Sammy Savors Santa Fe

It goes without saying that a trip to Santa Fe means a feast for the senses: fine food, cold beer, refreshing mountain breezes, and enough world-class art to hold you over until your next trip to Italy.  We sampled as much as we could in our scant 48-hour jaunt.

We started with lunch at Sadie's in Albuquerque (thanks for the recommendation, Carol!), where we tried a micro brewery beer called Outlaw from Rio Grande/Sierra Blanca Brewing Company (Moriarty, NM).  Yum! http://www.sierrablancabrewery.com/

Next was a fun stop at the Santa Fe Brewery. In its tasting room, SFB offers a sampler with eight 4 oz. samples (+ 3 in this case)--you do the math.  I won't reveal which was which, but one of us had the sampler and one of us had a single.  Let's just say that the one who had the sampler looked a little fuzzy before it was all over.

  

After a turn around the Plaza, we stopped in at the Catamount, a perennial favorite watering hole, where we enjoyed a Santa Fe Nut Brown, which is probably my favorite beer right now (apologies to Shiner 101).

More walking, more shopping . . . and what do you know?  It's time for dinner!  That first evening we split a blue cheese burger at the Tune-Up Diner, which has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Yum!  (Fun fact for you insiders:  the Tune-Up Diner is the establishment formerly known as Dave's Not Here Anymore.)

Wednesday, 6:30 a.m.--a wonderful stroll up and down Canyon Road, where we saw some mighty fine artwork.  (Oh yeah. Breakfast was a chocolate croissant at La Fonda Bakery. Delectable!)

We passed a happy couple of  hours in the Chuck Jones Gallery and some other favorite haunts, and decided to have lunch at the cutest little Italian cafe that we just happened upon.  We had a Pizza Margherita and Mista salads, enjoyed with a Stella Artois (me) and a State Pen Porter (him).  May I just convey what a pleasure it was to enjoy a Pizza Margherita prepared by someone who gets it that it's supposed to represent the colors of the Italian flag (red, white, and green), and therefore you MUST include the fresh basil chiffonade or it's just a cheese-and-tomato pizza!  Anyway...

Wednesday afternoon brought soothing mountain rain showers and dandy massages at Ten Thousand Waves (choirs of angels burst into song here).  Ahhhhhhhhh.

http://www.tenthousandwaves.com/

After the massage, we were so mellow that when we stopped in at the Catamount, this time we decided to just order dinner while we were at it. I fondly refer to this as the "rainbow meal."  I had stacked blue corn chicken enchiladas with red AND green chile; he had fish tacos dripping with confetti cole slaw and some kind of delicious spicy sauce.  But the star of this meal, believe it or not, was the beverage.  We asked the waitress if they could do a Black and Tan because we both wanted to try one.  Answer: no, because they don't have Bass.  But she offered us an alternative:  a Black and Blue, which is a Guinness stout poured over a Blue Moon.  The Verdict:  Yum-O.  Try it.  It's awesome.

So, Thursday already.  Today we go home. :-P  But we squeezed in a little more shopping and a stop at Tecolote Cafe (another one from DDD) for a big breakfast.  He had a perfectly-prepared Santa Fe Omelette with some kick-ass chile; I had French toast prepared with homemade honey blue cornbread with warm peach sauce and maple syrup.  Yeah, it was as good as it sounds.  It rocked.  Even without beer. ;-)

So we shopped around and piddled and packed and what do you know!  We can have lunch before we hit the road!  So we opted for another perennial favorite, the Plaza Grill.  We split a green chile cheeseburger with fries and washed it down with another NM brew, Monk's Ale.  Again, a delightful little beer that would be worth making the drive to Tucumcari for a six pack on a boring weekend.

It was a great (but far too short) trip, the perfect battery-charger before the craziness of August snags us in its clutches to begin another nine-month round.  Waaaaaaaa!

Next time, y'all come with us!