Early Winter 2016: The Heirloom Issue

edible

SANTA FE ®· ALBUQUERQUE · TAOS THE STORY OF LOCAL FOOD, SEASON BY SEASON IN NEW MEXICO

Heirloom

ISSUE 47 · EARLY WINTER · DECEMBER 2016 / JANUARY 2017

MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES

Te s u q u e, N e w M e x i c o

S I M P L E I N GR ED I E N TS. HO NEST COO KING. FRESH THINKING. At El Nido we present exceptional ingredients from farmers we know and trust. This is the point of departure for all our food. Carrying that tradition forward, our menus follow classic northern Italian cooking with intelligent innovation. Best-of-season vegetables, wood-fired meats, homemade pizzas & hand crafted pastas are some of the basis of our food, and is our reasoned approach to what is succulent and modern.

When you think El Nido, think: Elegant, rustic, refined, honest, delicious food, in a fine-dining atmosphere without pretense.

Old. New. Good.

1577 Bishops Lodge Road, Tesuque 505-954-1272 • www.elnidosantafe.com

HEIRLOOM: DECEMBER / JANUARY DEPARTMENTS 2

GRIST FOR THE MILL

By Willy Carleton and Candolin Cook

42 EDIBLE TRADITION Tasty Inheritance by Nora Hickey Serving Family Values by Moises Santos Community Roots by Stephanie Cameron

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CONTRIBUTORS

76 EAT LOCAL GUIDE

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LOCAL HEROES

80 LAST BITE

Ohori's Coffee Roasters, Santa Fe Spirits, Quinn Stephenson, and Vinaigrette

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DIGGING IN

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BACK OF THE HOUSE

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#EDIBLENM

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COOKING FRESH

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BEHIND THE BOTTLE

El Nido by Natalie Bovis A New Mexico Classic by Candolin Cook Instagram Round Up Just Desserts by Corinne Fay Coming Together by Christopher Goblet

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FERMENTI'S PARADOX

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EDIBLE COMMUNITY

Honoring History, Keeping It Fresh

by Michael J. Dax Brown Bagging by Ashley M. Biggers

ON THE COVER

edible

MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES

SANTA FE ®· ALBUQUERQUE · TAOS THE STORY OF LOCAL FOOD, SEASON BY SEASON IN NEW MEXICO

E’s Ponche by Enrique Guerrero

FEATURES 49 FROM RAIL TO TABLE The Legacy of the Fred Harvey Company

by Jason Strykowski

55 A TASTE OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER Aceto Balsamico of Monticello

by Sarah Wentzel-Fisher

Heirloom

ISSUE 47 · EARLY WINTER · DECEMBER 2016 / JANUARY 2017

Pecan Upside Down Cake.

Photo by Stephanie Cameron.

60 LOOKING BACK, THINKING FORWARD Two New Mexico Heritage Livestock Breeds

by Rick Hendricks

66 AHEAD OF THE CURVE Elizabeth Sebastian Defied Conventions to Diversify Northern New Mexico’s Palate by Willy Carleton

71 NEW DIPLOMATS Culinary Exchange as Diplomacy

by Lois Ellen Frank WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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GRIST FOR THE MILL

PUBLISHERS Bite Size Media, LLC Stephanie and Walt Cameron

New Mexico has some of the deepest and most diverse culinary traditions in the country.

Our food traditions help us understand where we’ve come from and offer us a source of great cultural wealth and pride. It is important to preserve these traditions, not simply out of pride or nostalgic sentimentality, but also to remember the lessons of history we need to move forward. The food traditions of our state not only help shine light on our greater history, they offer invaluable resources toward reimagining a more sustainable, more equitable, healthier, and, hopefully, more delicious future.

From historic institutions and livestock to shared seeds and cultural traditions, in this issue we are spotlighting some of New Mexico’s greatest culinary heirlooms. Chef Lois Ellen Frank takes us to Russia, where she used food to promote unity and cultural understanding, teaching traditional Native American food practices and recipes to chefs and diplomats. State Historian Rick Hendricks takes us back to the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century, when an influx of new foods included the parent generations of two livestock breeds—Dahl sheep and Criollo cattle—that currently hold promise for New Mexico ranchers adapting to a drier future. We then look to another key moment, centuries later, when an Englishman named Fred Harvey began serving up thick beef steaks and chile con carne to hungry travellers along the AT&SF Railway and Route 66. Together, these stories illustrate New Mexicans’ strong commitment to celebrating and preserving their local food history.

In more recent history, we travel to the small town of Monticello, New Mexico, where each autumn a community comes together to harvest and crush grapes for one of the country’s finest vinegars, produced with age-old Italian methods. We’ll also examine a nearlegendary retired farmer, Elizabeth Sebastian, who reigned as the premier Santa Fe market farmer of the 1980s and 90s and helped elevate some of the state’s most celebrated restaurants. Finally, in our Edible Tradition section, we focus on three iconic New Mexico restaurants, Michael’s Kitchen, Tomasita’s, and Mary and Tito’s, which have all, over several generations of serving crowd-pleasing comfort food, helped shape how we define the most basic elements of our region’s culinary identity.

Heirlooms come in many forms: an antique watch or a great-grandmother’s cookie recipe or a variety of tomato. In each case, its vitality and significance only endures if its steward protects it, understands its provenance, gives it new life, and passes it on. We hope you enjoy these stories and recipes, each a small slice from New Mexico’s food heritage, and we hope you may be inspired, too, to pass them on.

Willy Carleton and Candolin Cook, Editors

EDITORS Willy Carleton and Candolin Cook

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Sarah Wentzel-Fisher

PUBLISHING CONSULTANT Jodi L. Vevoda

COPY EDITORS Margaret Marti and Briana Olson

DESIGN AND LAYOUT Stephanie Cameron

PHOTO EDITOR Stephanie Cameron

EVENT COORDINATORS Natalie Donnelly and Gina Riccobono

DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER Joshua Hinte

PUBLISHING ASSISTANT Rhiannon Fraizer

VIDEO PRODUCER Walt Cameron

SALES AND MARKETING Katie Plaster

CONTACT US 3301-R Coors Boulevard NW #152 Albuquerque, NM 87120 info@ediblesantafe.com www.ediblesantafe.com Phone: 505-375-1329

SUBSCRIBE ∙ BUY AN AD ∙ LETTERS 505-375-1329 WWW.EDIBLESANTAFE.COM We welcome your letters. Write to us at the address above, or email us at INFO@EDIBLESANTAFE.COM Bite Size Media, LLC publishes edible Santa Fe six times a year.

We distribute throughout central and northern New Mexico and nationally by subscription. Subscriptions are $32 annually.

Printed at American Web Denver, Colorado

Stephanie and Walt Cameron, Publishers

Winner of James Beard Foundation Award 2011 Publication of the Year

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No part of this publication may be used without the written permission of the publisher. © 2016 All rights reserved.

THE

“WORRY-FREE, GOTCHA COVERED” HEALTH PLAN

Life is as wonderful as it is full of surprises. But a health plan from New Mexico Health Connections means you’re covered for doctor visits, hospital stays, medications and whatever life has in store.

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Simple, honest, affordable health insurance.

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CONTRIBUTORS ASHLEY M. BIGGERS Ashley M. Biggers is an Albuquerque-based freelance writer who has penned stories for Outside online, New Mexico Magazine, the Santa Fean, New Mexico Journey, Dorado, and others. She's currently at work on Eco-Travel New Mexico, due out from University of New Mexico Press in 2017. For more information, visit ashleymbiggers.com.

NATALIE BOVIS Natalie Bovis founded TheLiquidMuse.com, Santa Fe Cocktail Week, and New Mexico Cocktails & Culture festival, and she co-founded OM Organic Mixology Liqueurs. She hosts Digging In: A Recipe for Sustainability, an edible Santa Fe video series, and has authored three cocktail books, including Edible Cocktails: Garden-to-Glass (2012). A bar consultant and spirits educator, she was named one of four women leading the liquor industry by Bustle.com.

WILLY CARLETON Willy Carleton lives in Albuquerque and is an avid vegetable grower, forager, and editor of edible Santa Fe. He is writing a dissertation on the agricultural history of twentieth-century New Mexico in the history department at the University of New Mexico.

CANDOLIN COOK Candolin Cook is a history doctoral student at the University of New Mexico, an associate editor for the New Mexico Historical Review, and editor of edible Santa Fe. She spends much of her free time washing carrots and radishes at her husband’s vegetable farm, Vida Verde Farm, in Albuquerque's North Valley. Come check out their booth at the Downtown Growers Market, and follow her farm life on Instagram: @candolin and @vidaverdefarmabq.

MICHAEL J. DAX Michael J. Dax lives in Santa Fe and writes about environment and culture in the American West. He is the author of Grizzly West: A Failed Attempt to Reintroduce Grizzly Bears in the Mountain West (2015).

CORINNE FAY Corinne Fay recently moved to New Mexico and replaced the ocean with a dog named Bunny and her former pastry job with a job waiting for tomatoes to ripen.

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DR. LOIS ELLEN FRANK Dr. Lois Ellen Frank is a Santa Fe-based Native American chef, food historian, culinary anthropologist, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, photographer, and organic gardener. She is the chef/owner of Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC, a Native American catering company specializing in ancestral Native American cuisine with a modern twist. To learn more about Red Mesa Cuisine, visit www.redmesacuisinellc.com.

RICK HENDRICKS Rick Hendricks is the New Mexico state historian. He received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his PhD from the University of New Mexico. A former editor of the Vargas Project at UNM, he has also worked at New Mexico State University. He researches and writes on the history of the American Southwest and Mexico, particularly issues relating to land.

NORA HICKEY Nora Hickey is a writer and teacher living in Albuquerque. Her work has appeared in Narrative, Guernica, DIAGRAM, and other journals. She podcasts with City on the Edge and teaches at the University of New Mexico.

MOISES SANTOS Moises Santos is a PhD candidate in the history department at UNM. He works as an assistant editor at the New Mexico Historical Review and as a graduate instructor for the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at UNM. Santos lives in Albuquerque with his wife, Lucy; their eightyear-old daughter, Soleil; and their newborn baby, Ricardo.

JASON STRYKOWSKI New Mexico-based writer Jason Strykowski has visited or stayed at several Harvey Houses. He didn't try the oysters.

SARAH WENTZEL-FISHER Sarah Wentzel-Fisher is the interim executive director at the Quivira Coalition, and wants you (yes, all of you) to consider growing food. In her free time she visits farms (she highly recommends this activity), experiments in her kitchen, and keeps chickens in her backyard.

where do you belong?

The Cultural Atlas of New Mexico leads you to historic and cultural places throughout the Land of Enchantment. Organized by region, proximity and interest, the Cultural Atlas will help you find where you belong.

Find your place.

CULTURAL ATLAS OF NEW MEXICO http://atlas.nmculture.org

LOCAL HEROES Every year edible Santa Fe recognizes a group of amazing individuals and organizations for their work to create a healthy, sustainable food system in New Mexico. In an effort to showcase these individuals, organizations, and businesses

for their work to build a stronger local economy and a robust local food system, each issue of edible spotlights several of the winners and the work they do.

Ohori’s Coffee Roasters AN INTERVIEW WITH TAI AYERS, GENERAL MANAGER BEST BEVERAGE ARTISAN (NON-ALCOHOLIC)

Left: Tai Ayers. Right: Coffee being roasted in the 1965 vintage Probat. Photos by Stephanie Cameron.

Born in Santa Fe, Tai Ayers got her first dose of coffee culture in the quintessential teen hang-out, The Aztec Café. She worked at the plaza’s Haagen-Dazs at fifteen, graduated high school from Colorado Rocky Mountain School, and majored in environmental studies and English literature at Middlebury College (where she managed the student coffee house). After living in Vermont, NYC, Montana, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia for most of her twenties, she returned to Santa Fe to help owners Pema and Larry Ayers manage Ohori’s Coffee. Her love of community, health, and local products has helped define Ohori’s in the last ten years.

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What do you love most about local food?

The connection with community and the physical, psychological, and environmental health benefits that come from local food.

Tell us about your life outside of Ohori’s.

I also am involved in raising a family, outdoor recreation, and community building.

What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

In nature with friends and family.

WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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LOCAL HEROES Do you have a serendipitous moment?

On one hand, I could say all the time, but on the other, I believe life gives me what I give it. I feel blessed to live in this beautiful state and have a business where I get to see its people daily.

How did you get to where you are now? What’s the backstory, and what was the moment that brought you to your current work?

I’ve loved coffee and tea since a young age, the personal effects of these drinks, and the quality they bring to conversations between people. My father, Larry Ayers, had worked for Ohori’s as the financial manager since the opening year in 1984 and had the opportunity to buy the business in 2002. By 2004, I was the general manager, and soon my husband joined as the lead roaster and financial manager.

What makes you laugh?

A sanctuary for our guests, where they will enjoy delicious food, wine, and cocktails in a relaxed, yet refined, atmosphere.

People, because we take ourselves so seriously!

123 Bent Street, Taos ∙ 575-758-1009 ∙ LambertsofTaos.com

Kindness and basic respect, it is possible for everyone, yet so elusive in our societies.

Lunch: 11:30-2:30 | Happy Hour: 2:30-5:30 | Dinner : 5:30-close

What gets you fired up?

Fill in the Blank:

ROW CANYON CARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER

Cultural Explorations The Feasting Place

June 10–14, 2017 Explore the methods, ingredients, and artistry of traditional Pueblo foods at the Feasting Place, an American Indian-owned cooking school. The foods you make will nourish the community, as together you take part in a feast day at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

CST 2059347-50

crowcanyon.org | Cortez, Colorado | 800.422.8975, ext. 457

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edible Santa Fe | EARLY WINTER 2016

I love finding quality coffee and tea the most when it comes to my work and my passion because I feel joy in knowing that quality gets passed into people’s lives.

The question people always ask me is how long have you been at Ohori’s? But I wish they'd ask me, what can you do better?

If I had the chance, I would have coffee with Michelle Obama at Ohori’s. I'd like to ask her where she finds her grace.

If I weren't doing what I’m doing now, I'd be in a health field.

Most people are surprised to learn I spent my youth ski-racing.

What’s new at Ohori's?

Fabulous new pastries and an upcoming expanded drink menu with items such as red espresso, matcha lattes, and handcrafted sodas.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with edible readers?

I hope customers come to us directly with compliments and complaints. The old-fashioned face-to-face discussion is part of what local businesses can bring to communities these days. Please come in and share your reviews and impressions with us. We’d love to meet you and hear from you. www.ohoriscoffee.com

WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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LOCAL HEROES

Santa Fe Spirits

AN INTERVIEW WITH COLIN KEEGAN, FOUNDER / GENERAL MANAGER BEST BEVERAGE ARTISAN (ALCOHOLIC)

Left: Colin Keegan. Right: Barrel aging room at the distillery. Photos by Stephanie Cameron.

Colin Keegan moved to Santa Fe in 1992 with his wife Suzette and daughter Phoebe, and spent fifteen years here practicing architecture.

When the economy took a downturn, he decided to turn his distilling hobby into a business, and in 2010 opened Santa Fe Spirits (SFS). The company has grown into an operation boasting seven spirits in nine states, with three other export markets, and eleven employees. SFS has quadrupled its facility size and opened a second tasting room in downtown Santa Fe.

passion are all part of what they produce, and here in the Southwest, we are so blessed to have so many wonderful flavors.

What do you love most about local food?

I enjoy mornings mountain biking in the spring and summer, and skiing in the winter. If I can get a few days together, my wife and I really enjoy traveling to as many states as we can.

I love getting to meet the people who make it happen, who actually grow, produce, or make the food. The enthusiasm, dedication, and 10

edible Santa Fe | EARLY WINTER 2016

Tell us about your life outside of Santa Fe Spirits.

I also am involved in the local Chamber of Commerce. I enjoy working the acequias and our apple orchard, in season, and living in rural New Mexico, in general.

What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

Do you have a serendipitous moment?

Struggling in architecture, I took a job as the project architect in a huge industrial plant at the southern end of New Mexico. Once asked to apply for a promotion, I realized that industrial work was not for me; I wanted to get back to Santa Fe and work with a passionate, dedicated group rather than paycheck collectors!

How did you get to where you are now? What’s the backstory, and what was the moment that brought you to your current work?

On realizing that architecture was not going to fulfill me creatively or financially, I had to make some serious decisions. My wife and I decided that rather than chase professions in other places, we wanted to stay in Santa Fe, and as we lived in the apple orchard, we decided to give our distilling hobby a go in a bigger way.

I realized that a small business making handcrafted artisanal spirits would challenge me in many ways, and let me learn and grow myself. I still view SFS as a series of projects: building the facility, coming up with a line of products, building an awesome team, growing distribution, building an expansion, etc. Wow, it is certainly a challenge, and I learn every day!

What makes you laugh?

English humor—they have such a skewed version of reality sometimes. Human situational comedy does make me laugh.

What gets you fired up?

When big business and governments crush the wonderful spirit of small entrepreneurs by putting money ahead of creativity. And local politicians who say they want to promote business, but are really just in their positions to collect a paycheck.

Fill in the Blank: The question people always ask me is where are you from? But I wish they'd ask me, what do you enjoy most about the Southwest?

If I had the chance, I would have lunch with the leading distributors in the country at Vinaigrette. I'd like to ask them what do they really expect from small growing brands like SFS? If I weren't doing what I’m doing now, I'd be following my other passion, which is climbing big peaks around the world, probably learning to ski better, and more esoteric sports.

Most people are surprised to learn that I was an architect and did not come from the spirits business.

What’s new at Santa Fe Spirits?

We are building an expansion, we have a great single barrel release program going for the fall, and we are looking for an Albuquerque tasting room location.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with edible readers?

We are excited about what we do, and edible is a great way for us to share that enthusiasm. www.santafespirits.com WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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LOCAL HEROES

Quinn Stephenson

COYOTE CAFÉ, OWNER / SOMMELIER / MIXOLOGIST BEST MIXOLOGIST

Left: Quinn Stephenson, photo courtesy of Stephenson. Right: The Velvet Bee, photo by Lois Ellen Frank.

Quinn Stephenson has had a long career as a restaurateur, general manager, sommelier, and mixologist for some of Santa Fe’s most celebrated restaurants, including Coyote Café, Coyote Cantina, Geronimo, Radish & Rye, and High Note. His operations share an OpenTable Top 100 restaurant in the country rating, a Mobil Four Star award, AAA Four Diamond award, a number one rating on TripAdvisor for restaurants in our area, and numerous other local and national credentials.

Although he has managed day-to-day operations within the five locations, Stephenson finds his passion and expression most on the beverage side of his restaurants. He has been invited to test for an advanced certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers, was chosen to develop core recipes for Patron’s new tequila line Roca, and is working on a recipe book titled Culinary Cocktails.

certain technique, just as a chef would. Most people see a piece of rhubarb as rhubarb, but I see rhubarb cooked down with a few strawberries in a light simple syrup with star anise and cinnamon sticks and think, hmmm, that would be a great addition to a gin and tonic.

Do you have a favorite cocktail and why?

Gin and tonic. A ton of work has already been done for you. The simple addition of a splash of fresh fruit juice and you have an incredibly complex, refreshing cocktail.

Do you have a favorite spirit and why?

What do you love most about local food?

I really enjoy high-quality rum. When people don't understand this, I pour a shot of high-quality bourbon, vodka, gin, tequila, scotch, and rum at room temperature, straight from the bottle, and beg the question: you tell me which one is best just as it is.

I like to think that every dollar I spend is like casting a vote on what I choose to support.

How did you get to where you are now? What’s the backstory, and what was the moment that brought you to your current work?

Share something unique about your profession as a mixologist.

I was driven by my fascination for hospitality and food from a young age when I secured my first full-time bartending job by twenty-one.

My subsequent rise to bar manager, then to general manager of Mark

The term “bar chef ” is a great way to think about it. I'm constantly thinking about what if I add this to that and create a flavor using a 12

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Miller’s Coyote Café was quick. In between, I found time to study business at UNM and manage bar operations for Geronimo and its related enterprises. Before I turned thirty, I had become a partner in Coyote Café, Coyote Cantina, and Geronimo.

I went on to expand on what I had built and opened a farm-to-table concept restaurant with an emphasis on bourbon called Radish & Rye, which was voted by USA Today as one of the top ten new restaurants in the country. I then opened a speakeasy jazz club named the High Note, which month by month continues to grow.

In late 2016, after the passing of my chef [Eric DiStefano], who was a partner at Coyote Café, I resigned at Geronimo to purchase more equity in Coyote Café. After seventeen years at this location, I’m working on sole ownership of this legendary restaurant. I am very excited to celebrate Coyote Café’s thirtieth anniversary next year.

The restaurant is nationally recognized and is responsible for the creation of modern southwestern food in the United States. This celebration, in conjunction with my sole focus on one property as well as a humble remodel of the space in the off season, will yield a very successful decade to come.

What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

Sleeping late, light healthy lunch at a downtown restaurant, head to the gym, meet my love for a glass of wine or a cocktail somewhere and discuss what’s for dinner, head back to our beautiful home and cook and talk over a great bottle of wine. Insert happy face here!

Open for Dinner 7 nights, 4:30-10:30 Lunch, Wed thru Sat, 11:30-4:30 for reservations 505-984-1091 or ilPiattoSantaFe.com 95 West Marcy Street, Santa Fe

Do you have a serendipitous moment?

Quite the opposite, I plan way too much, I’m calculated. It’s a game of attrition, it’s not a sprint nor is it chance; life is chess, at least in this moment in my career. Hopefully, someday my serendipitous moment will come in Italy in an early retirement where out of nowhere the older friend I met at the bistro gives me his winery and vineyard.

What are people most surprised to learn about you?

That I own the restaurant.

What makes you laugh?

My sweetheart and I are constantly cracking each other up. When you have that type of comfort level in your relationship, it’s so much easier to not be serious all the time.

What gets you fired up?

Experiencing great service, great restaurants, and great cocktail bars.

I love this industry so much, so I can’t help but get inspired. I have so much respect for people in this industry who are nailing it from beginning to end. Let’s just say I've shed a tear over documentaries like Chef's Table.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with edible readers?

Don't let them work for you; allow them to work with you. www.coyotecafe.com WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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LOCAL HEROES

Vinaigrette

AN INTERVIEW WITH ERIN WADE, OWNER OF VINAIGRETTE AND MODERN GENERAL BEST RESTAURANT – ALBUQUERQUE

Left: Erin Wade, photo by Kitty Leaken. Right: Inside the Albuquerque location, photo by Jen Judge.

Erin Wade graduated from Harvard in 2002 with a degree in English and all the makings for a successful career in fashion. While studying in Milan, she had an epiphany that would completely correct her course. The concrete jungle was not for her; she needed nature. Specifically, she needed to get her hands in the dirt.

She immediately settled herself in Santa Fe, where she connected with the land both spiritually and practically, becoming a self-taught soil expert and farmer, as well as a chef and restaurateur. Today, she owns the salad-centric eatery Vinaigrette, with locations in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Austin, and Modern General, a stylish café and home goods shop. She says her philosophy for a happy and healthy life comes from her early years experimenting in the garden and kitchen on her ranch in Nambé. She believes in the “importance of taking pleasure in and enjoying healthy eating.”

What do you love most about local food?

It connects us to our communities and the earth in a physical and tangible way.

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What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?

In my pajamas in bed, reading and loafing.

Tell us about your life outside of the restaurant.

I enjoy writing, running, Pilates, and working on a book with my friend and photographer Jen Judge about food and joy. I love to read, too.

Do you have a serendipitous moment?

The serendipitous moment or experience that got me on the path I am on happened in my early twenties. Having lived in big cities for the previous five years, I missed nature, open space, and the feeling of the earth. I had a really strong desire to get my hands in the dirt, sort of all of a sudden. That’s how I went from high fashion in Milan to farming in the high desert.

How did you get to where you are now? What’s the backstory, and what was the moment that brought you to your current work?

While I was farming in Nambé, I had an idea for a restaurant that combined health and deliciousness in a way that was as natural, easy, and unified as the restaurants I’d seen in Italy. I was inspired by a pizzeria that I used to love there that delighted in hundreds of flavor combinations. I was making all kinds of salads on the farm from what I was growing, and, progressively, the idea gelled into a restaurant concept.

Fill in the Blank: I love being creative and making people feel nourished and good the most when it comes to my work and my passion because food is a powerful portal into joy and wellness if we allow it to be.

LOCALLY BREWED BELGIAN-STYLE BEER AND RUSTIC DELI SERVED WITH ARTFUL HOSPITALITY FROM THE OLD WORLD

The question people always ask me is what my favorite salad is and what they should order. But I wish they'd ask me how they should order. One of the key ideas of Vinny is that you need to eat what you crave and what your body wants at that moment. Sometimes this is tricky to figure out, but our ultimate health and happiness depends on it.

If I had the chance, I would have lunch with Wendell Berry at Vinaigrette. I'd like to ask him, in a world where people increasingly exist in the ether of our online digital world, how do those of us still invested in the physical world and its health compel change?

If I weren't doing what I’m doing now, I'd be writing.

Most people are surprised to learn that I don’t deprive myself of anything and I eat whatever I want.

1228 PARKWAY DR, SANTA FE, 505-474-5301 606 CENTRAL AVE SW, ALBUQUERQUE, 505-508-3330 DUELBREWING.COM

What gets you fired up?

When I see produce that we harvested in the morning being served to our guests the same day. The potential to innovate and change the restaurant industry, an industry in need of change.

Tell us about your choice to open a third Vinaigrette in Austin?

How is it the same, how is it different?

We think the world, and America in particular, needs more delicious and elevating food that makes people feel good. We picked Austin because many of our seasonal customers begged us to check it out and also because of the long growing season and potential to increase our farm production. And we knew Austinites would appreciate us. Our mission is the same: to make lovingly sourced delicious and nourishing food in a beautiful and uplifting space.

We want to be a positive force in our customers’ lives, on the side of wellness and growth.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with edible readers?

For health in 2017, try spending less time in front of screens and more time truly enjoying the full-bodied experience of eating from a place of mindfulness and presence. It is not just the money we spend on food that has decreased, it is the time. We need to carve out time for food and eating. www.vinaigretteonline.com

Mountain West Seed Summit Honoring Origins and Seeding the Future March 3–4, 2017 Hotel Santa Fe Santa Fe, NM

Join seed stewards, seed activists, and seed visionaries to reclaim seed sovereignty and cultivate a sustainable food future through workshops, presentations, art, and celebration.

Register now! $150 Early Bird Discount $195 after January 1

PLUS full-day field trip for Summit participants on March 2nd to Tesuque Pueblo Farm and Seed Bank, Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, and more. $65 with lunch.

RockyMountainSeeds.org WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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El Nido

DIGGING IN, EPISODE FIVE

By Natalie Bovis · Photos by Stephanie Cameron Reinvention uses the past to rethink the future, a shift from what was to what will be. After closing its doors in 2010, El Nido is once again welcoming guests, and my guess is that the nest will be overflowing. The eatery, tucked cozily into Tesuque village, has switched up both its cuisine and its ownership. Chef Enrique Guerrero, owner of Santa Fe’s ever-popular Bang Bite food truck, has perfected the art of shapeshifting. The former personal chef to the President of Mexico has worked with some of the biggest names on both US coasts, from Daniel Boulud to Thomas Keller. He and his handpicked staff are now resurrecting one of the state’s most iconic restaurants. Guerrero’s focus on simple, locally sourced farmhouse Italian cuisine is redolent of meals in nonna’s kitchen. Hand-painted frescos, multiple fireplaces, an alluring event space, and ample patio will draw loyal local patrons year-round. It is warm, familial, beautiful, and authentic.

The wine and cocktail lists, curated by Michael Sebree and Chris Campbell and served from a stunning bar, are thoughtful and delicious. Longtime New Mexicans will rejoice when recognizing a nostalgic venue, re-envisioned as an incubator for conviviality and a great meal. Watch our video, Digging In, to see for yourselves, then book your reservation to bid benvenuto to El Nido!

Log on to www.ediblenm.com/diggingin to watch now. www.elnidosantafe.com

Left: Enrique Guerrero seasons the wood-grilled steaks. Top: Seva Dubar of On the Lamb in Santa Fe delivers fresh cuts to Guerrero.

Middle: Lamb on the wood-fired grill. Bottom: Charred veggies.

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© 2016 Nestle Waters North America Inc.

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THE FIN

THE FINE DINING WATERS

BACK OF THE HOUSE

Left to right: Sous chef Michael Leonard, executive chef Josh Kalmus, and owner Mark Kiffin.

A New Mexico Classic THE COMPOUND TURNS FIFTY

By Candolin Cook · Photos by Stephanie Cameron On the afternoon of May 30, 2000, chef Mark Kiffin stood in the dining room of the historic adobe property known as The Compound, inspecting his impeccable waitstaff. This was the opening night of Kiffin’s incarnation of The Compound, a legendary and beloved Santa Fe restaurant, established in 1966 by Will and Barbara Houghton. Having recently acquired the property from its long-time second owner, Victor Sagheer, Kiffin felt an obligation on this inaugural night to honor the establishment’s legacy of French elegance by personally tying a bowtie onto the necks of each of his seventeen servers. “To serve real food,” Kiffin told his staff, “we need to wear real bowties; James Beard always wore one.” Over the ensuing sixteen years, Kiffin strove to “carry on the stature and tradition” of The Compound, while making it his own. If you visit the restaurant today, you will find just that: history mixed with contemporary culinary excellence.

The Compound began when the Houghtons converted a twostory adobe home situated in the McComb Compound on Canyon 18

edible Santa Fe | EARLY WINTER 2016

Road—a haven for artists and bohemians since the 1920s—and enlisted famed designer Alexander Girard to design and decorate it.

Sagheer was its first general manager and purchased The Compound in the mid-1970s. A 1979 Santa Fe New Mexican article described Sagheer as “a simply elegant Lebanese man with a formal smile and a click of the heels.” Under his direction, the restaurant was a success with locals and national critics, but could feel stuffy with its formal dress code, traditional French cuisine, and waiters donning tuxedos and white gloves.

When it came time for Sagheer to sell his beloved Compound, he refused to just hand the keys over to the highest bidder. Kiffin, after years of working with Mark Miller at the Coyote Café and helping develop other restaurants around the country, was searching for his own space, something of substantial size. Kiffin, who was now living in Dallas, approached Sagheer about the three-acre property, but Sagheer was skeptical. “He knew me as a chef of Southwestern cuisine, and he didn’t want to see The Compound [stray from its roots]

and start doing chile,” Kiffin recalls. “So I drove out to see him in Santa Fe and on the way wrote out the menu I wanted to cook.

He saw tuna tartare, veal, and sweetbreads and foie gras—he saw an American restaurant by an American chef with European influences. He said, ‘Okay, now I’ll sell, because I want to eat that.’”

Despite menu changes every three months (Kiffin says this fall marks his sixty-fifth menu since taking over), some of those original dishes are still offered every day on the Compound Classics menu—for instance, the foie gras which is flown in from the Hudson Valley every week. For the rest of the offerings, seasonality is key. “We craft every menu by focusing on what is true to that season. Then we source those ingredients from where they are the most fresh and who makes them best.”

It may seem a tad controversial nowadays for a high-caliber restaurant to admit it doesn’t buy everything local, but Kiffin stands by his selections. “A lot of people claim to be ‘farm-totable’ when they aren’t. I’d wager we source from more farms, ranchers, and growers than most. We source locally, produce from the farmers market, lamb from Moriarty; and we also fly in Guinea hens from California and morels from the Northwest. Some things aren’t everywhere, and we do a lot research and travel to find the best-quality ingredients.”

Kiffin shuns trends such as molecular gastronomy and fusion, as well as social media food culture and the celebrity chef. “A lot of chefs are interested in getting famous. They worry more about how a dish looks on Instagram than how it tastes,” he laments. “At the same time, you sort of live and die by it . . . because as soon as you put the plate down, diners take out their phones. I love going out to dinner and want to enjoy my meal, not tweet it.” But his biggest pet peeve is waste. “I can’t walk by a trash can without looking in it. I respect food too much to waste it; we utilize byproducts, we get creative, and we compost.” He also claims his staff doesn’t break things. “I can hear a glass break in my sleep.”

The respect Kiffin has for his dishes, ingredients, and restaurant is palpable. Perhaps that is why in 2005 he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef of the Southwest. It may also be why Santa Feans, who have eaten at The Compound for generations, continue to choose to celebrate their weddings, anniversaries, and holidays there. The restaurant’s long history of special prix fixe Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve meals predates Kiffin, whose birthday is on Christmas, but he has lovingly taken up the torch.

Each holiday season, The Compound becomes a winter wonderland, festooned with icicle lights, garlands, and decorated trees.

“We love the holidays. I want kids here dressed up in their red shoes. I want the ho-ho-ho,” Kiffin says with a grin.

This year marks The Compound’s fiftieth anniversary. However, a proper celebration won’t happen until sometime in the new year (“We’d like to celebrate in the proper economy. There’s been a lot of anxieties in the world this year and that has hit the restaurant industry a bit”). The Compound continues to combine the classic with the creative, and looks to the future while honoring the past. “I get to be a caretaker of this property, which I

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BACK OF THE HOUSE

Left: Fall carrot soup with curry, orange, and cider poured over pork belly croquette and apple salad at the tableside.

Top right: Mark Kiffin. Bottom right: Housemade pappardelle pasta and fennel sausage sugo with tomato, garlic, and sweet herbs.

take very seriously,” says Kiffin. “We are a tradition in Santa Fe, we aren’t just a restaurant. It is bigger than me and I’m not going to let it down, or my employees, or the community.” Kiffin’s predecessor, Sagheer, said in 1979, "You commit your establishment to quality and you have to love it to have it work." Kiffin and his team are in20

edible Santa Fe | EARLY WINTER 2016

deed committed to many more anniversaries. “It’s not like I have to retire, I get too much joy out of it,” Kiffin says. “As long as I’m here, it will all be here.”

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INSTAGRAM #EDIBLENM

ediblesantafe TAG us or use #ediblenm and your Instagram pics could be featured here. We pick our some of our favorites every issue. #WeLoveOurReaders

vidaverdefarmabq Pulling sugar from the field. Check out my carrot recipes in this months @ediblesantafe. #carrots #organicallygrown #ediblenm

thekitchengypsy Pictured here is when I made a full on breakfast bonanza using a local gingerbread pancake mix by Josepi that uses buckwheat and brown rice flour.

Topped it with apples sliced, cinnamon spiced, and griddled to perfection! #ediblenm

ROUND UP

immalittlebunny Breakfast by @deadwolfbones. Tomatoes and basil from our garden, cows milk mozzarella from @cheesemongerssf, pickled hot banana peppers, jalapenos and tomatillos from our garden and of course bacon.

Sourdough baguette from @sagebakehouse. #ediblenm

thewildandthetamed Celebrating our ancestors; using up the rest of our fresh tomatoes and carrots in this creamy soup with rainbow chard socca and pickled watermelon radish for a huge dose of vitamin C & A, beneficial probiotics, lycopene, and healthy fat. #ediblenm

COOKING FRESH

Just Desserts PECAN EDITION

By Corinne Fay · Photos by Stephanie Cameron

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Pecans always remind me of my first job, selling sweets at a small candy shop in Maine. In addition to chocolates shaped like moose and L.L. Bean boots, we sold an abundance of pecan turtles—five pecans glued together by a glob of silky caramel and capped with another blob of milk or dark chocolate to vaguely resemble a turtle.

The ordering of pecan turtles always presented a problem: what is the correct pronunciation of the word pecan? PEE-can or p’CAHN? Pronunciation varies region to region. Furthermore, it can vary from confection to confection: p’CAHN pie and PEE-can praline may come from the same mouth. As a sixteen-year-old behind a case of chocolates, this could all be avoided by simply pointing to the tray of pecan turtles and asking, “Did you want the cashew or the…?”

Beyond the troublesome elocution, as far as I knew pecans came from grocery store shelves, in two different varieties, halves and pieces, which my mother and grandmother would use to make labor-intensive miniature pecan pies around the holidays.

I eventually learned to make my own pecan pie and heard that pecans grew in groves in Georgia. It wasn’t until I moved to New Mexico this year that I learned that pecans are actually native to Mexico and Texas, and that, with dedicated irrigation, southern New Mexico’s dry heat is very well-suited for growing pecan trees. In fact, pecans consistently rank as one of the state’s top five cash crops.

Pecans are ready to harvest when the hulls begin to split, which in Albuquerque should be sometime in November—just in time for holiday baking. I recently noticed a pecan tree in a neighbor’s yard so tall it dwarfed the nearby elm and apple trees. The branches spread so far and wide that, with a little shaking or a ladder, I am hopeful a few will land in my lap.

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COOKING FRESH

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PECAN UPSIDE DOWN CAKE This cake is basically a cross between coffee cake and sticky buns, and it is good any time of day.

Topping 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons corn syrup 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup pecans Cake 2 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 cup yogurt 3/4 cup sugar 6 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs Preheat the oven to 325° F.

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Line the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan with a circle of parchment. To make the topping, whisk the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour the melted butter and sugar mixture into the parchment-lined pan. Then you can either spread the pecans over the bottom or arrange them in an appealing pattern, depending on your patience. Put the pan with the sugar and pecans in the freezer for ten minutes while you mix the cake batter.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a bigger bowl, mix together the yogurt, sugar, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the yogurt mix and stir until you have a consistent batter. It should be very thick.

When the pecans and topping in the cake pan have set, gently spread the batter over the topping.

Bake about 45 minutes, until the cake is completely set and browned on top. The pecans and sugar can bubble up quite a bit, so I recommend baking this on a baking sheet so you don’t have to do an oven-cleaning afterwards.

Let the cake cool for ten minutes, loosen sides with a butter knife, and then invert onto a plate or a cooling rack with some parchment underneath to catch drips.

Slowly lift off parchment from top of cake and continue to cool before enjoying.

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COOKING FRESH

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PECAN HONEY BARS

All ose ings for the Kitchen!

These remind me of the miniature pecan pies my grandmother made around Christmas time, but they’re a little less labor intensive since you don’t have to shape a million little pies.

Crust 1/2 cup pecans 2 cups flour 14 tablespoons butter (1 3/4 sticks), cut into small pieces and chilled 2/3 cups brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt Topping 3 cups pecans, chopped coarsely 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 sticks of butter 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup honey 5 tablespoons heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment, extending the sides over the pan to be able to pop the bars out when done.

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Make the crust: pulse the pecans in a food processor until finely ground, but stop before they become a paste. Add the flour, sugar, and salt, and pulse until combined. Then add the butter and pulse together until you have a sandy mixture with some pea-sized chunks of butter left. Pour this into the lined baking pan and press into an even crust.

Bake about 20 minutes until golden brown and set.

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Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add sugars and honey; stir until dissolved. Continue cooking and turn the heat up to medium until it starts to boil and thicken, and cook until it reaches 240° F. Remove the mixture from the heat and whisk in the cream and vanilla (it may bubble up and steam a lot when you add these, so be careful). Then add in the pecans and salt and pour the mixture over the crust.

Return the pan to the oven and bake for about 20–25 minutes, until the topping is bubbling along the edge, but not quite in the center. It will not look set or solid; it should be very liquidy.

Set aside to cool and refrigerate overnight. When you are ready to slice into bars, pop the whole thing out of the pan and cut into desired size.

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COOKING FRESH

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RYE PECAN BROWNIES Christmas Eve Dinner

These brownies are super dense, and I love the combination of pecans and rye.

starting at 4pm

Christmas Dinner starting at 5pm

3/4 cup pecans, chopped 1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 4 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces 10.5 ounces dark chocolate, either chocolate chips

or bars broken into pieces 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1 1/2 cups rye flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon coffee grounds 1 teaspoon flaky salt

New Year’s Eve Dinner starting at 6pm

The Compound Restaurant A Santa Fe Holiday Tradition

Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with parchment and preheat oven to 350° F.

LUNCH • DINNER • BAR

Toast pecans on a baking sheet until they smell fragrant, about 7 minutes.

In a stand mixer, whisk together the sugars, eggs, and vanilla until they become pale and fluffy. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and butter in a metal bowl placed over a pot of boiling water (the bowl should not be touching the water). Stir often.

Mix the rye flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, coffee grounds, and toasted pecans.

Once the butter and chocolate are completely melted and combined, stream into the sugar and egg mixture. Scrape the bottom and continue whisking until combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the dry ingredients and nuts until just combined.

Pour the brownie batter into the lined pan. Sprinkle with flaky salt and bake about 25 minutes. The center will still be jiggly. Allow to cool before serving.

Reservations 505.982.4353 653 Canyon Road compoundrestaurant.com photo: Grace Berge

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COOKING FRESH COFFEE PECAN PRALINE Makes 4 pint jars

These make a great gift packed into a little jar. They also work well as a garnish on a cake or on top of yogurt and granola.

1 cup sugar 1/2 cup strong coffee 2 cups pecans Salt Mix sugar into coffee in a saucepan until almost dissolved, and then turn on the heat and heat the mixture to 245° F. Remove from heat and pour in the pecans, stirring vigorously until the sugar crystallizes around the nuts. Keep stirring until the sugar is completely solid and then dump the whole saucepan out onto a piece of parchment and sprinkle with salt.

The sugar mess in the pan should disappear completely with a little hot water; just let it soak for a bit.

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BEHIND THE BOTTLE

Coming Together NEW MEXICO’S CRAFT BEVERAGE RENAISSANCE

By Christopher Goblet

Local beer, wine, and spirits. Photo by Stephanie Cameron.

A year ago, we, the New Mexico Wine Growers Association, launched the Behind the Bottle column with edible Santa Fe to celebrate the craft beverage industry in New Mexico. Edible spends a lot of time promoting our vintners, craft brewers, distillers, and cider makers because it is vital that the New Mexico consumer become aware and develop loyalty based on quality, local pride, and support of the state’s economy.

Changes in New Mexico laws and regulations have created new opportunities and partnerships within the industry. A healthy balance of collaboration and competition defines the industry; the advent of rec34

edible Santa Fe | EARLY WINTER 2016

iprocity between wineries and breweries has strengthened producers and consumers. In terms of production, we now have brewers making cider, and winemakers and distillers producing craft beer. This has led to a conversation about the synergistic power of the wine, beer, and spirits industries working together to spur further economic growth.

New Mexico is now home to sixty-five breweries, fifty wineries, seven distilleries, four cideries, and the list grows on an almost weekly basis. The proliferation in our craft beverage industry signals more jobs, not just for crafters and restaurant/bar staff, but also for farmers, food-truck entrepreneurs, and local musicians and artists. Collectively,

the craft beverage industry employs thousands of New Mexicans and contributes millions of dollars to our economy in the form of excise and sales taxes.

Unfortunately, all of this economy- and community-building could be very quickly undone with the swipe of a pen. While recent legislation has benefitted the craft beverage sector and encouraged investment and expansion, there is always a threat of new taxes and regulations that could change this trajectory. One such proposal that is currently being pushed would raise the excise tax by twenty-five cents per drink. Many believe that this tax, which is intended to help curb alcohol abuse and generate funds to help combat social ills caused by alcohol, is excessive and will stifle economic growth. What might seem like a small increment would cumulatively have a detrimental impact on small brewers, familyowned wineries, and craft distillers.

Excise tax is something most of us don’t think about and sometimes don’t fully understand. Craft producers pay a federal and state excise tax on every gallon of beer, wine, or spirits they produce. A twenty-five cent per drink excise tax increase would represent an astronomical increase that would make New Mexico’s liquor excise tax the highest in the country. To put this into perspective, local distillers, winemakers, and brewers would face a 350 percent tax increase on distilled spirits, a 375 percent tax increase on wine, and a 651 percent tax increase on domestic beer.

Naturally, the craft beverage sector has legitimate concerns about this proposal and the potential impact it will have on small producers and consumers. While craft beverage producers differ in several ways (raw ingredients, production techniques, points of sale, consumer demographics), they have much more in common in terms of size, geographical diversity, and marketing options. These commonalities have drawn the various segments of the craft beverage industry together to discuss collaborative marketing, events, and ways to approach regulations, government affairs, and policy.

•

Colin Keegan, New Mexico Distillers Guild president, stated, “New Mexico distilleries are the newest and fastest growing sector of the New Mexico craft beverage industry. We are pleased to be joining the more established wineries and breweries, and agree that this proposed excessive tax increase will greatly impact our growth and stability. We are already at a disadvantage to our surrounding states, and these anti-business ideas are part of what is already hurting New Mexico business.”

As vintners, brewers, and distillers continue to grow and collaborate, a cultural, agricultural, and political momentum will build and benefit the entire local food scene. Salud!

Learn more about New Mexico's craft beverage producers: www.winecountrynm.com www.facebook.com/NMDistillers www.nmbeer.org WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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FERMENTI'S PARDOX

Honoring History, Keeping It Fresh SANTA FE BREWING COMPANY

By Michael J. Dax · Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Owner Brian Lock and general manager Alana Jones at the Santa Fe Brewing Company taproom and brewery.

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Shortly after Brian Lock and his three partners bought Santa Fe Brewing in 1996, he drank a beer that saved his life.

It was a Saturday and Lock was cleaning kegs at the brewery’s original location in Galisteo. He put a keg on the rinse cycle and stepped outside to have a beer with Mike Levis, the brewery’s founder. A few minutes later, they heard a deafening explosion from inside the small shack where Levis had developed Santa Fe’s signature pale ale and Chicken Killer barley wine.

“The whole barn shook,” remembers Lock.

The water heater had clogged with calcium deposits, causing the explosion, and insulation and shards of metal covered the floor of the small space.

Twenty years later, the brewery has occupied two different spaces, including its current location at the northern terminus of the Turquoise Trail on Santa Fe’s south side. Its state-of-the-art equipment is a far cry from the five-barrel “frankenbrew” equipment—as Lock describes it—that Levis had purchased from Boulder Beer Company in 1988.

Levis was retired when he started what has become New Mexico’s oldest craft brewery, and he operated it more as a hobby than a business. By the time he put it up for sale, Lock had been working at Nor’wester Brewing in Portland, Oregon, for a few years. He had always wanted to own a brewery, so when two of his college buddies, Carlos Muller and Dave Forester, originally from Las Vegas, told him about Levis’s operation, Lock packed his bags and headed south.

The three of them, along with Levis’s son, Ty, bought the brewery and, under their management, it grew steadily over the ensuing years. Under this new leadership, tradition remained an important component. “It’s always been about green chile and New Mexico,” says Lock. He’s mindful of the state’s culinary traditions and wants his beer to complement those flavors. As he explains, the sweet, maltforward English-style ales balance New Mexico’s spicy foods.

By 2003, Muller, Forester, and Levis were ready for new opportunities, and Lock happily bought their shares of the business.

Two years later, he moved the brewery to its current location—a moment he now views as a watershed for the brewery. “I reached a point where I had professional brewing equipment, I had a professional staff making good, consistent beer, and I felt good about the quality,” he says.

Alana Jones started working at the brewery during her senior year of college, in 2004, when the tap room was located on Dinosaur Trail and only opened a few days a week. She started as a bartender, but slowly assumed more responsibilities and is now the general manager.

“I’m the reason craft beer is popular in New Mexico,” she jokes. Even as recently as the mid-2000s, Jones recalls having to educate most people on what craft beer was. “I had to explain to a thousand people what an IPA is.”

Knowledge of craft beer has come a long way since then. Customers now ask about the specific kinds of hops that they use in the beer, and with the explosion of new breweries in northern New Mexico, Santa Fe Brewing has to ensure it remains relevant in the increasingly competitive market. “For younger people, we are literally the beer that’s in your dad’s fridge,” remarks Jones.

This is a challenge they’ve welcomed.

“That’s crucial to the success of the whole industry,” says Lock. Recently, the brewery hired a new master brewer who had worked for the Boston Beer Company, which makes Sam Adams. They’ve experimented with new seasonal brews, like Adobe Igloo, a malty, dark red beer infused with cacao nibs and red chile flakes that debuted last winter.

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In 2013, the brewery opened a hops farm along the Rio Grande, south of Taos, to grow native neomexicanus hops.

Although the seven-acre farm cannot produce nearly the volume of hops neededfor all the beer they make, it does yield enough to make small batches sold only in the tap rooms, giving customers something new and different to sample.

As the brewery has grown, the nature of the business has changed. With more than thirty breweries spread across the state, the

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New canning line at Santa Fe Brewing that can fill two hundred eighty cans per minute.

industry now has the ability to influence laws, regulations, and tax policies—something that would have been inconceivable a decade ago. With the capacity to brew two hundred thousand barrels a year and a new canning line that can fill two hundred eighty cans per minute, the brewery has come a long way. Earlier this year, Lock opened The Bridge as a concert venue. As construction continues, the site increasingly resembles a compound with multiple tasting stations and walkways connecting the growing number of buildings.

Jones admits that the balance between fun and professionalism has shifted as a result, but neither she nor Lock have lost sight of what they love about working in craft beer. In mid-October, the sales team, which is spread across ten states, was in town for their annual meeting. Lock rushed into the brewery, excusing himself, “Give me a second. I have to do a shotgun with these guys.”

35 Fire Place, Santa Fe, 505-424-3333 Albuquerque Taproom: 3600 Cutler NE www.santafebrewing.com

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39

EDIBLE COMMUNITY

Top left, clockwise: Removing seeds from Corrales azafrán; Brita Sauer looking through seed catalog; poppy seeds and pods; and squash seed packets.

Brown Bagging ABC SEED LIBRARY

By Ashley M. Biggers · Photos by Stephanie Cameron Just inside the Juan Tabo branch of the Albuquerque and Bernalillo County (ABC) Library system, a simple card catalog cabinet nods to another era. Not just to a time when an analog Dewey Decimal System reigned, but also to when neighbors traded seeds and, in the process, gradually developed and spread more climate-adapted, genetically diverse local plants.

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Within the honey-colored drawers, coin envelopes hold handfuls of fruit, vegetable, and flower seeds, from amaranth to zucchini. Each packet bears a library barcode so the seed packets can be checked out— just like the latest James Patterson novel or a CD of world music. Unlike those, there’s no immediate expectation these items will be returned. Rather, the seeds should be

grown and nourished. Then, if possible, in a season or two, saved seeds will be returned so other patrons can plant them.

Branch Manager Brita Sauer long dreamed of combining her passion for gardening and her work. The goal bore fruit in 2014, when she began receiving a $750 annual stipend to purchase seeds and establish the ABC Seed Library at the location she oversees.

Nationally, seed libraries housed at public libraries began sprouting up in 2010, with systems in Richmond, California; Fairfield, Connecticut; and Westcliffe, Colorado, adopting early. Albuquerque’s system is based largely on the seed library of Pima County Library in Tucson, Arizona.

In this time of wireless delivery to ereaders, online catalog searches, and streaming content, seed libraries allow libraries—and the librarians themselves— to engage with the community and foster relationships that stretch past a single growing season. The seed libraries are also a “cultural resource, just like any book we’d collect,” Sauer says.

Much like the book collection, patrons can search for seeds in the online catalog.

A quick search for “beets” returns a result for “Beets: Burpee’s Golden Organic,” with ten copies available. The catalogue description includes information from the seed packet—such as how and when to plant—or information given by seed savers who have donated to expand the collection, as in the case of “Corn: Hookers” grown in Cedar Crest in 2012.

While browsing through the physical seed packets, patrons can see demarcations for easy, medium, or advanced, which reflect the effort level needed to save the seeds. Easy seeds are self-pollinators, like beans, lettuce, and sunflowers, while difficult seeds, such as broccoli, corn, and pumpkins, require special efforts to ensure varietal purity. The packets also indicate necessary water use.

Those unfamiliar with seed saving can pick up a brochure or attend an annual workshop on the topic. The ABC Seed Library offers a full calendar of workshops on a variety of topics, from growing garlic to raising chickens. And the ABC Seed Library book club delves into other subjects as well.

Sauer continues to expand the two hundred-variety strong library, often drawing upon the troves of regionally appropriate crops through Native Seeds/SEARCH. Unlike Native Seeds/SEARCH, Sauer doesn’t consider the ABC Seed Library a way to

preserve native species. “We’re not a vault or a bank. We’re not going to save any variety from extinction,” she says. Rather, she sees the ABC Seed Library as a living community resource. “Our collection is always coming in and out, and growing, just like a collection of books.”

Much of its value, she believes, derives from lowering the bar to enter into gardening. Anyone can get an Albuquerque Public Library card, and she’s seen a bounty of new gardeners plant just because they see the seed library while stopping by to check out a book. “We’re just giving people the tools to grow and taste something from New Mexico that has been grown here,” she says. Of course, by doing so, Sauer and her staff are carrying on these heritage crops, furthering their dynamic evolution, and building a growing community of gardeners who plant these legacy varieties.

In the first year, patrons checked out nearly 2,500 packets. In the second year, they used nearly 3,200 packets. Even branch renovations this year have only reduced checkouts slightly.

Gardener Lisa Westfall has checked out corn, broccoli, beets, and several varieties of greens from the library. The native Albuquerquean has gardened since she was a child and built a robust home patch with her husband, making hard-to-find varieties a priority. “If you go in the grocery store and look at the selection, it’s pretty standard. There’s one type of carrot, two or three lettuces,” she observes.

“When we become a monoculture, it’s not good for our food or our health. It’s so important people have access to new varieties that are acclimated to the area.

It makes our food supply more robust.”

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Westfall has saved her seeds, and she helps on seed-packing nights when volunteers sift through donated seeds to remove pods and package them, all in the name of saving the adapted seeds to pay them forward to another gardener. www.abqlibrary.org/seeds

www.paynes.com WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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EDIBLE TRADITION

Tasty Inheritance

MARY AND TITO’S PRESERVES ITS DELICIOUS MESSAGE THROUGH THE YEARS

By Nora Hickey

Top: Carne adovada turnover. Bottom: Mary and Tito Gonzales' family photos adorn the walls of the restaurant. Photos by Stephanie Cameron.

In 1965, both chile and pinto beans, stars of many a New Mexican meal, earned the title of Official State Vegetable. Besides being delicious, the two vegetables represent the deep-rooted history of culinary traditions still practiced in the Land of Enchantment today. Pintos, grown and consumed by Pueblo Indians and their ancestors since prehistoric times, found their perfect complement in the piquant chile plant, which flourished after Spanish settlement.

Perhaps none of the many New Mexican dining establishments celebrate this cultural and culinary heritage better than Mary and Tito’s.

As soon as one enters the modest building, located in Albuquerque on Fourth Street just north of Menaul, the clang and hiss of cooking surrounds, along with the heady scent of Mary and Tito’s signature 42

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red chile. A welcoming staff steers plates heaping with quintessential New Mexican fare through the dining room. Family pictures embellish the adobe walls, a visual testament to the Gonzales family who has owned and operated Mary and Tito’s since the beginning.

Antoinette Knight, current owner and daughter of the actual Mary and Tito, recounts the origin story of the famed restaurant. “My father had just retired from firefighting. He was the guy who cooked for everybody at the station—he just loved to cook,” she says. Her father Tito, after staying at home and caring for his three young daughters, made his love of gastronomy official and opened Mary and Tito’s in 1963 at its first location on Fourth, just south of I-40. But “he outgrew the first space very quickly, and needed help,” Antoinette recounts. So, his wife Mary left her job at the county courts to assist

at the restaurant’s new location in downtown Albuquerque. The eatery moved again in 1971 and has slung carne adovada to eager customers at their current Fourth Street location ever since.

When Tito passed away in 1990, Antoinette and her mother were unsure if people would return. “We closed for a few weeks after he passed, and wondered if anyone was going to come back— we thought they were there for him; he was really loved and such a personality,” she remembers. But the sublime flavors kept customers eating and soon the restaurant was again doing brisk business.

Tito planned his menu to capture the flavor and comfort of childhood meals served in his Albuquerque home. Antoinette recalled, “He learned pretty much everything from his mom—he loved to help her and just watch her in the kitchen.” The mark of traditional New Mexican cooking and flavors is apparent from browsing Mary and Tito’s sundry menu, which features staples, such as tamales and tacos, alongside standouts like the Mexican turnover (try it with the superb carne adovada). The menu has remained largely unchanged since 1971, when Tito removed dishes like hamburgers, chicken fried steak, and mashed potatoes and peas.

Today, the menu, cozy dining room, and genial service remain largely unchanged from those early days. “The guys in the back are the same two guys who worked for my father,” says Antoinette.

“Our main guy started working when he was eighteen and has been here thirty-six years.” The cooks all practice the same techniques instituted by Tito, who measured using his hands and instinct. “We don’t have a measuring spoon or a cup—my father would always say, ‘When you cook, you don’t measure!’” Antoinette says.

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Mary passed away in 2013, but not before the café received one of the country’s most prestigious culinary awards, an American Classics designation from the James Beard Foundation, awarded in part on the strength of their slow-cooked, red chile-permeated carne adovada. The chile comes from Delgado Farms in Hatch, and is used to create the silky, rich sauce that the pork soaks up during hours of baking.

After producing thousands of rolled blue corn enchiladas and golden sopapillas over the years, the techniques practiced in Mary and Tito’s kitchen are fixed. Even the pots and pans date back to the early days, and are only now beginning to wear out, needing to be replaced. “It’s hard to let go of that stuff, another little bit of my dad or my mom going—it’s very emotional,” Antoinette shares.

“We want to keep it exactly the way it is,” Antoinette says of the restaurant she grew up in and where she learned to peel potatoes, tally bills, and work a crowded room of hungry customers. But, above all, it is the place where she ate lunch with her parents for six days a week, her mom always at the third counter seat and her dad standing with his daily Tito’s Special. Since his passing, the stool in front of his well-worn counter spot has never worked, even after repair. There is no stool now; the space is one of the few that remains empty in the bustling café, a reminder of the years passed amid the continuation of venerated family traditions.

2711 Fourth Street NW, Albuquerque, 505-344-6266 WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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EDIBLE TRADITION

Serving Family Values TOMASITA'S

By Moises Santos

Top: Tomasita's staff at original location c. 1980s, photo courtesy of Tomasita's. Bottom left: George Gundrey and Georgia Maryol, photo by Stephanie Cameron. Bottom right: Maryol with her grandaughter Sophia Gundrey in the kitchen at Tomasita's, photo courtesy of Tomasita's.

In the land of ubiquitous red and green, what makes a place like Tomasita’s different from the rest? Something must be different for a Santa Fe restaurant to become an institution that has lasted more than forty years. To uncover that difference requires a look at its his44

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tory. Owner and manager George Gundrey, son of founder Georgia Maryol, proudly advertises Tomasita’s as a family-owned and operated restaurant that treats everyone who works and comes to eat there as family too. And like any family, their roots go back.

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Tomasita’s began in the early 1970s and operated for a few years under its original owner before being acquired by Maryol. The food was prepared by a woman named Tomasita Leyba, who George describes as “eighty pounds and spunky.” In those early days, Tomasita’s was housed in a small locale on Hickox Street and staffed by only four employees: Tomasita, her sister-in-law Lala Tapia, a man named Anthony Moya, and Maryol Lebya.

Tomasita provided all the recipes, especially the ones for the red and green chile, and they are the same recipes the restaurant uses today.

“All of the little viejitas in the area knew how to cook this way,” says Maryol, “and Tomasita cooked it the way they cooked it, and it’s sort of a lost art.” Not to say that Tomasita was the only one who knew how to cook. Maryol herself learned similar recipes while growing up in the Atrisco barrio in Albuquerque. It was there that she learned to love what she calls the “local comfort food” of New Mexico.

Tomasita’s recipes weren’t just any New Mexican recipes for red and green chile; they were northern New Mexican recipes. There’s a difference, and Gundrey and Maryol want folks to know what it is.

“It’s pure chile, it’s not doctored up, floured up,” explains Maryol.

“We’re really just trying to bring out the flavor of the chile…[and] we use only chile pods, we do not use powder,” adds Gundrey. They also use a traditional method of cooking the chile. “The method is called Caribe, when you soak it…[after] you clean it really good… and then you blend it.” Following these recipes is an essential part of the continued success of Tomasita’s, and it is also a big part of their philosophy as a Santa Fe institution. “We’re maintaining a culture here, the culture of chile, which is very important.”

Gundrey and Maryol’s commitment to family and tradition does not end with the recipes. It is also an important factor in how they supply their restaurant. Their chiles, for example, come from the same two farms they have been buying from for at least two generations. These, along with the corn, beef, honey, and other supplies, are bought from New Mexican-owned businesses around the state.

Although they promise never to change Tomasita’s recipes, they have made a few environmentally-minded alterations, like switching to non-GMO corn and humanely produced beef, and installing solar panels in Tomasita’s parking lot.

For the folks at Tomasita’s, however, it always comes back to family. Their employees, both past and present, are a testament to that. Take Conchi Magana, for example, who is one of the servers at Tomasita’s and has been working there for thirty-two years. Or Angel, who works cleaning and preparing the chiles and has been working at Tomasita’s since 1983. Four generations of Tomasita Leyba’s family members have worked at the restaurant at one time or another. Tomasita’s is a home to all of them, and to the generations of families that have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the food served there. Gundrey and Maryol are aware of this and make it a point to value that relationship with their customers. “All of our food is catered toward the taste of the locals. We really are a local restaurant and we’re here for the Santa Fe community.”

500 S Guadalupe, Santa Fe, 505-983-5721 www.tomasitas.com

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EDIBLE TRADITION

Community Roots MICHAEL'S KITCHEN COFFEE AND BAKERY

By Stephanie Cameron

Top: Maple bacon donuts made fresh daily in the basement bakery. Bottom left: Gina and Derek Apodoca. Bottom right: Baker Felix Pacheco making fresh baked goods for the restaurant. Photos by Stephanie Cameron.

After visiting dozens of restaurateurs over the last several years, I’ve learned what makes a long-lasting, successful food establishment. As much as the diner may think it is all about the food, it is really the business sensibility, the longevity of staff, knowing the front and back of the house, intimacy with the inventory, and relationships with the local community that make for a thriving restaurant. Michael’s Kitchen Coffee Shop and Bakery, established in 1974 in Taos, has followed this formula over the last forty-two years and has remained a local favorite while many chain restaurants have come and gone.

Built in the 1940s, Michael’s existing building originated as a restaurant named Spivey's. On February 1, 1974, that all changed when Michael Ninneman and his first wife discovered Spivey's while on vacation. They decided to uproot their family from California and buy 46

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a restaurant in New Mexico. Michael and his wife spent three years fine-tuning the recipes and getting the menu where they wanted it, along with acquiring the Fiesta Bakery two blocks away. They moved the equipment and inventory from the Fiesta Bakery to the basement of Spivey’s and changed the name to Michael's Kitchen Coffee Shop and Bakery in 1977.

In 1988, Michael married his second wife Patricia, who had two daughters, Gina and Vanessa. In 1996, Gina and her fiancé Derek Apodaca graduated from NMSU and chose to relocate and marry in Taos to learn the restaurant business. During this time, Michael and Patricia wanted to retire and sell the business, so in 2005 Derek and Gina became the owners of Michael’s Kitchen.

Many of the original employees from Spivey’s continued on at Michael’s Kitchen, and some are still there today. On average they employ fifty-five people between the restaurant and the bakery.

Grandchildren of early staff members now work in the kitchen and on the floor. In talking about the roots of Michael’s Kitchen, Derek rattled off several generations of families who had been in Michael’s employ. “This isn’t a college town. When people get a job here, they get a job for life.”

Knowing the business cycle and what is happening in the community has kept Michael’s doors open for four decades. Both Derek and Gina work the line on a weekly basis. “We’re not afraid to get our hands dirty,” Derek states. “One of the biggest mistakes of an owner is not to know how to do the work,” says Gina. “There is no book on how to run a restaurant, there is no written recipe. You have to have a hands-on approach.”

At 11am on a Tuesday morning in late October, the restaurant is packed with locals; it is clearly a Taoseño favorite. On the weekends, they can flip the restaurant eleven to twelve times a day (the national average is five times a day). The Apodacas take pride and care in the food they serve, knowing that the average local patron works very hard, and when they go out to eat they want to know it was worth their hard-earned money. They offer weekly lunch specials for $7.95 that are housemade with fresh ingredients, and they can deliver them in the same time and at the same price as a fast food drive-through. At Michael’s Kitchen, everything is prepared from scratch, including fifty gallons of red and green chile every day.

Equally rooted is the bakery below the restaurant. “All our homemade pastries; English muffins; raisin, rye and wheat bread; cream puffs; doughnuts; and cinnamon rolls are created in our downstairs bakery that produces up to one hundred seventy-five different items, depending on the season,” says Derek. Felix Pacheco, the head baker, has been with Michael’s Kitchen for sixteen years and carries with him high-altitude recipes that create some of the best baked goods in New Mexico. He laminates croissant dough daily by hand with a pizza roller, which produces buttery delicacies that can rival any French bakery. The baked goods are so loved that locals who have moved away will call in with orders. “A woman in Alaska paid eighty-seven dollars to overnight an Orville cinnamon roll,” exclaims Derek. “Needless to say, I didn’t charge her for the three dollar roll.” She called him the next morning in sheer joy and told him how he had saved her a $1,700 trip to Taos.

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In addition to running a busy restaurant and bakery, Michael’s Kitchen sells their baked goods wholesale to other restaurants such as the Alley Cantina and Taos Burger Stand, and they cater many celebrations and events around town. With affordable options, they have become a standard for the graduation season.

After listening to the Apodacas’ stories and witnessing their attention to detail in the kitchen, business acumen, and dedication to their staff and customers, I can see why Michael’s Kitchen has lasted forty years and will likely be around for many more generations to enjoy.

www.taosinn.com 575.758.2233

304 C N Pueblo, Taos, 575-758-4178 www.michaelskitchen.com WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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From Rail to Table THE LEGACY OF THE FRED HARVEY COMPANY

By Jason Strykowski

Photo postcard of the Fred Harvey dining car of El Capitan, c. 1940s.

Odds are good that anyone travelling in the West over the past century-and-a-quarter has crossed paths with the Harvey Company or its legacy. At its height, the company controlled sixty restaurants and two dozen hotels along the rail line from Chicago to California.

N

ot too long ago, the best food in the American West was served at a chain restaurant. These eateries crafted cuisine with continental and North American influences using fresh, local produce and imported spices.

The fascinating meals arrived on the arms of properly trained young women carrying fine silver platters and were served miles from major cities. The Fred Harvey Company served some of the most cultured meals in some of the wildest parts of the United States. And the heart of their operation was right here in New Mexico. From Raton to Albuquerque, the Harvey Company promoted the unique flavors of the Southwest while inventing a system of hospitality that prefigured the modern chain business by decades.

Odds are good that anyone travelling in the West over the past century-and-a-quarter has crossed paths with the Harvey Company or its legacy. At its height, the Company controlled sixty restaurants

and two dozen hotels along the rail line from Chicago to California.

Later, they continued those services along the iconic Route 66 highway. For travelers headed west, the Harvey Company was the best, and often only, option for food and accommodations for a huge section of the United States.

The Harvey Company gained its relative monopoly by revolutionizing the hospitality industry in the United States. Stephen Fried, author of Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the West One Meal at a Time (2010), explains, "Before Fred Harvey there was really no standardization in restaurants and hotels. The Harveys became the first company to stop serving milk in pitchers and put it in a bottle with the top on it so that it might not kill you.

Just a basic thing like that did not exist anywhere." Little things, like quality control, kept the Company atop the American cuisine market for nearly a century, from 1876 to 1968.

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Left: An edible heirloom: edible Santa Fe owner Stephanie Cameron's grandmother, Donna Bernethy, as a Harvey Girl in Winslow, Arizona, c. 1937.

Middle: Fred Harvey menu from the Alvarado in Albuquerque, New Mexico, c. 1956; part of Donna Bernethy's archives. Right: The Castanada (est. 1899), a former Harvey House in Las Vegas, New Mexico; photo taken in 2007 by P. D. Tillman.

Fred Harvey, the namesake and founder of the Company, was also the epitome of the American Dream—a rags-to-riches success story who fashioned himself from poor immigrant to entrepreneur. Born in England, Harvey arrived in the United States at the age of fifteen. He got his first taste of the restaurant business in New York lunchrooms as a dishwasher, but took careful note of the way that these lunchrooms worked. Harvey put this knowledge to work as a young man newly relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. Unfortunately, the Civil War destroyed his fledgling restaurant and Harvey sought opportunity elsewhere.

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Harvey moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he secured a job working for the railroad as a clerk. While in this position, Harvey spotted an opportunity to once again tempt his fate in the restaurant business. The relatively new transcontinental lines had little to offer in comforts west of Chicago. Some rail cars in the East sometimes served fine foods, but in the West, the occasional watering stop had only stale foods that often arrived so late that customers could not eat before boarding their trains. To avoid these poor lunch counters, travelers on multi-day journeys often packed their own meals.

Harvey knew that if he could bring New York–style lunchrooms to whistle-stops in Kansas, he had a good chance of turning a profit.

Harvey began in Kansas, where he installed chefs hired from fine restaurants in Chicago. Beyond the preparation, the restaurants also focused on bringing in local produce. Managers at the Harvey restaurants stayed current on the yields from nearby farms and ranches. Failing all else, Harvey Houses would be the place to get affordable and plentiful cuts of beef. “The company began for many years in very small wooden train stations just trying to serve perfect, fresh steak and fresh vegetables—simple food that was not available fresh in most of these places,” says Fried. Options opened up considerably when refrigerated rail cars became available. The Harvey Company could then serve seafood in the heartland and make highly prized oysters available all along the rail. Harvey Company restaurants were frequently the best, or only, dining establishments in their hometowns.

As it expanded, the Harvey Company had several classes of eateries under their umbrella: dining cars, lunchrooms, and formal restaurants. The formal dining rooms had a strict dress code while the lunchrooms were more relaxed. Perhaps the most important and uniform item on all their menus was coffee—which had to be remade every four hours. Beyond that, the choices could vary greatly.

The Harvey Company had good reason to make their menus both exotic and familiar—they had to feed customers multiple times at many stops along the railroad or the highway. In a single day, a traveler could sample continental flavors mixed with Mexican and Southern home-style cooking, and not grow tired of any of them. Other travelers might be stationed at a Harvey hotel for days and need good reason to continuously visit the expensive dining room. “The Fred Harvey Company always had the same service, they always had the same quality, but they always had changes in the dishes because they were there to keep people interested,” says Fried. “The idea was to make people excited about food.” Corporate headquarters sent revised menus to branches along the rail every four days to ensure that the eating experience never became repetitive. The Harvey Company also had the unique challenge of having to provide their food quickly enough to keep their customers on the move. Most rail riders had just thirty minutes to eat.

Many of the Harvey Company menus and recipes still survive.

Some of the recipes were published and given to travelers on the rails; others were passed out only to chefs. The Company showed off its flavors in a cookbook printed circa World War II and gifted to riders on the Southwest Chief line. Recipes included ragout of lamb's kidney piquante, stuffed zucchini andalouse, roulade of beef, and chile relleno. The book also included more conventional foods like blueberry muffins and navy bean soup.

By modern standards, most of the Harvey recipes were relatively simple. Even the exotic chile rellenos, as prepared by the famed Santa Fe-based chef Konrad Allgaier (the German-born Allgaier trained in Europe and served the German Army during World War I before emigrating to the United States), only called for five ingredients: chiles, American cheese, flour, egg, and butter.

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La Fonda beverage menu, c. 1950s, from Donna Bernethy's archives.

The dishes were, perhaps, intended to stretch travelers’ imaginations more than their palates. Chef de cuisine for the Santa Fe School of Cooking Noé Cano, along with chef Michelle Chavez, held a Harvey Company dinner at the school this past October and prepared albondigas, chicken Lucrecio, and a hot strawberry sundae on sour milk biscuits—dishes once prepared at La Fonda during the high Harvey days. “This is something I did for the first time and the response was excellent,” says Cano. “It's really simple for us [to recreate], but really tasty. It's not many ingredients. Back in the day they didn't use as many seasonings.”

The food, however, was only part of the Harvey dining experience.

The Company was legendary for its Harvey Girls. These young women, all between the age of eighteen and thirty, were recruited, then trained and moved to stops along the Harvey system. The women dressed conservatively in long black dresses and white aprons. They were a striking sight in towns that often had few people and fewer women. The Harvey Girls became an emblem of the Company and were eventually immortalized in film. A 1946 Judy Garland musical, titled Harvey Girls, capitalized on the romance without delving too much into the facts.

The heyday of the Harvey Company and its decline were not far removed. Two decades after the Garland film, the Company ceased most of its operations and the family sold their remaining interests. A number of Harvey Houses still survive, most notably the two lodges at the Grand Canyon: El Tovar and the Bright Angel Lodge. Both were purchased directly from the Harvey Company and still celebrate the company's work.

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In New Mexico, in many ways the center of the Harvey empire, the legacy endures. The Harvey tradition is visible at La Fonda in Santa Fe, at the Montezuma Castle in Las Vegas, and at the Belen Harvey House. For the past five years, the New Mexico History Museum, in concert with the Santa Fe School of Cooking, the Plaza Hotel, and other New Mexico businesses, has celebrated a “Fred Harvey Weekend.” The food and the dining experience always play a central part in remembering the Harvey tradition. Meredith Davidson, nineteenthand twentieth-century collections curator at the New Mexico History Museum, says, “From the beginning, the ethos was really to raise the level of the dining experience to a consistent and safer level and to have finer dining along the railroad.”

Long before chain restaurants became tantamount to industrial eating, the Fred Harvey Company oversaw a food empire while keeping their options and ingredients local. “They proliferated lots of different kinds of food. Before the 1920s very few people ate in restaurants, at all. It just wasn't a common thing to do in America,” says Fried. While the railroad brought Americans to the West and Southwest, the Harvey Company let them taste it.

In celebration of the New Mexico History Museum’s long-term exhibition Setting the Standard: The Fred Harvey Company and Its Legacy, the museum commemorates Fred Harvey history with a full two days of events at its Fred Harvey Weekend, held in the fall each year. www.nmhistorymuseum.org

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A Taste of Love and Laughter ACETO BALSAMICO OF MONTICELLO

By Sarah Wentzel-Fisher · Photos by Stephanie Cameron

The acetaia houses the batteria: a dozen sets of barrels, seven or eight in each, where the Darlands’ vinegar patiently ferments and transpires.

“If your life's work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you're not thinking big enough.”

Wes Jackson, The Land Institute.

L

ike the warm spring that feeds a perennial acequia through the Alamosa Creek Canyon, Jane and Steve Darland are a wellspring of craftsmanship, ideas, humor, and hospitality, fostering agriculture and community in the village of Monticello. On a bright day in September, Stephanie Cameron and I headed south to join the Darlands at their home and farm for the annual grape crush. Every year, close to the autumnal equinox, the Darlands, proprietors and producers of Aceto Balsamico of Monticello, invite a team of friends and family to pick and process grapes, to share in live-

ly conversation around their table and in their gardens, and to break bread with them in celebration of the harvest. Over the course of two and a half days, we got a rare insider's view of one of the critical steps in making balsamic vinegar. We also made new friends and began to understand more deeply the relationship between taste and time.

The grape crush provides the juice to feed the slow process of making balsamic vinegar, but it also nurtures a critical kind of community building that only these types of labor-intensive, multi-year projects can. The Darlands harvested their first grapes in 1997 and have WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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Top left, clockwise: Cutting grapes from the vines with roncolas; pressing the grapes; the crush begins as grapes are collected in baskets; sipping primo (the first juice) from the crushed grapes.

enlisted support in the process ever since. Balsamic vinegar made in the tradition of Modena and Reggio Emilia, aged and evaporated in sequential wood barrels, comes of age at twelve years, after which it can be classified and labeled as traditional. This label may have as much to do with the people who come back year after year to participate, as with the vinegar.

Shortly after our arrival, other guests and neighbors appeared, and conversation turned to preparation for harvest and speculation on who else would attend from years past. The first step was to remove row covers from the vines. Steve gave assignments, and, with the flourish of a master orator, embellished mundane tasks, like moving large storage containers, with stories, interesting grape and vinegar facts, and the occasional wry joke. Some pickers have attended the grape harvest for years; others, like Stephanie and I, were first-timers.

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While most who have helped before know the steps, everyone listened carefully to Steve. His presentation on how we would remove the cloth covering the ripe fruit to protect it from birds, bees, and hungry raccoons and skunks is part of the story and process of how these Trebbiano and Occhio di Gatto grapes become balsamic vinegar.

In teams of two and three, we removed covers from vines laden with pungent fruit, then packed the cover materials into the storage barrels where they would stay until next fall. Many hands made short work, and the team celebrated a successful first step with libations and a walk before dinner. The next morning we would start picking early, but for this evening, we would eat and rest and enjoy one another’s company. In an era when so much of our food production is automated, from harvest to processing to cooking, it's easy to forget the beauty of the slow and handmade. Tasks like making balsamic

vinegar can be done with machines (most of the balsamic sold in the United States is dubbed industriale by the Italians who make and ship it to us, but do not use it; it’s actually illegal to label it “balsamic” in Italy since it’s just a mix of red wine vinegar and dark, thick sweeteners), but the conversation and all the food prepared to feed those who have worked wouldn’t be necessary—and so much more would be lost.

While we uncovered grapes, Jane, her daughter Amy, and others wandered in and out of her kitchen, together preparing a simple, substantial, delicious meal—perfect for field work—comprised of a salad from her garden and a lasagna large enough to feed twice as many people as would eat. At a long table on a screened veranda, we ate and told more stories. We met a couple who had reconnected forty years after a teenage romance, only to find they were still madly in love; locals who raised pigs and eggs; and a family visiting from California. Convening neighbors from the village and visitors from afar provided fresh ideas and perspective for those who live there, and inspired commitment and investment from those who only visit occasionally. While Monticello is small (one hundred fifty people, including the town and canyon), this tradition brings people together, and has kept Monticello vibrant and captivating.

In the morning, we assembled on the hillside above the vineyard, and again Steve talked us through the process while we listened and watched as if he were performing magic tricks. Armed with roncolas (curved pruning knives), we moved into the vines with baskets hung around our necks. We cut grapes and loaded our baskets, taking turns to unload and carry them out to larger crates for transport to the patio below the acetaia, or acid house, a large building on the north edge of the vineyard. Our hands patinaed with sugar and dust, we chatted for several hours between the vines and leaves, getting to know one another directly or by eavesdropping on the conversation a row over. Well before noon, we had cleaned the vines of their fruit—this year, about 2,500 pounds. As we moved to the next phase, Steve shared details about how this year’s harvest measured up. The yield was lower than in years past, probably due to the very hot summer, but the sugar content of the grapes was high—and when making balsamic, it's all about the sweetness.

The acetaia, on its second floor, houses the batteria: a dozen sets of barrels, seven or eight in each, where the Darlands’ vinegar patiently ferments and transpires. Below, a cold room and storage area house all the processing equipment needed for the crush. Steve had assembled the destemmer, a juice press, and a series of large stainless steel pots over large propane burners. A team loaded grapes first into the destemmer, then into the press.

With Steve’s encouragement, everyone tasted a bit of the first juices, the mosto, from the press, which comes primarily from the intermediate membrane of the grape between the skin and the inner seed sac. Once extracted, the juice would sit overnight in a cold walk-in refrigerator to allow sediment to settle, before teams transferred the juice to the large steel vats.

Again, while the field crew worked, some made their way into the kitchen to assist Jane in assembling a mezze lunch of so many

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different dishes that sampling them all was nearly impossible.

Appetites whetted from work, the team loaded plates and settled on the lawn, patio, and veranda of a guest house for lunch and more conversation about how this year measured up.

Steve explained that the high sugar content of this year’s grapes would make up for the lighter yield because the juice would need to be reduced less to get the sweetness required for the growth of the microorganisms that transform the mash to vinegar. The next step would involve reduction of the juice, over a number of days, to exactly the right brix (sugar content) level. At this point in the process, it has become mosto cotto, a thicker syrup that will be inoculated with a special blend of yeast and bacteria to start the fermentation process.

By mid-afternoon, tired, full, and warm, we dispersed to our separate quarters for a short siesta, then made our way in small groups to the center of Monticello to appreciate the place that inspires the making of the delicate nectar that is Aceto Balsamico of Monticello. Carefully restored houses line the small park plaza at the center of town, but the landscape is also marked with dilapidated buildings of eras past—perhaps the most poignant being a Depression-era schoolhouse with elm trees rooted in cellar soil and branches extending to form the building’s only roof. This place, once home to enough young families to fill several classrooms, had, like the Darlands’ vinegar, changed over decades into something punctuated by a different character of community.

We gathered twice more to celebrate the twentieth successful harvest, first for an evening meal of leftovers, then for a Southwest-inspired brunch. For each meal, the number of chairs at the table decreased and, like balsamic, the team slowly evaporated. The next few years will mark a new level of maturation of the Darlands’ balsamic, and the process and people involved in making it. After most have headed home, Steve and a few remaining guests will move the mosto cotto into carboys where it will further settle until February, when he will perform the rincalzo, or topping off of the barrels where the balsamic ages.

As we said our goodbyes, Steve described a visit to Italy to taste balsamics. On this visit, he tasted a balsamic dating back to the 1660s (balsamic vinegar was first described in a papal document in 1046). Apparently, it tasted terrible. Since then Italy has been fraught with political unrest, a civil war, a bubonic plague epidemic, and two world wars. Perhaps these hardships helped build character in the region, and that is reflected somehow in the pungency of their vinegar. As we drove back toward Albuquerque through blooming chamisa under a cloudless sky, I daydreamt about how the quality of our conversations and the food we shared will impact the flavor of the future’s Aceto Balsamico of Monticello. I hope it will taste like love and laughter, a sweet and deep note on the back of the tongue. www.organicbalsamic.com

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Top: Jane, Amy, and Steve Darland cooking brunch for their guests. Middle: Stephen Humphry, Nancy Kinyanjui, and Steve Darland shake up gin fizzes for a toast over brunch. Bottom: mezze lunch for the hard-working crew.

Buy local.

Growing here isn’t easy, but people have beat the odds for centuries. They dug acequias to bring water from the Rio Grande and ranged cattle in the high desert. And along the way, they crafted a unique history that’s etched into our state’s art, culture, and cuisine. Support your neighbors. Buy local. New Mexico True Certified.

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Looking Back, Thinking Forward TWO NEW MEXICO HERITAGE LIVESTOCK BREEDS

By Rick Hendricks

New Mexico Dahl sheep at Terra Patre Farms in Belen. Photo courtesy of Terra Patre Farms.

Ranchers and scientists provide evidence that combining an understanding of the history of place with a commitment to environmental stewardship can offer the promise of a future for raising livestock in the desert Southwest. Their work also means that in the not-too-distant future, a supply of healthy, delicious grassfed lamb and beef may be served in restaurants and homes throughout the region.

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wo modest experiments with historical dimensions and big promises for the future are currently underway in New Mexico. On just under twenty acres of the original Belen land grant, Donald A. Chavez y Gilbert is working to establish a viable flock of New Mexico Dahl sheep. Chavez, a fifteenth-generation New Mexican, operates Terra Patre Farms in Valencia County in central New Mexico. He traces these animals back to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's 1540 expedition to New Mexico and, beyond that, to the Canary Islands and ultimately West Africa. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, ships leaving southern Spain for the Americas typically stopped in the Canary Islands, where they took on livestock destined for the New World colonies. Among the first sheep that Spaniards transported across the Atlantic were hair sheep. Documents indicate that Coronado brought five thousand live ewes and rams as part of his commissary, meant to feed the members of his expedition. When Coronado departed New Mexico in 1542, he left a flock of sheep with the Franciscan father at Pecos, fray Juan de Escalona, but he did not long survive.

Chavez believes that Coronado's sheep were not Churros, the wool-producing breed most associated with Spanish exploration and settlement in the Southwest, but a breed of hair sheep raised for meat and hides. Coronado's aim was not to establish a colony, so he and his men needed sheep for meat and not for wool. Chavez further believes that some of the sheep Coronado left at Pecos survived and interbred with Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) and now constitute a new, genetically unique subspecies, which he would like to see named Ovis novomexicanus.

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Colonial New Mexico was sheep country, and mutton was a common meat in the diet of the Hispanic and Native populations. During periods of famine, such as the 1670s, Franciscans distributed large quantities of mutton from their mission flocks. New Mexico opted for sheep over cattle for several reasons. By the middle of the eighteenth century, most New Mexicans lived on small subsistence farms far more suited to raising sheep than cattle. Native American raiding targeted cattle more frequently than sheep, with only Navajos preying on ovine stock to add to their flocks. Among the Navajos, mutton stew is considered a traditional dish.

State and local governments have acknowledged Chavez's work and that of his fellow sheep ranchers. In 2013, the New Mexico State House of Representatives issued a memorial “recognizing New Mexico Dahl hair sheep's integral role in the tradition and heritage of New Mexico communities” and called for the creation of a task force to study ways to protect and preserve all New Mexico heritage breeds of livestock. The following year, Bernalillo County formally recognized Chavez and others for their work to rebuild the New Mexico Dahl sheep breed. The county uses a depiction of eight sheep on its official seal, symbolizing land grants and sheep ranching, and acknowledging the importance of sheep to New Mexico.

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Top: Terra Patre Farms, located in Valencia County in central New Mexico, where Donald A. Chavez y Gilbert is working to establish a viable flock of New Mexico Dahl sheep.

Photos courtesy of Terra Patre Farms.

Middle and bottom: Outside Las Cruces, at the US Department of AgricultureAgricultural Research Service's Jornada Experimental Range (JER), Criollo cattle forage on prickly pear cactus, shrubs, forbs, and other plants that most cattle will not eat.

Photos by Alfredo Gonzalez.

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Chavez is one of a dozen individuals in central New Mexico raising New Mexico Dahl sheep. The focus now is on building up sustainable herds, and there are around a hundred head of these sheep in New Mexico. The United Horned Hair Sheep Association has established New Mexico Dahl sheep breed standards, and many breeders register their sheep. Chavez is not encouraging marketing the meat for now, but there is great promise for commercialization of the meat, particularly to consumers who want locally produced food. One entrepreneur is purchasing lambs and marketing the meat to Middle Eastern customers in Texas.

Annual per capita consumption of lamb in the United States is less than a pound. That contrasts with around twenty-five pounds a year in Australia and New Zealand. Lamb, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, has a delicious flavor and an interesting nutritional profile. It is rich in vitamins B3 and B12 and in selenium. Surprisingly, lamb is also a good source of omega-3 fats, the healthy fats typically found in cold-water fish. The meat of hair sheep, such as grassfed New Mexico Dahl, lacks the characteristic flavor and smell of mutton. Relative to the meat of wool sheep, hair sheep meat is lower in fat and does not have the disagreeable taste of lanolin. The meat, which is best cooked slowly, has a very mild flavor. If all goes well, it will not be long before more locally produced lamb will be available in area stores and restaurants. As Chavez says, “Eat sheep!

One hundred thousand coyotes can’t be wrong.”

The other experiment with a heritage breed that holds bright prospects is taking place north of Las Cruces at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Jornada Experimental Range (JER).

The objects of study are Criollo cattle, descendants of bovines that originated in southern Spain and North Africa and first came to North America in Christopher Columbus's ships on his second voyage, in 1493. There were likely Criollos among the five hundred head of cattle that Coronado brought to New Mexico in 1540, although it is doubtful that any survived for long. Juan de Oñate brought thousands of head of cattle with his colonizing expedition in 1598. The Criollo was one of only two cattle breeds in colonial New Mexico. The other cattle were Black Andalusians, but the more numerous Criollos eventually overwhelmed them.

Criollo cattle, which are typically raised for beef, have also been developed into several breeds specifically adapted to different environments, among them the Texas Longhorn and the Corriente, which is a common rodeo animal. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, British breeds such as Angus and Hereford replaced the Criollos in New Mexico, but these imported breeds did not adapt well to the harsh desert environment. They are larger animals that require more food. The extensive grasslands of New Mexico that once made raising these cattle economically sound have largely disappeared; the range has been degraded; the climate is becoming warmer; and water is less plentiful. Given this recipe for a cattleman's disaster, Ed Fredrickson, a former researcher at JER, began a search for an alternative. Fredrickson hired Alfredo Gonzalez, who had experience managing large ranches in Brazil and Paraguay.

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In 2003, members of the JER team traveled to the area surrounding ChĂ­nipas, Chihuahua, in the rugged Sierra Tarahumara, and carefully selected thirty Criollo cows and three bulls. These Tarahumara Criollos are one of only two isolated populations of cattle that have not been subjected to cross-breeding, and therefore constitute a unique gene pool. The JER's immediate goal is to develop a herd of purebred cows for research purposes and to disseminate the results of their investigations. Of particular interest is the Criollo's apparently superior adaptability to arid environments. According to JER animal scientist Rick E. Estell, "There are a lot of anecdotal claims that the meat tastes great, that they eat a wide variety of plants, and that they travel great distances, but none of this has been documented, and that is what we want to study." Preliminary data show that Criollos do appear to have a less severe ecological impact than other breeds.

herds may be a short-term solution for local cattlemen, but Estell believes that Criollo cows may well prove, in the long term, to be ideal mother cows. The current preference in the marketplace is for Black Angus cattle, so breeding Criollo cows to Angus bulls may pass along the desired traits of desert environmental adaptability to larger offspring, which meatpackers prefer.

Estell affirms that the Criollo meat is lean, tender, and delicious.

That sounds ideal for the Southwest's growing population of immigrants from Mexico, who typically grow up eating smaller cuts of beef that have less fat. Much serious research on such things as fatty acid profiles and shelf life of Criollo meat remains to be done, but Arizona ranchers Dennis and Deborah Moroney already run a herd of Criollos on The 47 Ranch. The Moroneys, who were profiled in edible Baja Arizona (November/December 2013), acquired their Criollos from Erickson. Under the name Sky Islands, they market their grassfed meat to commercial customers and directly to consumers throughout southern Arizona.

Estell is enthusiastic about the potential of the Criollo for a number of reasons. British breeds weigh more than a thousand pounds and have a large water footprint. Cattle producers in the Southwest face soaring prices for alfalfa, which is an even larger water hog.

Criollos, by contrast, weigh, on average, seven hundred pounds; consume less water; and are said to forage on prickly pear cactus, shrubs, forbs, and other plants that most cattle will not eat. In short, they have a less destructive impact on the fragile desert environment. This is very appealing to cattlemen in New Mexico, but Estell also sees exciting possibilities for Criollos in other arid environments around the world. He has recently fielded requests for embryos from Australia, which is facing catastrophic drought conditions. Criollo

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Chavez, Estell, and their colleagues provide evidence that combining an understanding of the history of place with a commitment to environmental stewardship can offer the promise of a future for raising livestock in the desert Southwest. Their work also means that in the nottoo-distant future, more healthy, delicious grassfed lamb and beef may be served in restaurants and homes throughout the region. www.terrapatrefarms.com www.jornada.nmsu.edu

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Ahead of the Curve

ELIZABETH SEBASTIAN DEFIED CONVENTIONS TO DIVERSIFY NORTHERN NEW MEXICO’S PALATE

By Willy Carleton · Photos by Stephanie Cameron

Top left, clockwise: Elizabeth and Andrew Sebastian; horno oven overlooking the garden; gate to the garden protected by the canyon walls; Ranch Wilderness Casita rental.

Mark Kiffin, who worked closely with Sebastian at the Coyote Café, recalled: “When I first met [Elizabeth], I thought, here is a woman with an incredible history.”

Carbon sequestration through photosynthesis means that plants also increase soil organic matter.

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indows down, we drift out of cell phone service and slowly follow the rippling Chama River upstream through yellow-leaved cottonwoods and rust-red oaks. Ancient amphitheatres and whiteand red-striated cliffs tower on the horizon as a cloud of dust trails us. The immense quiet of the expansive canyon is broken only by the rocks beneath our tires. At the end of the sixteen-mile dirt road we find a small adobe house beside a vibrant garden with the initials “EB” carved into the gate. We’ve arrived at the Gallina Canyon Ranch, the home of Elizabeth Sebastian, formally known as Elizabeth Berry and known to others simply as the Bean Queen of New Mexico, who from this remote haven started one of the region’s most innovative and successful market farms that ran from 1986 to 2001.

With a purple streak in her silver hair and a glow in her eye, Sebastian at eighty-one exudes a congenial warmth, a passion for growing vegetables, and an unmistakable fun-loving spirit. Over the course of the afternoon, she casually rattles off stories of immensely profitable seasons, dinners with celebrity chefs, a farm visit from Martha Stewart, and everyday moments of joy in the field that could inspire admiration, respect, and perhaps envy, in any fellow farmer. As a vegetable grower myself, I am eager to glean a few insights into how she got started, what sustained her, and what advice she might offer current growers pursuing a farming career.

For Sebastian, the farming life began at age fifty, in 1985, when she introduced herself to her new neighbor in Santa Fe, chef Mark Miller. A California native who had split time between Santa Fe and the remote Gallina Canyon Ranch for several years prior, Sebastian told him about her land and offered to grow vegetables for his new restaurant, Coyote Café. Without access to reliable local produce, Miller seized the opportunity: he gave her a list of vegetables he wanted her to grow and, after she pressed her case, even agreed to pay her five hundred dollars up front. “I was lost,” she reflects of her life before farming, but that initial conversation with Miller, she explains, “changed my life forever.”

As with all beginning farmers, the learning curve was steep.

“I had no idea how to grow that stuff,” she admits. She met José Duran, originally from Guadalajara, who began to teach her some growing methods and helped her at the farm for eighteen years. The first year was a success. She made five thousand dollars, which she put towards buying a grand piano for the remote ranch. Working closely with several chefs, including Miller, she developed a crop plan that included many rare varieties of vegetables. She contacted Seed Savers Exchange, in Decorah, Iowa, and grew out six hundred varieties of their rare and, in some cases, endangered bean varieties. She experimented with many other vegetables and at one point planted eighty-two varieties of eggplant. Her formula for success did not emphasize maximum yields (though her yields hardly suffered), but rather maximum diversity and quality. Decades before the local-food craze fully hit the mainstream, she was producing large amounts of highquality, rare-variety vegetables that local chefs seeking the besttasting ingredients could not otherwise source.

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Top: Outdoor bedroom sits high above the canyon floor and overlooks the Rio Gallina. Bottom left: Remote casita available for rent.

Bottom right: Kale, chard, and other greens grow in the Sebastians' garden.

The farm grew immensely over fifteen years. At its peak size, she employed fourteen workers, cultivated an additional ten acres in Abiquiu, and every day filled three hundred square feet of refrigerated space on the farm to store her produce. She supplied produce primarily to local restaurants and farmers markets, and once grossed $375,000 in a four-month period. “We were making money like crazy,” she recalls with an almost disbelieving laugh.

A key moment in her farming career came in 1994, when she met her husband, Andrew Sebastian. He was twenty-one, she was fifty-nine. Previously married twice, she had “always believed in true love” but had never found it. “And then I met Andrew. He’s the true love of my life.” Working together, the farm grew in both size and profit margin. The success, however, had one drawback. “I never had trouble farming as a woman, and we got along with all our neighbors,” Sebastian recalls, “but the other farmers at the market just hated our guts.” Several approached her clients and tried to undercut her. “The other farmers were so jealous.”

Many factors accounted for the farm’s success. Sebastian had an audacious willingness to experiment (“She wasn’t about to be told what couldn’t be grown in New Mexico,” Miller explains), she 68

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worked exceedingly hard (“We would be up for forty-eight hours without sleeping,” she recalls), and she did not sacrifice quality for quantity. Yet perhaps most importantly, she managed to enjoy herself as she did it. She has many fond memories of farm merriment, from everyday moments such as playing classical music for her plants to more singular events like hosting farm dinners for local chefs (no spouses allowed!). Often, her enjoyment derived from an irreverence for conventions. Her face especially lights up as she recalls how, because she charged a set price for bags of greens at the farmers market, she and Andrew would don plastic pig noses whenever a customer greedily packed down and over-stuffed their bags with greens. “It shamed them,” explains Andrew with a wry smile.

“It was so much fun!” adds Elizabeth.

Strong relationships with chefs also proved key to the farm’s success. Sebastian often met with chefs in the winter, seed catalog in hand, and demanded verbal contracts from every chef she worked with. In response to her dedication to providing consistent, highquality food just as they wanted it, chefs consistently bought large quantities. Some chefs did even more. Mark Miller, for example, not only supported her through his restaurant purchases but also

“What Elizabeth did was amazing,” Miller sums up. “She is exemplary and should be revered.” occasionally took her to events such as Meals on Wheels Celebrity Chef Balls in Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles to meet prominent chefs. Today, Miller keeps in touch and remembers to send her a note every year on her birthday. His appreciation for her work has not diminished after all these years. “The Coyote Café’s success was very dependent on Elizabeth, and her success was dependent on the Coyote Café,” he explains. “She helped us build a monument to the taste and cuisines of Southwest culture.”

For Miller, the working relationship between Sebastian and the Coyote Café provided a model that contemporary farmers and chefs have thus far failed to fully maintain. “Her farming legacy is not being kept up,” laments Miller. “When is the last time you saw a farmer with one hundred varieties of beans at the farmers market?”

In Miller’s view, however, the main problem is not a lack of good farmers, but a lack of chefs willing to fully commit to their farmers.

“We [at Coyote Café] incorporated her into the life of the restaurant,” Miller explains. He worked closely with her in the off-season to develop a crop plan; he agreed to assume some of the financial risk in case of crop failure; and he cooked her meals in the restaurant to demonstrate how the vegetables tasted at varying stages of their life cycle. For Miller, being a good chef means actively bringing farmers into the discussion “about identity, sense of place and history, and the meaning of food, flavor, and dining in our society.” A strong culinary philosophy, Miller insists, should go much further than simply supporting local farmers when it is easy or convenient; it requires working closely with farmers year-round and bearing some of their risk.

Sebastian hung up her farming hat in 2001, much to the distress of many local chefs. “When I started the The Compound I went to [Elizabeth] and said, okay, I'm ready for you,” Mark Kiffin recalls, “And she told me she had retired. I wanted to kill her! Where would I find the best arugula now?” Today, the Sebastians raise fifty head of cattle and run a small cabin rental business at the ranch. From May through October, they rent out two cabins, as well as an extravagant glamping pad, and supply fresh eggs and produce from their half-acre garden for cabin guests. In addition to hundreds of acres of private ranch land and the adjoining wilderness areas, the ranch offers kayaks for the river, a jungle gym and swings for children, and a large stock tank, positioned in an ancient pit-house, that serves as a summer swimming hole. Repeat customers and honeymooners often find a bottle of Champagne waiting in their cabins. The ranch also hosts retreats. Finding a more beautiful canyon to spend a few nights, or a few weeks, seems hard to imagine.

Though the long days (and sometimes nights) of producing large amounts of produce are behind her, Sebastian still grows out several varieties of rare beans and her garden brims with well-tended produce. Visitors’ meals at the ranch thus contain small reminders of an important historical farm. Sebastian’s farming career, now largely unfamiliar to many younger farmers and chefs in the region, helped diversify northern New Mexico’s palate and still provides valuable lessons to the next generation of New Mexico farmers, chefs, and local food advocates. www.gallinacanyonranch.com WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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New Diplomats CULINARY EXCHANGE AS DIPLOMACY

By Lois Ellen Frank · Photos by Cynthia Jane Frank

SWISSAM Hospitality Business and Culinary Arts School prepares dinner at the consul general’s residence. From left to right: Chef Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D.; Aigul Baibulatova; Ekaterina Troshina; Pantelis Vouis; chef Walter Whitewater; and Anastasia Troshkova.

Although one would not normally consider food central to a diplomatic mission, food is the common ground of all cultures and ethnicities. While we might not speak the same language, espouse the same religious views, or have the same political systems, we share the universal language of food.

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rowing up at the tail end of the baby boomer generation, I was part of the duck-and-cover era. Air raid drills in public schools meant each time we heard the siren, we jumped out of our desks, filtered out of the classroom, and sat quietly in the hallway, heads between our knees and hands wrapped around the backs of our necks. It wasn’t until recently, when the US State Department brought me to St. Petersburg as part of a culinary diplomacy program, that I fully understood how these drills shaped my perception of Russia, even to this day.

foodie and the Counselor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Kiev, the US State Department began inviting chefs to act as resources for diplomatic engagement both at home and abroad. Chef Walter Whitewater (Diné) and I were first invited to work as culinary diplomats in 2013, when Johnson asked us to present a program called “The Three Sisters,” which focused on the history of Native American cuisine in the Southwest and cooking with Native American ingredients (particularly corn, beans, and squash—the Three Sisters of the Native American agricultural trinity).

My trip to St. Petersburg originated from an earlier trip to Ukraine.

In 2012, under the creative vision of Eric A. Johnson, a professed

Although one would not normally consider food central to a diplomatic mission, food is the common ground of all cultures and WWW.EDIBLENM.COM

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Top: left: Chef Lois Ellen Frank at the SWISSAM Chef’s tasting doing a demonstration on how to prepare a traditional mole sauce using Native American ingredients.

Top right: Chef Walter Whitewater shows master class culinary students a photo of the dish being prepared from the cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations.

Bottom right: Master class culinary student Anastasia Troshkova stuffs a local chile from St. Petersburg for the stuffed chile dish, to be served with a garden tomato sauce and herb roasted potatoes.

Bottom left: Master class culinary students assist chef Walter Whitewater with the dessert course for the chef’s tasting at the SWISSAM Culinary Arts School. The dessert course featured a chocolate piñon torte with a New Mexico prickly pear syrup, as well as a dessert tamale stuffed with a medley of dried fruit from northern New Mexico farms.

ethnicities. While we might not speak the same language, espouse the same religious views, or have the same political systems, we share the universal language of food. We need food to survive, and we need to cooperatively create sustainable foodways to help us in that survival. Working in foreign countries with the ancestral foods from the Southwest is an incredible honor and an opportunity to bridge a gap that often exists between countries and cultures. When we serve these foods to others, including chefs, diplomatic leaders, business professionals, culinary students, school children, and educators, it helps to build stronger bonds between our countries and offers an important setting to further vital diplomatic work. The opportunity to share 72

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local Native American foods and cultures with the world is an homage to the notion that we are all much more alike than we are different.

Two years after we presented “The Three Sisters” in Ukraine, Johnson asked us to join him at his new station in Britain. There we met Rachel Norniella, who, along with her husband Thomas M. Leary, the consul general at the US Consulate in St. Petersburg, invited us to Russia to work with them as culinary diplomats. Consul General Leary and Norniella invited us into their residence with open arms, and we built a working relationship and friendship that will bring us back to Russia in the future. Two US State Department employees in particular, Michael Byrnes and Janna Agasieva, spent countless hours

each day helping us in our mission and collaborated with us for months prior to our trip to create cultural programs that would engage Russian audiences in the exploration of Southwest Native American cultures and foods.

Our first two programs were held at the SWISSAM Hospitality Business and Culinary Arts School. The first was geared toward international and Russian chefs from some of St. Petersburg’s top restaurants. It included a presentation on the history of Southwest Native American cuisine and explained how consuming ancestral foods can promote contemporary health and wellness in Native American communities—an issue chef Whitewater and I are working on with pueblos throughout New Mexico. We followed the talk with a cooking demonstration and tasting. The following day we offered a similar program for master class culinary students.

A couple of days later, the consul general hosted a dinner reception at his residence for Russians from prominent cultural, educational, and business institutions; diplomats from international consulates; and the press. We presented hors d’oeuvres and a buffet highlighting Native American dishes for approximately one hundred guests. These programs gave us the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with Russia by improving foreign insight into our current society and culture in New Mexico and helping internationals form an understanding of Native American ancestral foods. We served handmade pork tamales with a traditional New Mexican red chile sauce. And while I had to explain to our Russian guests that we don’t eat the corn husk outside of the tamale, they loved the corn masa, red chile, and pork, which was steamed to perfection, and they embraced the sauce even though it was hotter than any of their local dishes. Almost every guest who tried the tamales said that it was their first time ever eating one, and chef Whitewater and I made sure we had enough that guests could take several home to share with family members—just like we would if we were making them here.

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To our guests’ surprise, many common staples of Russian cooking originated in the Americas. However, we knew many ingredients would be difficult to find in Russia, so we had them shipped from New Mexico: Tamaya white and blue corn meal from Santa Ana Pueblo for baking bread; red, white, and blue corn posole for posole stew; and red chile powder from Casado Farms at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo for sauce and red chile honey. We brought corn masa for making tamales and dried red chile pods, local pumpkin seeds, and dried northern New Mexican fruit to make a New Mexican mole sauce. We purchased the remaining ingredients locally, using seasonal foods available from markets and vendors in St. Petersburg.

Throughout the process of acquiring the rest of the ingredients on local shopping trips and preparing the foods for the different events, we formed wonderful relationships with everyone we met.

The culinary students from SWISSAM helped us prep food for each event. Through that, we taught them ancient Native American and traditional New Mexico recipes as well as cooking techniques that they will hopefully incorporate into their individual cooking styles as they become more experienced and branch out into their own culinary careers.

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MADE IN NEW MEXICO

As I reflect on my trip to Russia and the purpose of the diplomatic mission, I think one of the most important messages that resonated with the chefs and the culinary students was quite simple: we are all part of the land from which we come. The food our grandmothers prepared from each of our regions was place-based and filled with local terroirs and traditions. How, then, as innovative and contemporary chefs, can we prepare and present these foods to honor the land from which they have come? This is the mission that chef Whitewater and I have dedicated our culinary careers to, and this is what we are doing with local, regional, New Mexican, and Native American ancestral ingredients at Red Mesa Cuisine in Santa Fe.

America’s only traditional balsamic, ours is crafted with organic estate grapes.

As of this year, it is aged 19 years in rare wood Italian casks.

Available for purchase at the Farm Shop lospoblanos.com|505.938.2192 or online at organicbalsamic.com

Pesticide Free | Solar Powered | Sustainable Agriculture

A special thanks to: YOU! The Grove Cafe & Market, Farina Pizzaria, La Merienda, Farm & Table, The Shop Breakfast and Lunch, La Montanita Coop, Whole Foods Market, Bernalillo Public Schools, ABQ Downtown Growers’ Market, Corrales Growers’ Market

-Aaron & Elan Tomato by Sarah Diamond

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Anastasia Troshkova, for instance, noted that one of our dessert dishes, the traditional berry crisp, could have been made by her Russian grandmother, except her grandmother would have served it with sour cream. The fresh sweet and sour taste of the baked berries with the crisp topping reminded her of childhood and elicited memories associated with her grandmother. Perhaps she will keep up her grandmother’s tradition of baking a berry crisp but bake it now with a northern New Mexican Native American twist.

eatsilverleaf.com

If all of us do not pass on meaningful culinary traditions from one generation to the next—how to sustainably grow specific local crops, how to find and harvest wild foods, or how to prepare and cook them—then part of all of our cultures and the uniqueness of each will disappear. Chefs today have a wonderful opportunity to keep these culinary traditions alive for future generations.

At the chef ’s tasting, Dmitriy Kharkov, the demi-chef de partie from the Four Seasons Hotel Lion Palace St. Petersburg, approached me. He was incredibly engaged by my presentation and agreed that our different local cuisines were each important and that presenting these foods to the world gave us the opportunity to elevate them to the same level as some of the world’s most famous cuisines. When we travel and visit new lands, we want to taste the unique foods from that landscape; we owe it to ourselves to also learn and understand these foods in the context of their history and place. Kharkov added, “I was happy to try your dishes, it was inspiring. The concept of carrying on the traditions using ingredients of the past and making it new is quite familiar to me, as we are trying to use the same approach in our work.” At that moment I knew why I had come to Russia. His statement resonated with me, and I realized we are both creating the future of our local foods by looking to our past. We are two people, thousands of miles apart, each doing our part to keep important culinary traditions from our local areas alive.

Food is the common thread that binds us together. It teaches us the importance and value of one another. To find and share that common ground in Russia, a place I had feared as a child, was remarkable. The relationships that were formed will last forever and the experience of using food as an agent of diplomacy is the perfect medium for change to happen. www.redmesacuisine.com

March of Dimes would like to extend their gratitude to all the chefs who made the 2016 Signature Chefs Auction a success!

• Gilbert Aragon from Hotel Albuquerque • • Ryan Hickey from Nantucket Shoals Seafood Market • • Josh Gerwin from Dr. Field Goods • • Jonathan Perno from Los Poblanos Inn & Organic Farm • • Diego Barbosa & Luis Estrada from The Guava Tree Café • • Izz Rivera from The Shop • • Rodney Estrada from Zacatecas • • Cory Gray from M’tucci’s • • Elvis Bencomo from Pasiōn Latin Fusion •

Thank You! Chefs appear in order above from top left to right.

We are grateful to The Gallegos Family for sharing their story and the impact that March of Dimes has had in their lives.

ALBUQUERQUE

MIUM PRE

Authentic

LO

Delicious

CA

L LY S O U

D

EAT LOCAL GUIDE E RC

424 Central SE, Albuquerque 505-243-0200, www.artichokecafe.com Fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, classic French techniques, extensive wine list, private dining, catering, and great atmosphere.

colombian bistro

now open

tuesday-saturday 11am-8pm

3216 Silver SE, Albuquerque 505-266-2305, www.ajiacobistro.com Ajiaco’s varied Colombian cuisine is influenced by a diverse flora and fauna found around Colombia.

Cultural traditions of different Colombian ethnic groups play a role in our choice of ingredients.

New Location Open in Old Town!

Country Club Plaza, 1710 Central SW, Albuquerque Green Jeans Farmery, 3600 Cutler NE, Albuquerque 505-554-1967, www.amoreabq.com New Mexico’s first and only certified Neapolitan pizzeria, creating Neapolitan recipes with house-made fresh ingredients and local flavor.

1815 Central NW, Albuquerque 505-247-4141, www.durancentralpharmacy.com

510 Central SE, Albuquerque 505-243-0130, www.farinapizzeria.com

Duran Central Pharmacy is a unique old fashioned drugstore with a restaurant in the back serving New Mexican food including its award winning red and green chile.

Starting with the finest organic flour, our pizza crusts are made by hand and topped with the freshest ingredients including artisan cured meats and the best organic green chile in the state.

5 10721 Montgomery NE, Albuquerque 505-298-0035, www.farinaalto.com

8917 4th NW, Albuquerque 505-503-7124, www.farmandtablenm.com

Farina Alto offers fresh, creative fare.

Gather over a glass of wine, a good story, and a phenomenal plate of food. Come in and explore our menu of artisan pizzas.

A wonderful dining experience! Enjoy delectable seasonal dishes created from scratch, sourced from local farmers and our beautiful on-site farm.

3600 Cutler NE (Carlisle & I-40), Albuquerque www.greenjeansfarmery.com

11225 Montgomery NE, 505-271-0882 3403 Central NE, 505-266-7855 10701 Corrales NW, 505-899-7500 www.ilvicino.com

A unique indoor/outdoor gathering place that builds on ingenuity, localist choices, healthy living, and neighborhood.

Food, drink, fitness, fashion and fun!

A contemporary Italian Trattoria, offers authentic Italian wood-oven pizza, entrées, salads, sandwiches, baked lasagna, and more. Enjoy our own micro-brewed ales and home-brewed root beer.

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1710 Central SW, Albuquerque 5901 Wyoming NE, Albuquerque 505-821-1909, www.5starburgers.com Fresh beef, free of hormones or antibiotics. Best burger in New Mexico says USA TODAY. A wide selection of sandwiches, entrees, salads, a kids menu, beer and wine. Happy hour 4 - 6 every day.

3222 Silver SE, Albuquerque 505-266-0607, www.limonatanobhill.com Breakfast and lunch all day! Sweet and savory regular and gluten-free crepes, tortas, burritos, empanadas and handmade pies. Delicious coffee and a wonderful large outdoor patio.

Mon–Fri 7am–5pm | Sat–Sun 8am–5pm

ALBUQUERQUE

4803 Rio Grande NW, Albuquerque 505-344-9297, www.lospoblanos.com Rooted in organic ingredients from our own farm and the Rio Grande Valley region. Join us at our restaurant, Wed-Sun 5-9pm, by reservation only.

1403 Girard NE, Albuquerque 505-792-1700, www.piatanzi.com

4003 Carlisle NE, Albuquerque 505-884-3625, www.nmpiecompany.com

Our fabulous small-plate Italian creations are crafted from the finest, freshest ingredients; organic, farm-raised, and locally sourced.

Featuring a beer and wine bar.

Handmade sweet and savory pies with pure flavors and premium ingredients, locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks. Mention this ad to get 15% off your order!

The Cellar 10601 Montgomery NE, Albuquerque 505-294-9463, www.savoyabq.com

2031 Mountain NW, Albuquerque 505-766-5100, www.seasonsabq.com

California wine country in the Northeast Heights.

Farm-to-table dining from the area's best farms.

Wine tastings and happy hour.

Oak-fired grill, local ingredients, and the best patio dining Old Town has to offer!

1025 Lomas NW, Albuquerque 505-242-3117, www.thecellartapas.com An oasis of casual elegance where delicious wines, local microbrews on tap, and sophisticated tapas cuisine will transport you to Old Spain.

Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-9:30pm

TRIFECTA COFFEE COMPANY

600 Central SE, Albuquerque 505-248-9800, www.thegrovecafemarket.com The Grove features a bustling café experience serving breakfast, brunch and lunch. Local, seasonal, organic foods, Intelligentsia coffee and tea, beer, wine and signature sweets.

2933 Monte Vista NE, Albuquerque 505-433-2795, theshopbreakfastandlunch.com Come in for breakfast or lunch, creative American classics with Latin and creole influences, made from local and organic ingredients.

3423 Central NE, Albuquerque 505-255-8226, www.zacatecastacos.com 4500 Silver SE, Albuquerque 505-639-3401, www.vibranceabq.com Art Gallery • Vegetarian Cuisine • Live Music Open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 11am - 7pm and Sunday Buffet 10am - 3pm, $20.

Zacatecas features recipes handed down from generation to generation with flavors that are true to the history and culture of Mexico.

Zacatecas is a real taqueria.

413 Montano NE, Albuquerque 505-803-7579, www.trifectacoffeecompany.com We roast coffee, and brew it in unique ways utilizing some of the best methods available.

All of our baked goods, sweet, and savory are made in house.

3009 Central NE, Albuquerque 505-254-9462, www.zincabq.com A three level bistro featuring contemporary cuisine with a French flair. Dinner daily, weekend brunch, fabulous cocktails, and tasty bar bites!

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SANTA FE

El Nido

Te s u q u e ,

New

Mexico

218 Camino La Tierra, Santa Fe 505-983-2100, www.arroyovino.com

505 Cerrillos, Santa Fe 505-469-2345, www.bangbitesf.com

1577 Bishops Lodge Road, Tesuque 505-954-1272, www.elnidosantafe.com

Arroyo Vino, voted a top 100 restaurant in America by OpenTable reviewers, serves progressive American fare inspired by our on-premise garden and local purveyors.

Fresh. Local. Tasty.

A bunch of food enthusiasts obsessed with serving the very best crafted food we can get and delivering it the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

Simple ingredients. Honest Cooking. Fresh Thinking.

At El Nido we present exceptional ingredients from farmers we know and trust. This is the point of departure for all our food.

604 N Guadalupe, Santa Fe 505-983-8977, www.5starburgers.com

95 W Marcy, Santa Fe 505-984-1091, www.ilpiattosantafe.com

321 W San Francisco, Santa Fe 505-986-8700, www.ilvicino.com

Fresh beef, free of hormones or antibiotics. Best burger in New Mexico says USA TODAY. A wide selection of entrees, sandwiches, salads, a kids menu, beer, and wine. Happy hour 4 - 6 every day.

A local favorite since 1996, boasting an authentic Italian farmhouse experience, sourcing its ingredients directly from local farms, dairies, and ranches. Extensive wine list.

A contemporary Italian trattoria, offers authentic Italian wood-oven pizza, entrées, salads, sandwiches, baked lasagna, and more. Enjoy our own micro-brewed ales and home-brewed root beer.

5

CAFFÉ BAR TRATTORIA

72 W Marcy, Santa Fe 505-982-3433, www.labocasf.com

228 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe 505-989-1904, www.mangiamopronto.com

505 Cerrillos and 1098 S St. Francis, Santa Fe 505-982-9692, www.ohoriscoffee.com

With the feel of a lively European wine bar, La Boca offers modern Spanish tapas, unique international wine selections, and an extensive list of Spanish sherries.

Enjoy fresh, authentic, Italian street food; house-made gelato; Lavazza espresso; and wine and beer all day long on our beautiful sidewalk patio.

The original specialty, local micro-roasted coffee source since 1984. Along with our fresh beans, we serve espresso, pour-over, teas, pastries, donuts, burritos, chocolates, and more.

548 Agua Fria Street, Santa Fe 505-930-5325, www.radishandrye.com

815 Early, Santa Fe 505-989-1288, www.rasajuice.com

20 Buffalo Thunder, Santa Fe 505-819-2056, www.buffalothunderresort.com

Farm-inspired cuisine: simple yet innovative food and drinks sourced locally whenever possible. We work closely with local farmers and ranchers to build our menu.

An organic juice bar and café committed to offering delicious plant-based foods, cold-pressed juices, and innovative cleansing and detox programs.

Red Sage at Buffalo Thunder is perfect for your next romantic night out. Fare rotates seasonally. Enjoy the extensive wine list.

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SANTA FE

304 Johnson, Santa Fe 505-989-1166, www.terracottawinebistro.com

653 Canyon Road, Santa Fe 505-982-4353, www.compoundrestaurant.com

142 W Palace, Santa Fe 505-428-0690, www.palacesantafe.com

A smart, casual restaurant located in a charming one-hundred-year-old adobe.

Seasonally changing, globally inspired cuisine and an extensive, value-priced wine list.

The Compound Restaurant has a heritage rich in history and regional influences. Chef Mark Kiffin continues to preserve a landmark tradition of elegant food and service at his Canyon Road institution.

New American farm-to-table.

The wild west decor of the 1850s provides a distinct atmosphere for elegant dining and relaxed bar fare. Dinner Tuesday–Saturday.

EAT LOCAL GUIDE

LOS LUNAS

PLACITAS

New Mexico has its own unique food traditions —from Hatch to Chimayó—and we’d like to help you find some of the area's restaurants and chefs that create the distinctively New Mexico

Creative Casual Cuisine

dining experience. Restaurants are chosen for this dining guide because of their emphasis on using local, seasonal ingredients in their menus and their commitment to real food.

SUPPORT THESE RESTAURANTS, AND SUPPORT LOCAL FOOD COMMUNITIES.

TAOS

5 Thomas, Los Lunas 505-866-1936, www.greenhousebistro.com Good food always puts you in a good mood!

Fresh, seasonal ingredients provide the basis for a meal that promotes healthy living.

221 Highway 165, Placitas 505-771-0695, www.bladesbistro.com Chef and owner Kevin Bladegroen brings together fine and fresh ingredients, artistic vision, and European flair in every dish. Sunday brunch, fabulous cocktails, and an award-winning wine list.

5

125 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos 575-758-1977, www.taosinn.com Serving lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.

Patio dining, fresh local foods, award-wining wines, and margaritas. Try our signature chile rellenos.

1032 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur, Taos 575-758-8484, www.5starburgers.com

123 Bent Street, Taos 575-758-1009, www.lambertsoftaos.com

Fresh beef, free of hormones or antibiotics. Best burger in New Mexico says USA TODAY. A wide selection of entrees, sandwiches, salads, a kids menu, beer, and wine. Happy hour 4 - 6 every day.

Lambert’s strives to create a sanctuary for our guests, where they can enjoy delicious food, wine, and cocktails in a relaxed, yet refined, atmosphere.

TAOS DINER I & II TAOS, NEW MEXICO

103 E Taos Plaza, Taos 575-758-1994, www.parcht.com

908 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, 575-758-2374 216 B Paseo del Pueblo Sur, 575-751-1989 www.taosdinner.com

103 E Taos Plaza, Taos 575-758-8866, www.thegorgebarandgrill.com

/pärCHt/= the physical condition resulting from the need to drink wine, eat good food, and shop…in Taos.

Home to New Mexican and American homemade, homegrown, and organic breakfast, lunch, and dinners. Gluten-free choices. Beer and wine.

Our menu is straightforward yet eclectic, and chock full of favorites made from scratch using as many fresh and local ingredients as possible.

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LAST BITE E’S PONCHE

by Enrique Guerrero, Bang Bite and El Nido Serves 2 Cinnamon Bark Syrup 6 cinnamon sticks 1 cup sugar Cocktail 2 ounces mezcal 2 ounces high-proof bourbon (I like Old Grand-Dad 114) 1 ounce Cinzano Bianco (Italian aperitif wine or dry Vermouth) 1/2 ounce sherry 4 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole or Angostura bitters Orange twist (for serving) Cinnamon Bark Syrup Bring cinnamon sticks, sugar, and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan.

Remove from heat and let steep 2 hours.

Strain syrup into a small jar or bowl; discard cinnamon.

Syrup can be made up to a week ahead.

Cover and chill.

Cocktail Combine mezcal, bourbon, Cinzano Bianco, sherry, bitters, and 1/2 ounce cinnamon bark syrup in a large glass or cocktail shaker filled with ice. Stir until outside of glass is frosty, about 30 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with orange twist.

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Anybody

who doesn’t think that the best hamburger place in the world is in their hometown is a: a) nincompoop

d) dunderhead

b) numskull

e) fool...

c) schnook

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EVERY WINE IS UNIQUE WE’LL FIND THE PERFECT ONE FOR YOU WINE SHOP ANNIVERSARY SALE DEC 1-10

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