As Santa Fe hurtles headlong into the warm season, restaurants appear ready to meet the traditional influx of visitors and serve still--rebounding crowds of locals.
“It’s not just here being busy, but the word around is that everybody’s busy,” says chef Josh Gerwin, the Dr. Field Goods owner/chef who recently bought the Santa Fe Bar & Grill. “There’s this resurgence of people -coming out,” he says, noting even people who didn’t join the early waves returning to restaurants after pandemic restrictions have now made their way back to tables.
Plus, significant snowfall has “definitely helped -everybody in town this year.”
Gerwin is hardly alone. Even through the waning winter and prior months, SFR observed mounting crowds at all our favorite local spots, plus new eateries and tasting rooms, new menu items and a reinvigorated dedication from diners. The results are obvious, particularly for a number of establishments highlighted herein. We wanted to showcase the good things that have come to pass, the evolutionary steps taken by local business people and food lovers. These include the return of a much-ballyhooed soup, a growth spurt at the mall, a pair of brothers dedicated to vegetarian excellence and a new era for the hardest kombucha in town.
And it doesn’t end there by a long shot. This week, SFR also heralds all things food and drink with the publication of our annual local Restaurant & Bar Directory. This includes a healthy number of local establishments that have burst onto the scene with bigger spaces, wider distribution and new concepts altogether. The directory will continue to evolve online; as for what you hold in your hands? The magic begins here.
Dreams by the bowl
Before Soup Star opened in the former location of now-closed vegan joint Plant Base Café on Santa Fe’s Southside, Anita Salazar and her husband Miqueas Celote had never planned on starting a restaurant.
With decades of experience between them at restaurants including Second Street Brewery, Dr. Field Goods, The Ranch House and The Anasazi Restaurant, Bar & Lounge, however, they ultimately jumped at the chance to go into business for themselves. Salazar, the front of house maven, and Celote, the chef with the kitchen skills, have been running their new enterprise for just one month—but Salazar says business is already booming on both the dine-in and takeout fronts.
The big draw? Soup Star’s continuation of the Hungarian mushroom soup first popularized in Santa Fe by Back Street Bistro chef David Jacoby. Salazar worked for Jacoby off and on for years and says she has his blessing to keep the mojo alive. The soup’s provenance is technically Mollie Katzen’s 1974 masterpiece Moosewood Cookbook, but in Jacoby’s hands—and now Celote’s—there’s a reason it has remained a local favorite even well after Back Street closed in 2017.
Of course, the mushroom and paprika masterpiece is far from Soup Star’s only offering. According to Salazar, the overall ethos lies in quality and freshness. She and Celote don’t source ingredients from suppliers like Sysco or Shamrock, nor do they plan on developing a massive, multi-page menu. Instead, they’ve opted to shop from local grocers and the farmers market. This means the menu will change often based on what Celote thinks will taste best.
“I just feel better shopping for our food myself,” Salazar explains, “than I do having cases and cases dumped on me and not knowing how long they were in the warehouse or will have to sit here.”
One recent service day, for example, boasted a menu with numerous sandwiches, empanadas and salads, plus five soups from which to choose. At $6 a cup or $10 for a bowl, both generous in size, Soup Star’s pricing seems more than fair—and the mushroom soup will continue to be available daily, unless it sells out.
“We were just really tired of working for somebody else, you know?” Salazar tells SFR. “We felt like we had just been building up everybody else’s dream and we somehow forgot to build our own.” (Alex De Vore)
Soup Star
1372 Vegas Verdes Drive, (505) 316-5168 11 am-3 pm Mon-Sat
Brotherly flavor journey
Abdel Malek and Zakaria Belghiti Alaoui won’t host Tajine’s official grand opening until August, but the brothers’ eight-month-old Moroccan eatery has already amassed a devoted following. Beyond our own well-documented obsession, the restaurant just earned first place in the inaugural Santa Fe Vegan Chef Challenge—as well as a nod for the best overall menu.
The award announcement gives special attention to the pair’s mezze platter, a tasting plate of five specialty dishes and dips served with steaming pita. And it’s easy to see why from the first bite of their unbelievably fresh hummus.
“We spray [the garbanzo beans] with cold water every six hours until they start sprouting,” Abdel Malek explains. “It’s very good for your digestion, and you get that freshness from the chickpeas.”
Much like the multi-day hummus process, the business itself went through an extensive preparatory phase before the ingredients could come together for the soft opening last September.
The brothers grew up cooking under the exacting instruction of their mother—whose underwhelmed reaction to the North African and Middle Eastern food then available on a visit to Santa Fe served as partial inspiration for their endeavor. Abdel Malek (pictured below, left) had the initial idea to open a catering business, and Zakaria (below, right) brought to the table years of experience in multinational kitchens from Sedona to Casablanca.
“I was like, ‘I’m not gonna let him do this by himself,’” Zakaria jokes, recalling his decision to join Abdel Malek in the undertaking.
But the first attempt to find their business a permanent home brought them to New Jersey, not New Mexico. Abdel Malek had gone to college on the East Coast, and was about to sign papers on a Jersey storefront when the owner demanded eight months’ rent upfront. That setback prompted them to look closer to home; after all, Abdel Malek had already spent years in the kitchen at Mediterranean joint Pyramid Café. Perhaps a home field advantage would get the restaurant on its feet.
Then Lori Parish, the owner of BODY of Santa Fe, hired the pair to cater an event. After the guests left, she mentioned that the food lounge in her spa was currently unoccupied.
And so, Tajine sprouted in Santa Fe. And it’s a good thing it did, because the passion between the Belghiti Alaouis’ establishment and our little city is a highly mutual affair.
“I love the community. I love every part of it,” Abdel Malek asserts. “The culture, the energy, the nature, the kindness of people…[And] if food is made with love you can taste it and feel it.”
Zakaria chimes in: “That’s the secret in the recipe.” (Siena Sofia Bergt)
Tajine
333 W Cordova Road, Ste 200, (505) 372-7885 10 am-7 pm, Thurs-Tues.
Room to grow
Chef Josh Gerwin has been in and out of City Hall a few times in recent weeks as he puts the finishing touches on the application for a renovation project at De Vargas Center. He’s itching to get started on the overhaul to the former salon next to Santa Fe Bar & Grill that will result in doubling the space for Dr. Field Goods restaurant and butcher shop.
When the project is complete, he’ll be running an operation with roughly five times as much seating as was available at his original restaurant on Cerrillos Road. And, the look and feel of the place will get a major modernization.
“At first I was only taking like a third of that area. And then just kind of looking at everything, I was like, ‘I’m kind of limiting myself. You know, I’ve got no room to grow.’ So I finally convinced some people, some investors and whatnot: ‘Let’s take the whole thing,’” he says. “It’s better for us and the mall likes it better and it was better for the construction.”
Just moving from the spot along the busy Midtown thoroughfare to the anchor in the bustling downtown shopping mall has been positive. Gerwin bought the longstanding mall restaurant last November, merging his menu with its standard plates and hiring the entire staff for a seamless transition. Interior designer David Naylor is on deck to direct an aesthetic overhaul.
“Everything is changing,” Gerwin tells SFR from a seat in the cavernous dining room. Those reddish walls and the giant painting of pears, he says, will soon be replaced with a fresh color and art scheme.
What didn’t change right away, however, was the menu. Gerwin says he worked with chef Carlos Rivas, who cooked at Santa Fe Bar & Grill for nearly two decades, to tweak dishes such as its signature meatloaf. Both pleasing the regulars and drawing diners from Dr. Field Goods was mission critical.
While the old location could cram in about 46 people, the pre-renovation De Vargas spot already has room inside for 165 and a patio for 60. When the renovations wrap, there will be a new private dining room for large groups, plus a cocktail lounge. The butcher shop, which will move from its spot near the old Dr. Fields Good location, will take up much of the additional space, which will feature not only a cold room, but also a prep kitchen.
“I am super optimistic,” Gerwin tells SFR in a recent interview, “or I wouldn’t be doing this. It’s been great so far.” (Julie Ann Grimm)
Dr. Field Goods
De Vargas Center, 187 Paseo De Peralta, (505) 982-3033 11 am to 8:30 pm, Tues-Sat
Rockin’ the ‘booch
In the near-decade since Honeymoon Brewery co-founder Ayla Bystrom-Williams first started taking a serious run at making her love of hard kombucha a legitimate business, the Solana Center-based taproom and production facility has not only cultivated a sizable group of local patrons, it has grown on all fronts. Now, as the fruits of Bystrom-Williams’ and her partner/co-founder James Hill’s labors come further into focus, they’re ready to announce a partnership with drinks distributor Admiral Beverage.
“Basically, this is the first step in a three-step process,” Bystrom-Williams explains. “We’re going to go statewide, then hopefully, at 18 months, be in the neighboring states. After that, national if possible. There’s a lot that needs to happen, but that’s what we’re hoping for over the next 18 to 36 months.”
It’s a far cry for the Santa Fe entrepreneur who came to kombucha while working in a Seattle co-op grocery store some years ago. With their proprietary hard recipe, Bystrom-Williams and Hill took part in numerous business incubator and accelerator programs, opened the Santa Fe taproom in 2018 and have continued to expand at a healthy clip since then. Today, things are looking more promising than ever, but as Bystrom-Williams says, it’ll likely be a long road to the next steps.
“We’re going to outgrow [our current] situation pretty soon, which was a market test anyway, because nobody really knew what hard kombucha was going to do when we opened,” she says. “I mean, we all thought it was going to do great, but now we’ve been keeping our eye on a dedicated production facility for a while. We’re not sure how this is going to unfold, but we’re hoping to find additional partners and to open a facility in Albuquerque.”
For now, though, it’s all about smooth sailing into the package distributorship with Admiral, a coming slate of outdoor live events and taking care of the customers who put Honeymoon on the map.
“We feel like the timing is really right,” Bystrom-Williams says, adding that you’re likely to see Honeymoon in stores at which you already shop. “Admiral distributes...major brands in and out of the state, and they’d been looking for something like this—they see the need in the market. The relationship is serendipitous…Everything is flowing nicely.” (ADV)
Honeymoon Brewery
907 W Alameda St., Unit B, (505) 303-3139 5-11 pm, Wed and Thurs; 1-8 pm, Fri and Sat