SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
“I just need to be a Martian,” joked Elisandro Gonzalez of Tosba Mezcal during a sold-out panel on mezcal at the Indigenous Foodways Festival in Santa Fe earlier this summer.
Gonzalez was talking about being what he called something like a “triple citizen”—Zapotec, Oaxacan, and a very much taxpaying American. And being in New Mexico brought another connection. One of the state’s Apache tribes is the Mescalero Apache Tribe, sharing a name that immediately calls to mind mezcaleros, the people who produce mezcal in Mexico.
That connection between Mexico and New Mexico goes much deeper than a name. The history of this region has always crossed the borders we recognize today. People, languages, foods, crops, traditions, and trade routes were moving across this land long before modern state or national boundaries existed.
NEW MEXICO HAS ALWAYS BEEN DIFFERENT
To be New Mexican—whether by birth, family, choice, love, land, or simply a deep connection to this place—is to understand that New Mexico can be difficult for outsiders to define.
Our food is one example.
New Mexican cuisine is incredibly distinctive, yet finding the real thing once you leave the state can be surprisingly difficult. New Mexico has its own chiles, corn, squash, beans, recipes, and traditions that have been cultivated and passed down for generations.
Even language tells the story. Varieties of Spanish spoken in northern New Mexico developed in ways unlike Spanish spoken elsewhere. The foods grown here tell another part of that same story, with landrace varieties of chile, maize, squash, and beans adapted to this particular place.
A YOUNG STATE WITH AN ANCIENT STORY
Politically, New Mexico is relatively young. It became the 47th state in 1912.
Culturally, however, this place is ancient.
American history is often told beginning with New England and the thirteen colonies, but the history of what is now New Mexico stretches much further back.
Spanish expeditions reached this region decades before the Mayflower arrived in 1620. Indigenous communities had already existed here for centuries before Europeans arrived at all.
Communities such as Ohkay Owingeh carry histories far older than the United States itself.
New Mexico also became an early center of European-style winemaking in what would eventually become the United States. Grapevines brought north from Mexico were planted here during the Spanish colonial period.
Our acequia irrigation traditions carry influences stretching back through Spain and North Africa, while much older Indigenous trade networks connected Pueblo communities with people hundreds and even thousands of miles away.
Even one of the most basic foods of the Southwest—corn—carries that history. Maize domesticated in what is now Mexico traveled north over generations. Indigenous farmers adapted it to radically different environments, including the dry landscapes of the Southwest.
The modern lines on the map came much later.
The culture was already here.
AMUSE-BOUCHE
FORMER LAUGHING LIZARD SPACE AVAILABLE IN JEMEZ SPRINGS
The former Laughing Lizard restaurant space in Jemez Springs is reportedly available for lease.
The property includes a renovated kitchen, an attached inn, and plenty of patio seating—giving a potential new operator an interesting opportunity in one of New Mexico’s best-known hot springs communities.
ENTRANCES & EXITS
ROWLEY FARMHOUSE ALES IS MOVING
Rowley Farmhouse Ales is preparing for a move. The brewery plans to relocate into the space currently occupied by Pecos Trail Café at the Pecos Trail Inn.
The big question will be how quickly the brewery can reopen after the transition.
ELDORA CHOCOLATE IS CLOSING
Eldora Chocolate, the Albuquerque bean-to-bar chocolate maker that earned international recognition for its work, has announced plans to close.
The company’s final day of business is expected to be October 31, followed by the sale of chocolate-making equipment beginning in November.
Until then, customers have an opportunity to pick up Eldora’s single-origin chocolate bars, drinking chocolate, and other favorites before the doors close.
TUMBLEWEEDS DINER GETS NEW OWNERS
Tumbleweeds Diner in Magdalena is changing hands.
Original owners Michal Gola and Osiris Navarro are turning the restaurant over to longtime Magdalena residents Amy and Bill Webb. The original owners are expected to spend several weeks helping train the new team before the transition becomes official.
Fans of the restaurant can still expect favorites such as hot chicken and green chile cheeseburgers, while the new owners are also planning additions including carne adovada, enchiladas, baked goods, and other sweet treats.
RITUAL RISE OPENS A STOREFRONT
Ritual Rise bakery is moving beyond farmers markets and pop-ups with a storefront of its own.
The bakery has developed a following for sourdough loaves, focaccia, pastries, and especially its large sourdough chocolate chip cookies.
The new shop is located near Polk’s Folly Butcher Shop and Farm Stand, making it easy to make both businesses part of the same food run.
The storefront’s drink menu is also expected to feature selections such as mushroom chai from Chai Chai Love.
ESQUINA AND COPITA ARE CLOSING
Santa Fe pizza restaurant Esquina and its neighboring wine bar, Copita, are preparing to close.
The final day of service is scheduled for October 3.
There may be another chapter coming, however. The team has teased a new project that they hope customers will enjoy even more, with the possibility of something new arriving around the beginning of the year.
OCCASIONS
GARAGE WINEMAKING WITH LAST DITCH
Last Ditch is hosting a three-hour garage winemaking workshop designed to take participants through the process from freshly harvested grapes to the eventual bottle.
Participants will also have an opportunity to join the final harvest of the season, expected in late September or early October, and put what they have learned into practice.
Space is limited.
SEVEN-COURSE DINNER AT TIME TRAVELER’S GASTROPUB
Time Traveler’s Gastropub is hosting a seven-course dinner on September 21 featuring wine pairings from Vara and desserts from Chef Rebecca Freeman.
The menu includes dishes such as cured yellowfin tuna loin and rigatoni featuring alligator and elk sausage.
Reservations are required and can be made by calling 505-954-1087.
SANTA FE WINE & CHILE FIESTA
Wine lovers have plenty to look forward to during the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, running September 22–27.
New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov is scheduled to host a wine talk and tasting at 2:30 p.m. on September 24.
Other festivities include Chile Friday on September 25, the Grand Tasting on September 26, and a variety of winery dinners hosted by area restaurants.
Many events are expected to sell out, and reservations for individual winery dinners should be made directly with participating restaurants.
CORRALES HARVEST FESTIVAL
The Corrales Harvest Festival takes place September 26–27, with activities centered at Casa San Ysidro from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Visitors can expect demonstrations of horno baking and traditional crafts, live music, food trucks, and artists selling tinwork, retablos, and other locally made pieces.
Farm tours are also scheduled for September 26, with morning and afternoon options.
BACKYARD STORY AT THE ALDO LEOPOLD HOUSE
On Sunday, September 27, the Leopold Writing Program will host its fourth Backyard Story event at the historic Aldo Leopold House in Albuquerque.
The evening’s theme is migration.
Anyone can sign up to tell a story as long as it is true. Guests are encouraged to bring snacks along with blankets or chairs for the evening.
YAPPY DOG FARM DINNER
Yappy Dog Farm’s annual farm dinner returns October 24.
This year’s gathering is expected to feature a four-course dinner prepared by Sentli, teas and herbal remedios from La Guadalupe Yerbería, along with a farm tour and live music.
DISTILLATIONS
REMEMBERING WENDELL BERRY
Author, environmentalist, poet, and farmer Wendell Berry died August 31 at the age of 92.
Berry spent much of his life writing about the relationship between people, land, community, agriculture, and the places we choose to call home.
That message feels especially fitting in New Mexico, where land and identity have been connected for generations.
NEW MEXICAN FOOD BEYOND NEW MEXICO
Finding a New Mexican restaurant outside the Southwest can feel like discovering someone who speaks a language you thought only people back home understood.
Writer Nina Katz explores that experience through the stories of New Mexicans who are taking the state’s food traditions across state lines—and finding success doing it.
THE HUMBLE SOPAPILLA GETS ITS DUE
And then there is one of New Mexico’s simplest and most beloved foods: the sopapilla.
Victoriano Cárdenas recently explored Albuquerque in search of standout sopapillas—from baskets of warm, hollow pillows ready for honey to stuffed versions substantial enough to become an entire meal.
THE STORY IS BIGGER THAN THE MAP
New Mexico has been called many things over the centuries, and plenty of people outside the state still struggle to understand exactly what this place is.
But the history here does not begin with statehood.
It does not begin with the United States.
And it certainly does not begin with somebody drawing a line on a map.
It lives in the pueblos, acequias, farms, kitchens, languages, trade routes, vineyards, chile fields, bakeries, restaurants, and family tables that continue to shape New Mexico today.
The names on the map may change.
The roots run much deeper.
