Welcome, dear readers, to a freeform stream-of-consciousness rant spurred by the recent closure of El Farol—that Canyon Road bastion/restaurant/venue where Sam Shepard liked to snag a drink in his day; where the Canyon Road Blues Jam was born, evolved and helped countless locals cut their teeth; where we’ve seen flamenco performances over tapas and scarfed pizza while a singer belted out this or that; where locals and tourists alike gathered since the literal 1830s.
We’re not even saying we loved the place (we’re not saying we hated it, either, so relax), but it certainly checked a lot of boxes for us in terms of things we like about Santa Fe. This is a city that loves tradition, and we’re also a city that likes to point out the parts of us that are as old (or older) than the hills. We’re an institution-lovin’ bunch of people who like when a business or restaurant or whatever has staying power. Look at how emotional everyone got when Felipe’s Tacos closed after decades of killer quesadillas, or how every travel influencer who ever comes to town likes to point out the same handful of fine dining joints based on little more than a decent steak (or elk tenderloin, since that’s somehow a major Santa Fe thing) and an overcomplicated cocktail menu. El Farol felt kind of different, though, even when the food was at its fanciest. Never once did we feel out of place there in a T-shirt and jeans, but we’d have been just as comfortable had we shown up in a suit (which we do not own).
Do you think this has something to do with, like, pandemic aftershocks? Does it have something to do with the cost of living here? Like, we just now got the local living wage up to $17, but that’s definitely still not enough, and the wealthy in this city can only dine out so many times per week, right? Maybe it’s a Canyon Road parking issue, because it sure is terrible to work that out, even if you feel like a little something from The Teahouse.
Of course, that’s specifically a Canyon Road issue (and The Compound and Geronimo both have parking, so don’t fret), but the El Farol closure feels like it’s signifying something else entirely: The times they are-a-becoming something else entirely. We’ll stand by our opinion that some servers and restaurant folk seem to have become a bit too comfortable with the “let’s not hassle the foodservice people” vibe of the pandemic, back when we were all Door Dashing everything and feeling like American heroes, but for those of us who constantly live in restaurants, there seems to be a Pandora’s box sort of thing happening that we can’t un-know. Margins have always been perilously thin for restaurants and the dining habits of, umm, diners, have always been unpredictable, but does it feel like the Santa Fe restaurant-sphere is on the cusp of something almost indescribable? Even our venerable institutions are shuttering or becoming unrecognizable or, worse, becoming places we think about in a way that’s like, “Eh, I don’t feel like going over there right now, but it’s not like it’ll close.”
But then it does. Or it changes. Or becomes more expensive. Or the chef moves. Or a plumbing issue becomes insurmountable, just like it did at chef Cristian Pontiggia’s Sassella. For the longest time, we couldn’t put our finger on it, but it definitely seems like it’s one of those Grandpa Simpson they-changed-what-”it”-was moments in time. Felipe’s closed because its longtime owner Felipe Martinez struggled through COVID-19, then decided he got too old for this shit and dipped out on top. El Farol closed, reportedly, because operating a restaurant is really hard and really expensive and folks just don’t eat out like they once did. We don’t have a quantifiable part of this rant to blame it on influencers, but they probably had something to do with it, what with all their “Ohmygod, you guys,” nonsense and that mind-numbingly irritating chatter.
We have this other theory about restaurants right now, too, which is something about how people are staying in those jobs for a lot longer than in the old days. For every person who starts as a dishwasher and becomes a chef or owner (shout-out to Coyote Café owner Quinn Stephenson and Zacatlán chef/owner Eduardo Rodriguez, both of whom climbed the ladder), there are about a bazillion others who got into it for a few bucks before their band took off, until they finished their degrees or until they got their degree. Now, though, so many of us have been in desperation mode for some folks have been forced to cling to jobs that traditionally went to teenagers or young people. Yes, it’s weirdly sad to see a 55-year-old bartender or a server who should probably be hanging out with their grandkids—but the ramifications are more intense than you think. As any foodservice vet or active duty member can tell you, we can spot the people who never worked in restaurants, and young people side-stepping busser jobs because they just plain aren’t available in the same way means there are literally millions of people who never go through the humbling gauntlet of serving others. Additionally, most of the people we know who love to dine out and tip well are current or former restaurant folks—they’re just always going to appreciate the industry in a way civilians cannot.
We realize we went off the rails there in a piece that was supposed to be about how sad it is when beloved local restaurants close their doors. At the center of this issue, though, is capitalism. As loathe as we are to be the kind of “we’ll tell you what the real crime is,” hippie who bemoans how much better things were about five years before anyone else showed up, we see the dwindling middle class (and the tariffs and the stagnant minimum wage and…and…and…) as indicators that more restaurants will face troubles, even if they’ve been around since 18-oh-something. The poorer us normals get, the less we can indulge in luxuries, and make no mistake that a good chunk of dining out is the sort of experience no one actually needs. Even so, these watering holes and eateries and boites and hangouts and clubs and cafés and sandwich shops and ice cream scooperies do become mini modern day versions of the agora. As people, we like to gather around food, and any closure becomes another chip chiseled out of a larger picture that is as all-encompassing as this very sentence is stupid: We’re drifting further apart all the time to the point that it’s like no one read Judge Dredd comics and understood what they were trying to do.
So if you have a couple extra coins clinking in your pocket right now and you’re wondering what to do about that, maybe pop by that place you love. What’s that saying about it being later than you think? Everything feels so terrible now that we must keep the things we love alive. We have only anecdotal evidence to support it, but Santa Feans are already feeling pretty bummed about El Farol. On the one hand, it feels like a reminder to not ask for whom the bell tolls (uggggh, Hemingway), but on another, it’s a reminder that getting while the getting is good is great. Or something. Like we said, this was stream-of-consciousness, but we’re still sad to see such an historic restaurant close, and we can only imagine that whatever not-from-here monsters take it over with their big city bucks will turn it into the kind of thing that either fails outright or has long-lasting impacts on Canyon Road. Considering how many people we know whose families were forced off that street by gallerists in the old days, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. But with El Farol’s bar gone now, even if people could live up there again (which we know is a fantasy), where the hell are they supposed to get soused? Pour one out for El Farol, dear friends, and all that its death signifies. We know this is a tale told by an idiot and all full of sound and fury and whatever, but we just realized that we, too, are gonna die some day. And maybe that’s the real and actual moral: Gather ye rosebuds, chumps.
We don’t like this song anymore than you do, and we actually think it’s a terrible representation of the ’90s alterna-rock world, but when your headline is your headline, you do what you must.
Also
- Word on the street is that bar/restaurant Del Charro has completed some renovations and is celebrating with a new happy hour that includes free chips and salsa and $2 off beer and apps. As we loved Del Charro for its affordable burger for a long time (not to mention the way it does the house margarita like an old-timey milkshake, by which we mean you get the shaker with a little extra marg in it), we’re pretty into that. The new deal runs through Dec. 31, then after that…who knows.
- We’d talk about how Canyon Road’s El Farol closed after more than a hundred years, but our whole intro kind of covered that. We know there’s a lot of speculation out there about what’s gonna happen now, but we’re going to just wait and see, which is solid advice for many arenas. Normally we’d tell you to view the website, but that baby’s down right now, so just sit tight and do like our main man Arthur Dent—don’t panic.
- All-you-can-eat sushi joint Fu Sushi has reportedly reopened after doing some things to the interior of its midtown dining room. We’ve yet to eat there, but it’s on our list for sure.
- BBQ joint Uncle DT’s can now boast a pizza trailer as part of its offerings, and it needs staff. According to a social media post, the biz is a two-person job that needs cooks and cashiers, does not include late night work and is “supportive,” so that all sounds pretty good. You can apply for the work right here.
- While inside the CHOMP food hall the other day in search of goat milk caramel, aka cajeta, from local biz Ghost Town Goats, we couldn’t help but notice a new sign from 2 Floyds Southern Kitchen, an eatery that comes to us from the former proprietors of The Brunch Box Blue food truck in Eldorado. We’ve seen a tentative menu for 2 Floyds, but all we can remember is that they’ll apparently have chicken and waffles, which is a dish with which many SFR staffers are obsessed. No word on an opening date yet, but given how close CHOMP and 2 Floyds are to our office, we’ll be there.
- Several readers have reached out to us (for the bazzilionth time) about a list of restaurants open for Thanksgiving. Now, in the old days when SFR was staffed up and had energy, that would’ve been doable. At this point in human history, however, we’re tired and the people from the Santa Fe Foodies Facebook group already did it, so…here’s a link. When in doubt, assume that hotel restaurants and fine dining establishments will offer something or other. And know it’s a lot easier to just call a place and ask than to do anything else. Like, talk to a human. It’ll take three seconds. Jeeze.
- We couldn’t help but notice that new bar and restaurant Gatsby’s has already announced altered wintertime hours. Yes, the restaurant did tout that it would be open late during the leadup to its opening earlier this month, but that’s how the cookie crumbles in Santa Fe—which is to say that no matter how much people talk about wanting a late-night hang, they’re not going to hang out there often enough to make it viable for the owners. Anyway, they’re open 4-11 pm Tuesday-Saturday, but also til midnight on Friday. Having said that, we stopped by REMIX Audio Bar the other night for a bit of coffee before a Lensic event, and it was jumpin’! Of course, this was at 7 pm, so not exactly LATE night-late night. The coffee was great, though.
- You heard about Tumbleroot Table? No? Yes? Maybe? Wherever you land, please know and spread the word that Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery has now kicked off its Tumbleroot Table, a 7-days-a-week thing where you can get bao buns, rice bowls, soups, salads and so forth. We want that smoked pork bao, but there’s other stuff, too.
- Midtown Mexican joint Escondido from chef Fernando Ruiz just announced it’ll offer 15% off all food on Mondays for the winter. Nice. Wise. Mondays are kind of slow nights at restaurants because for some reason, a restaurant closing here or there on Mondays has convinced people that every restaurant has closed on Mondays. They haven’t. Escondido, for example, is open on Mondays. And they have a discount on Mondays. In your face, Garfield!
New Order also had feelings about Mondays, but likely because they didn’t have access to a taco discount.
More Tidbits
- Even though we’re beyond the point in history during which your friends would smugly say, “I like cheese,” as if that made them quirky or something, you might like to know that the annual World Cheese Awards just went down. This year’s face-off featured more than 5,200 entries, but the winner was reportedly clear—Gruyère AOP Vorderfultigen Spezial from Switzerland took the top honors. We all like Swiss cheese, so this feels right.
- USA Today is out there doing important work, like this recent piece which seeks to answer once and for all whether Nutella is good for you or not. Our take? Who cares? It’s amazing. The folks at that particular paper do a lot of stories like that, which we honestly kind of enjoy since we’re always eating things under the assumption they’re good for us, but all we can say if anyone asks is, “We’re pretty sure for some reason.
- That absolute asshole Trump signed an executive order last week lifting tariffs on certain food and coffee products, including coffee, tea, some fruits and juices, bananas, beef and fertilizers. As this is a bare minimum thing, we’re not about to congratulate him so much as we’re going to fight back tears and attempt to muster our resolve. You can learn more about this very thing by clicking right here.
- Lastly in not-just-local news this week, Grocery Dive-dot-com has an interesting piece about SNAP benefits and the many weird ways it has become a political nightmare of late. If you haven’t been keeping up, folks who need help gettin’ fed have been embroiled in a complex game of malarkey to the point that it’s not super about what it should be about anymore. As a reminder, you likely have way more in common with a food-insecure person than a rich person, and if you don’t think we should help people survive, you’re reading the wrong newsletter.
In Summation
They say the only constant is change, and while those words make sense to us on an intellectual level, it’s certainly tricky to wake up one day and realize you miss a bunch of closed restaurants and you’re befuddled by news stories about celebrities you’ve never once heard about before. What this underscores for us, your old pal The Fork, is that getting while the getting is good seems wiser by the day. You’ll hear people talking about not postponing joy, and if we can use the Choco Taco as a quick example, we think you should get the things you want to get. It’s like, one day, you can totally just get a Choco Taco, but the next day they’re gone. Eat that thing, whatever “it” might be. We get there are dietary restrictions and health concerns and a million reasons to not give yourself a little treat, but one day you’re going to be sitting in a dining room, ordering a meal, demolishing an ice cream novelty in the shape of a taco or otherwise indulging in something for the last time, and you won’t even know it. Live how you want, but remember to enjoy what you can when you can. Otherwise, what was the point of any of it? As Vonnegut said, it’s important to ask yourself “If this isn’t nice, what is it?” Food can feel so good. Let yourself do that.
Still open for business,
The Fork
