When longtime Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen owner Some Franks sold her Midtown restaurant to employee Angel Velazquez and his sons Pedro and Marvin Lopez earlier this summer, your old pal The Fork went through all the emotions we usually go through when restaurants we like change. Would it suck with a new owner? Would they change the menu? Would we still be able to get breakfast tacos? Would service be interrupted at any point? The answer to those questions, in order, are no, no, yes and no—and we’re happy to report that Sweetwater is still a great little brekkie joint.
To wit, a recent Saturday morning brunch that not only came with zero wait time (we showed up late, though, so don’t assume you’ll also be seated immediately) and a solid bit o’ brekkie for your bud The Fork and La Forkette. The broad strokes? Sweetwater slaps (and smacks). The more specific stuff? Let’s get into it.
Turkey Tortilla Soup
Served with roasted turkey, tomato, black beans, avocado chunks and a bunch of tortilla chips from Alicia’s Tortilleria, this cream-based soup was not only gorgeous, ‘twas delicious. At $5-$8 for a cup or bowl respectively, it also comes in at an easy-to-swallow price point. La Forkette made a speech about how she always liked soup, even when people made fun of her for her soupish leanings. We looked on in a jealous rage while the tortilla chips gave the rich and tender turkey a bit of crispy counterbalance. All we’re saying is, the bowl wound up empty, and the cream part was reportedly not over-heavy. We don’t care about soup, but we do care about crispy things that come in non-crispy things, so perhaps come winter this would be a good option for a nice warm-up? Just look at the photo above and you’ll know what we’re talkin’ about.
Paleo Burrito
We’re always out there looking for acceptable substitutes to things we can no longer eat now that we’re old, and Sweetwater’s Paleo burrito nailed it. In place of a flour tortilla, you’ll find a house-made egg/spinach wrap kind of thing that almost resembles a crepe but maintains its savory spot as a case for burrito stuff. Inside, massive pieces of avocado and smashed sweet potatoes (not mashed, mind you, but smashed—think of it like they cooked some sweet potato cubes, smashed ‘em with a fork and threw ‘em in a burrito), plus scrambled eggs and bacon. Do we think the $15.50 price was a tad much for said burrito? Kind of, but it was so very tasty that we didn’t care. This one comes smothered, though we got chile on the side for dipping because, again, we’re old and sometimes smothered things leave us feeling weighed down. Still, we scarfed the whole thing quickly, and the buttery avocado met with the salty bacon and soft scrambled eggs so nicely that we might need to pop this one into our regular rotation in place of our long-beloved breakfast tacos. Mainly we want to know how to make that faux tortilla, because the regular kind do not super-duper agree with us these days.
A Rumor We Heard
We forgot to check, but a good friend of ours says they noticed a fairly robust mocktail menu at Sweetwater recently. We’ll put it on the list, but this is someone we trust, so you might want to give it a shot next time you’re over near Pacheco Street. Love y’all!
Remember how the first season of Westworld was awesome, but then it turned to crap? Anyway, the music on that show was so good!
Also
- We regret to inform you that local ice cream truck Freezie Fresh was the site of a robbery a few days back, and that’s some serious bullshit. Setting aside how owner/ice cream champ Xzavian Cookbey makes some of the best ice cream in the land (here’s a link for more on that; try the lemon cream and thank us later), he’s also a real sweetheart who has been doing his best to run a small business with a premium product in a weird-ass town. Robbers, if you must rob, rob from a chain or a big box store or something—don’t mess with a small local biz that makes going to the Plaza a million times more worth it! You can and should follow Freezie Fresh on Instagram for more info on where and when to get the ice cream. We wish Cookbey luck in dealing with a smashed window and the general headache of the situation.
- Are you following along with the New Mexico Restaurant Association? You should be, because it’s more than a website to visit when you need to renew your alcohol server’s license—it’s an org that’s all like, “Dang, local restaurants are cool!” Right now, SFRA has a lot going down, too, including the upcoming 2025 Hospitality Industry Awards on Sept. 29 in Albuquerque. This year’s theme? Havana Nights (for some reason; cue that song where the woman is all like, “Havana ooh-nah-nah!”), and they’re gonna hand out awards to NM restaurant folk who do restaurants good.
- We’ve been known to enjoy a meal at Timetravelers Gastropub and now we’ll probably do even more of that now that we know there’s a daily happy hour from 3-5 pm. Soft pretzel? They’ve got it. Smash burger? Also yes. They even do drink specials. Neat! If’n you didn’t know, these are the same folks behind the New Mexico Hard Cider Taproom. Now go forth!
- In honor of beer mecca/good food place Rowley Farmhouse Ales turning 9 recently, we wanted to share the other food writer’s review from last April. In short, given its location within more of a neighborhood than an industrial zone, our writer posits that the house beermeister John Rowley and chef Jeffrey Kaplan built is a real banger for locals only. We’d agree. Happy anniversary, RFA!
- OK, so it seems there’s some new food truck in town called The Rice Balls, and while we’ve yet to dig up any super-detailed information, we’ve at least been notified that it exists at 4231 Airport Road, and that they’re serving up literal rice balls with various accoutrements. Ummm, yes. We will go to there. Has anyone been? Did you like it?
- We approve of the new print ad in SFR that calls us “the weirdest food newsletter.” That’s it. That’s the whole item. We’re proudly weird, and we love swearing and eating all the fucking foods we can find. Smooches!!!!
See, just like we said—”ooh-nah-nah!”
More Tidbits
Oh, good, there’s bad news about coffee (we can’t ever have anything!) from the folks at the nonprofit The Clean Label Project. ‘Twould seem that a new study conducted upon various types of coffees from various origins with various roasting and packaging methods unearthed something dismal: Organic coffee is not a guarantee of goodness. That is to say, The Clean Label Project conducted more than 7,000 individual tests on all kinds of coffee and learned that just because something says organic on the bag doesn’t mean it’s free of chemical contaminants. Drag. Don’t lose all hope, though, because coffees sourced from Africa seem to be safer, as are darker roasts. To learn more about the study, find it here—including more info on what’s good or bad or whatnot.
If you’re the type who will get pumped by the next thing we’re about to say, then we’re probably not telling you anything you didn’t already know, but…it’s pumpkin spice latte time at Starbucks again. Ugh. Freaking instant coffee nightmare. Look, drink what you want, but at least have the wherewithal to try and find it locally. God! We won’t even link Starbucks, because they don’t need the help. Instead, might we recommend literally any not-Starbucks shop you can find? Like, grow a personality, bruh.
Speaking of coffee, CNN-dot-com has a rather interesting read about the noble Turkish coffee and its rituals and such. Writer Ali Halit Diker does a killer job contextualizing the drink culturally and heritage-wise, while also making a strong case for how dang good the stuff can be. We’re talkin’ history and instructional information, plus a reminder that our food and drink helps define us as people. We really recommend you give it a little look-see. We didn’t plan for the non-local section to be all about coffee, but sometimes things work out that way.
The New End
Longtime reader Jeff D. dropped us a line to say this last section would be a good place to get into desserts, but maybe not all the time. And while we cannot fathom his ire toward our most delicious chicken crust pizza from the previous installment of The Fork, we agree with him that we can’t possibly be eating desserts every two seconds. So please note that we’ll sometimes get all up in here to be like, “Oh. Em. Gee. We had a dessert and loved it,” we’re mainly going to use this space to do whatever makes sense in the moment to us.
This week, what makes sense is asking Jeff D. if he’s out of his mind when it comes to chicken crust. It ruled, Jeff. IT RULED! And we consider you a friend, too, bud, but we’re just curious if you’ve tried the stuff? It’s great. We agree with you, however, the sourdough pizza crust (like, as in bread furreal) is quite good, so at least we’re on the same page there.
As for any word of dessert this week, we recently sampled a dark chocolate pomegranate truffle from Kakawa Chocolate House, and it was FANTASTIC. This thing was kinda tart and only subtly sweet—more earthy and bitter, though, which went well with the elixir we had. Of course, after a truffle and a choco elixir we were so amped that we’re pretty sure we could literally see music, but that’s cool, man. What are you munching on that’s sweet? Let us know at [email protected].
Soup adjacent,
The Fork
