Trading Post, Sabroso, Alley Cantina

Dining for Dollars

Historic Buildings, Veteran Owners, Master Chefs

December 15, 2006

My wife Donna and I continued to be delighted this month at the imaginative quality available when we ate at the bars of three venerable Taos restaurants on a $25 budget (not including booze). All three satisfy pesky bar diners in different ways, but all are owned and run by highly competent people serving great food. The Ranchos Trading Post Café is in the old Sahd family mercantile store; Sabroso is the country inn with plum orchard and vast patio at Casa Córdova’s old spot in Seco; and the newly smoke-free Alley Cantina, off the northwest corner of the Plaza, is said to be in the oldest structure in Taos.

The Ranchos Trading Post accommodates budget diners with their core service philosophy: “Talk to us! No order is too special!� We knew their servers were adept at reciting daily specials—appetizer, entrée, and dessert—but even Donna, who’s eaten there since they opened 13 years ago, didn’t fully comprehend how flexible co-owners René Mettler and Kimberly Armstrong are. Told of our budget, Kimberly hastened to explain that they would make us half-orders of appetizers for half price. They’ll also put together smaller plates of pasta and shrimp entrées for four dollars less, and split an entrée between two people at no charge. Full portions are huge. So, talkin’ and dealin’, we wound up with five ravioli for $8 instead of ten for $16, and split the roasted chicken entrée ($16). Total: $24.

The ravioli, stuffed with Portobello mushrooms, and lying in (but not covered by) an orange marinara made from fresh Roma tomatoes, was garnished with bleu cheese crumbles and a splash of béchamel (garlic, heavy cream, Parmesan, and a hint of nutmeg). Great combination of flavors and textures, not flabby or overpowered by tomato. The half chicken came to us neatly divided on two plates, each with full sides of veggies: a spiral of mashed potatoes, which evening cook Chuck Lamendola swirls out from a pastry bag, and, wonder of wonders, Brussels sprouts that arrived hot, garnished with a bit of red Roma, and still crunchy. The Sage Bakehouse bread from Santa Fe was crusty and chewy. Huge jars of flavored olive oils with ladles in them sit on the bar, so barflies can serve themselves for bread dipping.

In the interest of informing pesky readers about the full spectrum of options for your $25, we had wine and dessert on our own dime. Kimberly and René use full-shaped 11.75-ounce wine glasses that fill your hand nicely, and they pour 7 ounces of wine. The house white at $6 was very nice and the $7.50 Fumé Blanc from Sonoma was crisp and platinum-colored. Our server, David Martinez of the Pueblo, who worked with chef Chuck at Casa Córdova and the Brett House, recited about a dozen desserts for us. He recommended the “Coup Calvados,� “coup� meaning tall glass. At the bottom were apples, raisins, and cinnamon, flambéed with Calvados apple brandy from Normandy, topped with vanilla ice cream. If you slip your spoon down the side of the glass and fish out some apples, pulling them up through the Calvados and vanilla, you get a fine, unusual combo of flavors.

The Trading Post “talk to us� style doesn’t only give you menu options, it gives you the best culinary performance art in town. The bar faces the open kitchen. The 12 bar stools are wrought-iron with cushions, swivel 360 degrees, and there is a classic bar foot-rail. Great ergonomics. There’s also a hook under the bar at every stool, for hanging purses, hats, and coats.

The Sunday night we were there, Chuck was cooking while wise-cracking to bar-sitters and calling out good-bye to patrons who were leaving. A rush of orders came in from the three servers, and Kimberly, who had come in just to say hello to somebody, jumped into the kitchen, and for the next half hour choreographed a jaw-dropping display of co-cooking, dialogue with everybody, and split-second timing. As Chuck sliced and cooked prime-rib, duck, and seafood entrées, Kimberly sautéed spinach, cooked deep strainers of emerald peas and those crunchy Brussels sprouts, delivered the plates to the three servers, took their specialized orders, and answered every question Donna and I slipped in. It was crankin’. It was free-form salsa-dance cooking.

“With an open kitchen,� she said, “every day you come to work ready for a social experience. I can’t imagine being behind the scenes. We do 100 people for lunch and 100 for dinner. We cater to our loyal locals. We train our servers to recite specials because it makes people listen and engage with us, rather than just picking a number off a menu. Talking with your guests is getting more and more important, with people fighting cholesterol and concerned about their health.�

Kimberly met master chef René Mettler, a Swiss-Italian, when both worked for large Hyatt resort hotels. They have been together 15 years and founded the Trading Post Café 13 years ago. René came to the U.S. in the early sixties and was part of the U.S. Olympic Culinary Team for several Olympics. Nine restaurant reviews framed on the wall, plus fourteen cooking-academy diplomas, attest to René’s success. He’s also one of the featured artists now on the restaurant’s walls, along with Thom Wheeler and Judy Morita. The art changes every two months and is booked into 2008. René also designed the hollow-tree variant on the kiva fireplace in the main room, and there is a permanent display of Navajo willow baskets, a vanishing art.

Sabroso is a sprawling gem that has risen from the ashes of Momentitos de la Vida, the “Four Diamond� (AAA ranking) place that occupied the former Casa Córdova from 1999 to October 2005. It’s located at the last turn-off to the left before Arroyo Seco, if you’re driving north from Taos toward the ski valley. Some think the building was formerly a fort or morada, but Larry Torres, the Seco bard, remembers his father selling adobes he had made to Tom Priest, Peggy Williams, and Jo Livingston in 1960 so they could make a restaurant out of the Archuleta family’s chicken coop. Inside one adobe wall, they found a bottle with a note saying the wall had been laid by the Córdova family, so the three entrepreneurs named their new restaurant Casa Córdova. The Torres adobes formed what is now the bar. Subsequent owners were Godie Scheutz, Carlo Gislimberti, and finally, a partnership that changed the name to Momentitos de la Vida. Michael Mellinger, a co-owner of Vida, bought out his partners and founded Sabroso Aug. 17 of this year. Mellinger is positioning Sabroso to be “less pretentious� than Vida to appeal to a wide variety of locals. The bar menu includes burgers, 12 “small plates� from $4 to $16, and 11 appetizers from $8 to $16 each. Sabroso’s dinners feature salmon, hand-cut steaks, duck, lamb, pasta, and seafood.

On your left as you drive into the property is a half-acre of huge old plum trees, which executive chef Tim Wooldridge pruned last spring after gathering up 28 lugs (packing boxes) of big prune plums. Wooldridge has put in a drip system, a fire pit, and some tables in this orchard, and staged a clam bake there at the end of summer. The big patio can accommodate 24 for menu dining under the portals and another 30 or 40 at the U-shaped bar and open-air tables. Mellinger said the patio was full every night until the weather turned cold. With two dining rooms that seat 40 each, a bar that seats another 25, and seating for 60 outside, Sabroso is the biggest fine-dining place in Taos.

On the Tuesday night we visited, however, there were so few diners that we got to gab for an hour, as we ate, with co-owner Mellinger, executive chef Wooldridge, and bartender Craig Stagg. There should be many more diners, because the menu is uniquely eclectic, the ingredients top-notch, and the preparation and presentation artfully done.

We sat at the bar, which has a big fireplace at the far end, couches and stuffed chairs, a baby grand, and slit windows. We started out with a big bowl of edamame, soybeans boiled in the shell. You dip the pods in little bowls of oil and tamari, then strip the beans out of them with your teeth. The beans have a nice chewy texture and the dipping sauce gives them flavor. They’re a fun, healthy finger-food appetizer for $5 that kept Donna and me busy for nearly a half-hour while we yakked.

For our bar entrées, I had a grilled skewer of Spanish chorizo and chicken, and Donna had a burger. The chorizo was not typical New Mexican or Mexican. It was smoother and more like andouille (which Cajuns use in gumbo and jambalaya). Tim brought out a package of it—Bilbao brand, imported from Spain by an outfit in St. Louis. The big skewer had three chunks each of chicken and chorizo, alternating with red bell pepper and onion. It came with two toasted daggers of bread with tangy tapenade on them, little pieces of parsley showing through the olive paste. Donna’s burger was on a crusty Kaiser house-baked roll and came with fries and sweet jicama slaw.

The burger, chicken, and chorizo were smoky and moist after cooking over wood coals. Tim took us back to the kitchen and showed us the restaurant’s prize grill. Beneath the grilling meat, the firebed is an 1,100-pound ceramic heat-sink. They had to remove doors to get this big boy in there. It holds heat all week, which means burning less wood. And the wood they use is Seco apple, chokecherry, oak, and plum.

Chef Tim showed his artistry and generosity by giving us a dessert when we’d reached our $25 limit. It was a pot de crème, a turbocharged chocolate pudding in a small bowl on a plate with a Jackson Pollock drizzle of strawberry and apricot sauces. And because it goes best with red wine, he threw in a half-glass. The chocolate was dark and rich, and the fruity drizzles and acidic wine made it go together like Mozart music. Absolutely killer! Tim was a teaching assistant to the White House pastry chef at the Academy de Cuisine at Bethesda, Maryland, and became exec chef himself at The Capitol Hilton, three blocks from the White House.

In the old Taos two-step, owner Michael also owns the fueling and hangar operations at the airport, and Tim ran Rio Grande Air from 1999 to 2004, which served Taos, Albuquerque, Denver, and Holloman Air Base. He ran food and beverage at the Edelweiss when his brother bought it from Dadou Mayer some years ago.

On Wednesday nights Jimmy Stadler plays on the baby grand in the Sabroso bar, and on Saturday nights it’s Mary Bruschini, who will also entertain on New Year’s Eve when chef Tim will set up “grazing� stations spaced around the building for salad, carved tenderloin, dessert, and so on.

Sabroso is a rich, rambling place with affordable bar food in a very warm, pleasant bar. The dining rooms, however, could use more color and warmth.

The Alley Cantina’s owners say it embodies the oldest adobe structure at the site of the town’s original Plaza. The south and east walls, they say, are from around 1600. Like the Taos Inn, the main room is a courtyard that was roofed-over in the sixties with a big skylight. When the Americanos arrived, it was the office for Gov. Charles “Goin’ Outta My Head� Bent, first Territorial governor, who was beheaded by a mob in 1847. His daughter Teresina, they say, haunts the building, causing “accidents� experienced by patrons and staff. She’s why the Alley’s address is 121 Teresina Lane. The place became a restaurant, El Patio, in 1944, and has been shovelin’ the chile ever since.

Current owners Buzz and Ruth Waterhouse are approaching their tenth anniversary running the Alley. Both worked for years at Doc Martin’s and the Adobe Bar. On Nov. 1, they took the bold step of going smokeless, after building a following of locals accustomed to smoking. How’s it going? “Well,� says Ruth, “some heavy smokers aren’t coming anymore; some say they appreciate any stimulus to quit; and some say they’ll just go outside because they don’t even smoke in their own houses. And we’re seeing people come in who say, ‘I never came here because of the smoke.’ It seems to be growing, more and more new faces. We’re putting in two heaters and a canopy in the outside patio to make it more comfortable for smokers who want to keep coming.� The Alley now joins the majority of Taos eateries in being smoke-free.

The Alley’s food is classic working class. The most popular dish is the $10 fish and chips, which I had. The white fish was blue-corn breaded in small pieces, light and tasty, with chile-tartar dip. The fries are cut in-house, long and slim (1/4� square), dark and chewy, unlike the mealy texture of frozen fries. Donna had barbecue brisket, very tender and smoky, chopped into a medium-spicy sauce. Ruth says their four-ounce ($5) and eight-ounce ($7) burgers are—truly—the best in town, and they’re tied for cheapest in our survey.

Getting full for the $25 limit is a cinch at The Alley: they have lots of appetizers from $4 to $10, house wine at $3.50, and all alcohol is half-price during happy hour, 5-7 p.m. every day of the year. To top it off, you can get a full meal there 365 days until 11 p.m. (Barbecue, Mexican food, and salads stop at 10.) That’s the latest service in town.

The Alley has a pub-like ambiance that features live music seven days and several games for patrons. There is a pool table; 18-ft.-long polished table shuffleboard; and a table-top board game called Pichenotte, a century-old type of miniature shuffleboard that four can play. They’re trying out jazz with Omar Rane on Sundays. Monday is Leap of Freight; Omar’s Buddha Baby group plays Tuesdays; Wednesday is open mike, and Thursday through Saturday bands constantly change. A small dance floor in the middle of the main room “doesn’t look small when it’s full of dancers,� according to our server, Shaleen Pilla.