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The Apple Tree Restaurant
Spreading Canopy, Warm Adobe Alcoves Deep Roots in Taos Life April 15, 2007
By Steve Fox
 On Easter Sunday, the laughter of co-owner Angela Romero pealed throughout The Apple Tree as Sunday brunch customers called for reservations and began coming in. The beloved Taos landmark was still in the glow of its 30th anniversary, which was March 21, the Vernal Equinox. Kidding with regulars and greeting visitors, Angela’s black-black curly hair, aquiline nose, and radiant smile lit up the foyer. She’s a Taoseña going back at least four generations, daughter of Henry and Viola Romero of Montoya Street, off Kit Carson. “I was a little Plaza rat,” she says. “Back then we kids had the Plaza Theater and Woolworth’s to hang out at.”
No wonder Angela’s joy is contagious: with husband Tony Dituri, she now owns the place where she started as a 14-year-old busser when it opened in 1977, and she has the pleasure of working with three others who’ve been there from the beginning: chef Chris Gonzales, kitchen manager Lilian Silva, and waiter Ken Draim (well, he’s only been there 25 years). This Easter, Ken, a painter, was in Paris for the second time in the last two years, stoking up his inspiration in the Parisian visual feast. His portrait of the restaurant’s exterior hangs above the host stand and a six-foot-tall model of a three-story brownstone, with basement restaurant, stands at the top of the stairs.
This staff tenure, the longest in Taos, is complemented by the building’s longevity. It was built in 1903 as the Oakley family residence, then became an apartment house, then a rooming house. “We thought it was all adobe, but ran into a wall made of railroad ties when we were upgrading the wiring,” Angela says. “Who knows what else is in there?”
Polly Ray and Pete Adams converted the building into The Apple Tree in 1977. The next owners were Art and Ginny Greeno (Ginny just closed WesternSky Café), and then Angela and Tony bought it in December 1999. “Oh, gosh, what a rough couple of years at first,” says Angela. “The two big fires in the mountains, 9/11 … those were big blows that depressed the economy and visitors dropped. Then in 2003 a pine tree from next door fell over and took out most of the original apple tree from the Oakley family days. My dad said, ‘Well, just re-name the place The Fallen Pine.’ [Peal of laughter.] No, we brought in the biggest apple tree we could find and just continued on.”
In warm weather, the enclosed patio with the spreading apple tree is one of the most coveted outdoor spots in town. Many regulars from Bent Street, the John Dunn shops, and the Plaza come in the front door and head out to the patio on the north side, and regulars from town government, Civic Plaza Drive, and the University of New Mexico walk the back pathway into the patio from Martyrs Lane. Inside, the four rooms on the ground floor and the second-floor room radiate a warm glow from the Siena Gold glaze faux-finish Angela put on the all-white walls when she and Tony bought the place. Tasty art looks great on that gold-orange wall color. It’s all for sale, and the art in the southeast ground-floor room rotates faster than the others, but they all change.
The top three sellers at Apple Tree are Michelle’s Apple Tree Salad: Romaine and mixed greens, dried cranberries, walnuts, and bleu cheese, served with honey bleu cheese dressing, $8, half-size $4.25, half-size with entrée, $3; Mango Chicken Enchiladas on blue-corn tortillas with mango chutney, sour cream, and salsa fresca, and smothered with green chile, $15, vegetarian with tempeh, $12; and the Southwest Chicken Sandwich, a marinated breast topped with chopped mild green chile and melted white cheddar cheese served on a jalapeño cheddar bun with a red chile mayonnaise and lettuce, with Swiss or cheddar cheese $7, tomato, and red onion $8, half-sandwich $6.
Other favorites include the Calabasa Quesadilla: spinach flour tortilla layered with chipotle goat and white cheddar cheeses, grilled zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, corn, diced green chile, and pumpkin seeds, served with lettuce, salsa and sour cream, $8; Baja Fish Tacos: grilled fresh fish, chipotle tomato salsa, blue corn tortillas, white cheddar and cotija cheeses, $9; and the custom-built burgers, plain $6, cheese $7, two toppings $8, three toppings $9, and The Ultimate, $10.
The popular chile-jalapeño bread is so labor-intensive to make—rolling out each little loaf with layers of chile—that they now offer it as house bread only occasionally.
Sunday brunches always offer French toast and Eggs Benedict, but the specials each week are delightful surprises. Easter specials included strawberry pancakes, fresh rainbow trout, spiral pineapple-and-honey-glazed ham and eggs, a crabmeat and mushroom omelette, and strawberry and peach crepes.
As you turn left into the first room, you face R.C. Gorman’s old table, #5. After a hard right into the next room you find the coveted table #12 alcove, where many engagements and birthdays have been celebrated. “Once, a man set up a proposal to his girlfriend in that alcove, and put the ring in her champagne glass,” says Angela. “We heard her scream all through the restaurant.”
In the southwest corner, next to Gorman’s, is table #4, where you’ll find Carol and Ron Kalom every Sunday, and here I present a story-within-the-story that reveals the family-and-friends connections made possible by stable, enduring community businesses. Carol and Ron came to Taos to escape the violence swirling through Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Carol worked for Second City, and now hosts the TCA movie nights, and Ron was a community organizer for three YMCAs. Six months after arriving here, they opened The House of Taos restaurant on May 2, 1969, on Doña Luz, where Sustaining Cultures’ Gallery is now.
“It was a real Mom-and-Pop—we lived above The House of Taos,” they said when I chatted with them Easter Sunday morning at table #4. “We were known for pizza. One Easter, our daughter Naomi, who was five, went up to a table and said, ‘We’re gonna have a party.’ The man said, ‘What for?’ Naomi said, ‘Passover.’ The man said, ‘Oh, so you’re Jewish?’ And Naomi said, ‘Just a minute, I’ll go upstairs and ask my daddy.’”
Here’s the connection: When Naomi had her first birthday, Ron and Carol took her to Casa Cordova in Seco, at that time the fanciest place in town. The busser was Johnny Montaño, whose family owned the place, and Johnny is now the lunch maitre d’ at Apple Tree. And thus do the roots of the apple tree link generations, families, and community memory.
Brunch: Sunday, 11-3
Lunch: Monday-Saturday, 11:30-3
Dinner: Daily, 5:00 p.m.-closing
758-1900
123 Bent St.
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