saw the French Pastry Shop sign in the distance shining like some kind of thin ’n’ doughy beacon, it all came rushing back: The creamy spinach, the melty cheese, the sweet crepes; the quiche; the sandwiches; that one Napoleon that one time. How on Earth did we forget about this place? Actually, we know how and it’s about parking and time of year and smoking so much weed that your brain loses crepe memories to speeches about how we should totally make a movie, but, like, it’s about the making of the movie—and also have you ever seen trees, man? Out of sight out of mind, we guess, but in-sight, majorly in-mind, baby. Is that a sentence? Aw, who cares. The point is that we re-remembered the crepe place; our buddy/co-worker was like, ”I like crepes and I’ve been to France, so…” and there was not a wait inside the adorably homey and dark wood-lined little spot. So we crepe’d. And lo, it was good.
The highlights? That spinach and Swiss crepe ($15.50) tastes exactly how we remembered (which our dad once described as “like a perfectly browned little envelope of love.”), and for those of you who know the feeling of a dish tasting the same for always, you know how huge that can be. Also? TFPS also has a ratatouille crepe with zucchini, eggplant, green onions and tomatoes. It’s so delicious, too, and definitely brings to mind how in that one Pixar movie we’re supposed to hate a health inspector who is simply doing his job and doesn’t want a literal rat making food.
For vegetarians, TFPS is kind of a godsend (though they do have chicken and bechamel crepes as well as ham and chorizo on others). At $16, the ratatouille is a little pricey, we know, but keep in mind that the French Pastry Shop is both downtown and attached to a fancy-ass hotel. Still, with prompt and friendly service and waters that never went empty, plus the emotional part for those of us who’ve eaten there for years, it’s so worth it. Of course, the crepes were kind of big, which put the kibosh on our plans for a Nutella crepe for dessert. We will likely have to go back for the Napoleon soon, though. We’re pretty sure it’s the one thing that allowed us to survive our first weird week in this weird town so long ago.
Ohhh, he's saying "creep" not "crepe."
Also
Not specifically food-related, but it’s Pride Month now and we just want to say that we’re not here for any homophobes, transphobes, TERFs (look it up if you don’t know), et al. We love the queer community and we just think everyone should know that. Santa Fe’s Pride festivities from the Human Rights Alliance pop off on Saturday, June 28, but you’ll also find a lot of cool queer events throughout the month. Wrrd.
To that end, while we don’t normally post about Albuquerque in this newsletter, we simply must point out the It’s Brunch, Bitch drag queen event at Hollow Spirits Distillery on Sunday, June 8. Tickets run $69 (nice), and that seems dope for a buffet and champagne (likely with the lower-case “c”) and all-day music. Go nuts.
Word on the street is that a tent has appeared in the St. Michael’s Drive parking lot that sits betwixt The Candyman and American Home Furniture. What is that tent, you ask? While we’ve yet to get a confirmation, we can reasonably assume it’ll house Mountain Valley Produce, aka Matt the Peach Guy. Of course, we have no clue when peach season happens because we’re allergic, and tents can house lots of things. Just know that when that dude and his popular peaches pop up, we’ll probably posit some potentially positive peach proclamations. Why are we like this? Don’t answer that.
Whoo’s Donuts does pizza now and we weren’t informed?! Or wait…did…did we already say this in the past? We can’t remember. All we know is that La Forkette let us know the venerable donut shoppe now offers pizza Thursday-Sunday, and the photos we saw looked beautiful. If you’d like to know more, give ‘em a call at (505) 629-1678. Note that we don't work there and don’t speak for them, so be nice.
We’re hearing great things about the new Thai joint Chai Yo in Eldorado just outside town, and we’re kind of inclined to believe them just now because Eldo has suddenly become a foodie haven in a way that would have seemed laughable to most of us 15 or 20 years ago. We have been super-duper into Fable, for example, and we know folks would take a bullet for that Carmelita’s green chile cheeseburger. Check out the Chai Yo website if it’s Thai food you seek. CHECK IT OUT SO HARD!
Lastly in local news, if you didn’t know there’s a New Mexico Cheese Guild, you might be bummed out on how much you’ve missed. According to the guild’s Facebook page, they’ve been hosting cheese classes, too. Now, we’re not gonna sit here and tell you that American cheese choices can rival that of the French or wherever, but we think there’s a lot to learn for all you cheesers out there, and this might also be a good way to make friends while you’re cheesin’. Follow this link to stay abreast.
Cheese is universal.
More Tidbits
We’ve been calling energy drinks like Red Bull “heart attack juice,” since as far back as we can remember, and that’s kind of why we don’t drink the stuff. So imagine how validated we felt to learn that science types just found a creepy link between taurine (a big time energy drink ingredient) and cancer. Imagine, too, how guilty we felt having felt validated over that. Anyway, in a new study from the journal Nature, scientists from the University of Rochester tell the tale of taurine and its effects on growth for certain types of leukemia. Yeesh. You can learn more through the link. And we’ll stick with good old cigarettes and whiskey—both of which contain vitamin C according to our dead grandma.
Check out this cool headline from Delish-dot-com: “Are Figs Vegan? The Surprising Truth About Wasps In This Fruit.” Jesus (or Jaysus if you’re Irish), that’s wild. Turns out figs kind of rely on wasps when it comes to pollination, but that also means that wasps do a whole mating thing literally inside the fig (the female gets all up in there and lays eggs, then the male comes along and goes to town). That’s already gross, but wait til you hear the part about how the female wasp dies inside the fig—AND THEN THE ENZYMES OF THE FRUIT DIGEST THE DEAD WASP BEFORE THEY GET TO YOU. So long, figs. It was nice knowing you, but that’s it for us.
Lastly, in not-just-local news, it would seem that a wild number of USDA veterinarians are leaving the job behind because everything is terrible just now, and the implications on American farms are many. ‘Tis true ‘tis a complex issue, but NPR-dot-com has the lowdown, and it’s super interesting. No spoilers, but just know that we’re bordering on madness in so many arenas that you should be in a good, calm place before following the link.
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
This week in the print edition of SFR, our writer returns to Market Steer Steakhouse roughly a year after it opened its new location—this time for the bar menu in The Tack Room lounge.
Number of Letters Received
1
*That’s two weeks in a row, and the only one we got was about how people won’t email us unless we include a link they can click to email, but what are we? Johnny Mnemonic?!?! We don’t know how to do that, but our email is thefork@sfreporter.com. Use it!
Most Helpful Tip (A Barely Edited Comment From a Reader)
*We can hear the ocean, sort of*
*Whooooooooosh
Actually Helpful Tip
*We can almost smell it, too*
*Salt and wet sand and concrete.
Crepes pour toujours,
The Fork
