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Love Apple, Taos Restaurant Group, 5 Star Burgers
September 20, 2008
By Staff Reports
 The Love Apple
By Steve Fox
On August 30, the third day The Love Apple was open in Fernando Miera’s old chapel on Paseo Norte just north of the Rio Pueblo, three of us had a sensational dining experience. Owner/host Jennifer Hart says her mission is to serve organic regional food at reasonable prices, “prepared from scratch with intention and local fresh ingredients.” Hart and chef Andrea Meyer succeed jubilantly. I have the copy-paper menu, on which the three of us wrote our accolades.
Jennifer, who worked nine years for Joseph Wrede at Joseph’s Table, has spent months renovating the old Placitas Chapel. She has kept the main room white, with bench seating along the walls fitted between the inner buttresses, and a custom rectangular mirror (courtesy Chris White) on the east wall to expand and brighten the space. With the street in front of the building torn up by the Paseo Norte sewer and widening project, you have to go slow and look for the driveway entrance at the southern edge of the lot. Once in, you park in a big shady area behind the sturdily-buttressed adobe. Jennifer named it Love Apple after the French term for tomato, pomme d’amour.
Donna and I were joined by poet Paula Bernett. The water was steeped in bottles of fresh mint. Then came the plate of compact corn muffins, two of them wheat-free blue corn, with two flavored butters, one chokecherry, the other “savory orange chipotle.” The muffins stimulated our conversation. We kept reading aloud to each other the menu’s descriptions of the entrées. Paula said, “My gosh, this menu is poetic!” There are many menu-writers who dabble in cuisine-speak, but The Love Apple’s food gets you talking like a foodie.
The entrées arrived, garnished with such lovely flowers and trimmings that they could have been impressionist still-lifes.
I had the beef tacos, described as “orange-herb braised Pecos Valley beef brisket, savoy cabbage slaw, toasted pepitas [pumpkin seeds] and green chile crème fraiche served in our homemade flour tortillas with cinnamon-oregano pinto beans.” The beef had been braised to perfect tenderness, and the combination of roasty pepitas, crème fraiche, and savoy slaw (just fun to say) made the thick, soft flour-tortilla-wrapped tacos more like Middle Eastern pita-tzatziki-gyros than New Mex tacos.
It was the pinto beans with cinnamon that Donna and Paula smacked their lips over. Never, in the life-long ingestion of 5.7 million beans, had we imagined how perfectly they’d go with cinnamon. Mmmmm.
Donna’s roasted chicken salad was another complete bouquet of effects: “local heirloom tomatoes, baby yellow and green beans, roasted yellow chilaca peppers, with tossed salad greens, basil and piñon.” Donna gave us forkfuls that proved her reaction: “The tomatoes are ripe to perfection, the chicken is pull-apart tender and melted in my mouth, and all the colors are so visually yummy!”
Poet Paula selected another visual and savory feast: the “grilled peach, corn-crusted goat cheese and toasted pepita salad on a bed of local Farmer’s Market greens, drizzled with Taos clover honey.” Paula dug the peaches for their bright color and their “smooth gooshiness with the crunchy pepitas, and the orange-purple-green-and-white palette on the plate.”
An exuberant table of ten next to us was as jazzed with the food as we were. “You’ve got to taste this,” my friend David Martinez said, as he passed us bites of two of their dishes.
The menu also features Local Lamb Burger with Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges; Avocado and Roasted Beet Salad; Quesadillas with Sautéd Local Beet Greens and Candied New Mexico Pecans; Calabacitas and Green Chile Soup; and a side of the flour tortillas with crème fraiche, pico de gallo, and avocado-cilantro salsa.
Yes, we were not too full for dessert: we shared a pecan caramel tart with Chantilly Cream, which, like every bite of the above dishes at The Love Apple, left us rolling our eyes in delight. We agreed that we had cleaned our plates and were leaving perfectly satisfied, not stuffed, and for this delectably fresh meal with my one glass of Chardonnay, our bill was $39.94, the best $13.00 each we’d spent eating out in many a full moon.
Sea Life
By Lynne Robinson
My late father, a gourmand, once said he gave me an oyster when I was four. When I liked it, he knew he was in trouble. I liked caviar too. The succulent, juicy tails of South African Rock Lobsters (actually giant crayfish) were my favorite.
This penchant for the primordial, salty taste of the sea did not end with me; my daughter Genevieve happily slurped oysters from the half shell at a tender age, while her siblings chowed down on more age-appropriate burgers and fries.
My oldest daughter Angelica, while picky as a child, can now eat her way through any menu. She is the business manager of the Taos Restaurant Group and married to chef Ky Quintanilla. By the time their daughter, Natalya, was two, we could no longer order one bowl of steamed mussels as an appetizer—unless we wanted only one apiece.
Only my son, Joshua, appears to have escaped this errant shellfish gene, which I blame on the fact that I was a vegetarian when pregnant with him. Aside from sushi, which he loves, his tastes veer toward the conventional with less emphasis on meat and the delicacies of the sea.
This early childhood taste for the salty and sensual pleasures of the sea remind me how close children are to the source—the result of procreation and the faint but lingering remembrance of warm and salty amniotic fluid.
It is no coincidence that abstinence from food and sex mark the path of spiritual seekers the world over. Both are inextricably entwined—the sensual lure of our earthy embodiment.
People will always make love and people will always eat. Taos is finding this out during this economic recession, as tourists continue to arrive but shop less. Only the hotels and the restaurants continue to do well.
Along with, or perhaps because of the diverse, creative and sophisticated mélange that is Taos, we live in a town chock full of good eateries, with no shortage of good chefs at their helms.
Here’s some news about an expanding group indirectly related to yours truly.
The Taos Restaurant Group
The Troy/Yaccino/Wrede, or The Taos Restaurant Group recently added Lamberts, a venerable Taos institution, and arguably the best restaurant in town, to its portfolio of growing establishments.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve eaten my way through The Old Blinking Light in Denver, The Old Blinking Light here near the pseudonymous intersection, and Joseph’s Table. My quest concerned the invisible thread connecting them to the corporation’s Executive Chef, the charming and boyishly good-looking Joseph Wrede.
Old Blinking Light(s)
The Old Blinking Light in Denver is situated in a shopping center in the upscale, bedroom community of Highlands North. When we arrived at 7 p.m., the outside tables were occupied by eager diners. Inside, a pretty hostess showed us to a table in the main dining room. Within the hour, the tables filled and a private party celebrated in an adjoining room.
The restaurant, a large industrial space, reminded me of similar interiors in Soho and Malibu; relaxed and unpretentious, yet deliberately appointed. Crisp white linen covered the tables and the napkins were large enough to keep folded in half. The silverware felt weighty and the glasses, quickly filled, sparkled.
While perusing the menu, we ordered a bottle of Spanish wine, a Malbec, which our server opened expertly and poured. The bread—crunchy crust, chewy and faintly sour—was warm and served with a dish of chipotle butter. We shared the fried avocado appetizer, which arrived halved and nestled on a small bed of baby greens, topped with an avocado crème and a mayonaisey wisp of sauce, nouvelle cuisine style. Fresh pico de gallo added texture and just the right amount of bite.
The avocado was perfectly ripe beneath the crisp batter and melted in the mouth. We shared a Caesar Salad—whole Romaine leaves wrapped like a bouquet in a Parmesan crust, with two anchovies and a drizzle of perfect, garlicky dressing. Joe’s touch was unmistakable.
The entrées arrived: Baby Back Ribs atop a mound of fresh coleslaw that included fennel and red onion (a delicious surprise), and swordfish with a chipotle sauce, which was served Mexican style with beans and rice. Despite sharing the entrées, we could not finish. The portions are beyond generous and the price reasonable: none of the entrees cost more than $30.00.
Coffee and flan came next. Though my companion loved it, I found it a little heavy on gelatin, a minor complaint. The Blinking Light in Denver did not disappoint. The service was very good, the food exceptional and beautifully presented, and the bill didn’t require a bank loan.
The same friend joined me a week later at the Old Blinking Light in Taos. This family-style space features country music most of the time but on the night we went we were treated to mariachi! We ordered tasty house Margaritas and decided on a test. We ordered the local fried avocado so that we could compare it to its Denver cousin—before tasting a Blue Cheese Burger and Chicken Enchiladas. This Blinking Light keeps it simple. There is no standing on ceremony here; service is friendly and informal.
Our avocado arrived without the Denver pomp, on Fiesta ware, a whole avocado, crusted and fried, enclosing a generous scoop of pico atop a mound of baby greens. No avocado crème, no wispy mayo drawn around the plate. It was delicious. My friend liked it better than the Denver version. I would recommend it in a heartbeat!
The burger was huge, perfectly medium-rare. As requested, the fried potatoes accompanying it were crisp and fresh.
Again, the plates were enormous – the two of us could not finish both. The enchilada was moist and seasoned beautifully and the chile (Christmas) perfection.
We ordered coffee, no dessert, and our bill, again, was surprisingly light. $52.00 plus tip included the margaritas.
Joseph’s Table
My daughter Genevieve and I ate at Joe’s. Because we are familiar with the menu, we decided to experiment—with the exception of the signature kale salad which we adore! Our server, Fitz, recommended a Medoc, which “opened up beautifully,” and perfectly complemented the meal we chose. Water, bread, and Joe’s trademark, the tiny Niçoise olives, kept us busy between sentences.
We began with the Tuna tartar – a terrine of avocado, mango and fresh ahi tuna, an appetite stimulant for the warm kale salad. This specialty is impossible to replicate at home, no matter how painstakingly one caramelizes the onions. It is always excellent.
Being the seafood lovers we are, we shared the tortilla-crusted scallops with red and green chile. The red chile, Joe later explained, was a combo of five peppers – more a caribe than the local version – and the green was pure comfort food. The scallops were perfectly cooked and the fluffy, green mound of rice that accompanied them tasted and smelled faintly of cilantro.
Next, we tucked into the Duck breast with an apricot/champagne glaze. It was beautifully tender and the sauce married perfectly with the gaminess of the duck. Both entrees were served with tiny haricots vertes, asparagus and carrots braised to perfection.
A gorgeous crème brulée revealed itself beneath a caramelized crust; sinfully rich, creamy and sensual. The coffee (one small pot) filled each cup. The bill is a secret but not a surprise. Joseph’s Table is about fine dining and the proprietor, like the server, takes his job seriously.
Joe Wrede approaches cooking as art. Not surprisingly many of his devoted clientele are artists themselves, and the restaurant’s ambience and understated elegance reflects creative expression right down to the sophisticated comfort good.
I spoke to Joe about his role in The Taos Restaurant Group, of which he is a partner along with Mike Yaccino and his father-in-law, Nat Troy.
He cited his team of co-creators – Nite Margolis, Tony Chaill (in Denver), Sophia Vigil (Taos Old Blinking Light), and Ky Quintanilla (who returns to Lamberts as head chef at the end of this month). He explains his approach by drawing on his sociology degree – who knew? – as well as his culinary training.
“It’s a sociological approach combined with a heartfelt and intellectual engagement with the food, the place and the individuals involved,” he says. “I don’t want them to feel they are just going through the motions,” he continues. “I want them to take ownership of their kitchens. Essentially I set design parameters of the menu, but encourage a natural evolution that comes with each individual’s approach.
“I look at all these kitchens as art studios and for me, it’s about getting comfortable in all of them and also about connecting to them with both heart and intellect.
“You know, I found my voice as a chef here in Taos,” he says. “The heart is in the ingredients, how good they are, and the intellect relates to how you execute that.”
Mike Yaccino explains the Taos Restaurant Group by noting that “all of our restaurants are partnered together and we are able to economize by keeping all the accounting in one place.”
“We are all still in the process of discovery here,” Joe laughs. “We are essentially a team of Alphas, but somehow it all comes together, and it works!”
For those unable to afford the whole enchilada at Joe’s, there is a way to eat cheaply and well. Sit at the bar—a great vibe, cool locals and out of towners—and people watch. Order the buffalo burger, a delectable spin on the old standby, and a side of duck fat fries. You and your companion will eat well and if you add the warm kale salad, your bill (without beer or wine) shouldn’t be much more than $35.00. Not bad for a five star burger!
Epilogue
My daughter and I left Joseph’s Table in that slightly intoxicated state that overcomes one after a meal rich with complexities not to mention the wine consumed alongside it. I thought of the sleeping guests in the rooms upstairs, where I had stayed with my two youngest babies and my ex-husband during my first trip to Taos almost 30 years ago. Where were their dreams taking them tonight? Had they eaten downstairs and returned to their rooms, warmed by the food and the wine, made love as if for the first time, conceived a child perhaps, who would begin its own journey from the sea...?
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