There are so many things that make dining in Santa Fe a joy. For such a small city we have a remarkably diverse restaurant scene. But we are not, understandably, known for our seafood restaurants. In fact, this is something New Mexicans regularly gripe about, and it's why chains like Red Lobster, Pappadeaux and Landry's have all set up shop near the high-traffic highway exchanges in Albuquerque. We love seafood. We
love it just like people who live next to the ocean and eat so much fresh fish they get sick of it. And although our best restaurants can get almost anything they want shipped from ocean to high desert in a day, we have never had that many places that specialize in seafood.
But this week, our town will be home to a full-time fish fiesta at Santa Fe Steamer. To the uninitiated, it may sound like the name of a carpet cleaning business or a railroad theme park, but a steamer is a type of restaurant that specializes in steaming crab legs and clams and shrimp and other delicacies of the sea. Santa Fe Steamer's motto? "We got the best legs in town." And no, they're not talking about scantily clad waitresses. They mean Alaskan snow crab legs.
The "they" in that sentence refers to Melody and Michael Goldsen, a husband-and-wife, front-and-back-of-the-house, we-don't-care-how-many-hyphens-we-use kind of team. Melody is an Alabama native and you can hear a little twang in her voice when she talks about how they'll not only be steamin', but also fryin', roastin', grillin' and broilin' at the Steamer. I recently dragged Melody away from renovations at the restaurant for a quick chat about our newest seafood house.
Back in Gulf Shores, Ala., Melody was the owner of a restaurant called The View because of the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the ninth floor restaurant, revealing the Gulf of Mexico on one side and a large lagoon on the other. The chef at The View was a native New Yorker who had come to the south while he was in the military and decided to stay when his parents retired there. Soon it was L-O-V-E that was on the menu at The View, as Melody and Chef Michael Goldsen fell in love.
The couple, who have been married six years now, spent a few years living in New York, but Melody hated the cold and longed for a change. One night they watched a program on The Weather Channel that featured the cities with the best weather. According to Melody, Santa Fe was supposed to have the best climate and so they moved.
That perfect spot turned out to be a former Chinese restaurant on Cerrillos Road. It took months of renovation to remove every last Chinese lantern, pull out all of the old wood paneling and knock down a dividing wall that had made the space feel cramped and dark. "The shell is basically the same," Melody told me, "but the décor is more cowboy-ish now." The Goldsens have been taking advantage of Santa Fe's art scene, investing in plenty of pretty pictures for the walls. It's safe to say you won't recognize the place.
For the first few weeks, Santa Fe Steamer will not be serving wine or beer. Anyone who's ever owned a restaurant or worked at a restaurant will be sympathetic with the Goldsens' frustration on hearing it would take five months of bureaucratic stamping, fingerprinting, copying, collating and spindling in order to get a beer and wine license. "To open without beer and wine? It's bad [for business] but we don't have any choice," Melody said, sounding pained. "We saw the governor on TV saying, 'We're open for business. Come here!' but they sure don't make it easy."
The food will be a refreshing change for most of us, too. Santa Fe Steamer will serve lunch and dinner, with heaps of seafood and a fair selection for the land-lubber. The menu boasts shrimp, mussels, clams, crab legs, crab cakes, seafood gumbo, blue crab claws, soft-shell crab sandwiches and an oyster bar. Yes, oyster bar. You will have to see and taste it for yourself.
I asked Melody if she'd had any trouble ordering any of her favorite kinds of seafood and the answer was a resounding no! "We're able to get seafood flown in fresh every day," she told me, sounding a little bit surprised at her luck, but mostly proud of the quality of ingredients available here. She hopes to host some crawfish boils and all-you-can-eat-crab-legs nights in the future.
Of course there are also burgers, pastas and vegetarian sandwiches on the menu here, with which you may placate squeamish children and card-carrying PETA members.
Santa Fe Steamer
3432 Cerrillos Road
438-3862
Hours 11 am-9 pm Monday through Saturday
Tell me where to eat! I need your input. Send all of your tips, gripes and raves to food@sfreporter.com.
