There are many ways for a dedicated chowhound to find out about new restaurants. Method number one: ***image2***Recruit an army of spies (that's you, reading this as you're hunched over a plate of huevos) who report back after their personal lunchtime recon missions. "Total Pig" is a mere month old, and I'm already getting several tips a day, mostly about places I've never even heard of. Keep your suggestions
coming-it's your patriotic duty.
Method number two: As you're driving around town, keep your eyes focused on the side of the road rather than on the car in front of you. Dangerous, yes, but if you pay regular attention on your daily commute, you'll always be the first to know when that little place with the great fish tacos turns into the little place with the great French crullers (when it does, please see method number one, above, and report to me).
But I found out about Fish and Pasta Café using a non-standard method: reading my own paper. I don't need much more encouragement than "now open," so last week I met a foodie friend for lunch at the café, which is located in the former 7-Up bottling plant that also houses the Baca Street Bazaar.
Jose "Reyes" Solano is the chef and owner of this family business. His wife waits tables and his cousin, who painted the colorful murals on the walls, also helps in the kitchen. Solano is a native of Mexico, but his family is part Italian and he told me that many of his 30 years of restaurant experience were spent cooking Italian food in Chicago. So why open a fish and pasta restaurant? "I wanted to do something different," he told me, figuring "who doesn't like fish?" The few people who don't like fish surely like pasta, his logic followed, and thus we now have a mostly Italian, sort-of-Mexican café where you can order an appetizer of ceviche, followed by Caesar salad, green chile fettuccine Alfredo and Tuscan-style shrimp in a rosemary-jalapeño sauce, then top the whole thing off with a cannoli. How very Santa Fe.
It sounds like a strange idea and maybe it is. The Mexican staff, the murals, the horseradish-free shrimp cocktail, all this makes the place feel like it should be a Mexican restaurant. The Italian food sounds Italian, but feels…Itexican? Metalian?
We liked the bowl of shrimp and oyster cocktail ($6.95) for offering up a good number of big, fat shrimp. But the sauce, described on the menu as, "tomato Clamato juice" tasted more like ketchup thinned with tomato juice-too sweet. The Caesar salad ($4.50) was notable for the buttery, crunchy homemade croutons, but the green chile Alfredo seemed more complicated than necessary. The sauce had a rich, roasted chile flavor, but also a slightly artificial aftertaste, as if one of the ingredients had come from a box or jar.
Our waitress recommended sole d'Italia ($9.95), a thin fillet that sounded appetizing, but arrived overcooked and a bit rubbery. The accompanying mound of wild rice was rather bland, but the sautéed squash and carrots were just right, bursting with flavor. For dessert (all cost $3.50) there is a cheesecake, a fine cannoli (the shells are from Italy, but the whipped ricotta filling made here) and tasty spumoni (the ice cream is also from Italy).
You probably won't have any major culinary revelations at Fish and Pasta, but the service is very friendly, portions are generous, prices are reasonable and there's plenty of nearby parking. It sucks that parking matters when picking a restaurant, but apparently it does.
While you're at Fish and Pasta, be sure to duck into the Seafood Market of Santa Fe, a new retail seafood operation that is planning to open this week in the Baca Street Bazaar. The market is a project of Ken Freberg and Billy Beare, the owner and salesman of Nantucket Shoals Wholesale Seafood. Their wholesale business provides fish and shellfish to the Albuquerque market of the same name (they have different owners) and also to numerous restaurants in both cities.
The Bazaar is home mostly to artists, and their stalls surround a central gazebo, where the Seafood Market will sell fresh and frozen seafood. The fresh fish is flown in three times a week and delivered to Santa Fe the next day. The market will be open from 10 am until 6 pm, Thursday through Sunday.
On an unrelated note, Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School is offering three consecutive week-long sessions of kids cooking camp in July. From 10 am until 12:30 pm, Monday through Friday, kids ages 7 to 16 will get hands-on experience making breads, pies, pasta and Cajun dishes under the tutelage of Chef John Vollertsen. Call for more information and registration.
Fish and Pasta Café
933 Baca St. (at Cerrillos Road)
984-9998
11 am–10 pm daily
Seafood Market of Santa Fe
(in the Baca Street Bazaar)
933 Baca St.
983-1069
Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School
181 Paseo de Peralta
(in the De Vargas Center)
988-3394
Join my vast network of food spies called…uh, the Legion of Mmm. I can't promise a superhero suit, but I do promise a kick-ass food column if you e-mail food@sfreporter.com with all of your suggestions, tips, praise and complaints.
