Cafe Pasqual's - Santa Fe, New Mexico

The trail to Santa Fe travels north from Albuquerque up into the mountains. I’m still baffled as to why the Spaniards chose to inhabit these hills 400 years ago, but one might credit the stunning natural beauty surrounding the area, from the pine-filled forests to the wandering, majestic clouds that you could almost pick like soft-peak egg whites. As someone who thinks photographically, I tend to think about the nature of each locale’s unique light. Santa Fe’s high elevation gives the light a higher exposure on the eyes, but also warmth. The proverbial heat from the baking sun rings true, even on bright mornings during Santa Fe’s summertime. After meeting up with Pat of Eating LA, Josh, Esther, Fiona and I rendezvoused at one the town’s most iconic restaurants: Café Pasqual’s.

Named after San Pasqual, the patron saint of the kitchen, Café Pasqual’s combines a decidedly New Mexican approach to cooking with the truest principles of Alice Waters, with a heavy dose of organic product being offered on the menu. In fact, calling it a New Mexican "Chez Panisse" wouldn't be too much, especially with a female chef-owner in Katherine Kagel, who opened the restaurant in 1979. The James Beard Foundation has found it apt to award the restaurant with some of its honor while the local clientele seem to agree that the homey cooking in a comfortable adobe room warrants a sometimes lengthy wait.


Thankfully Pat reserved a table for us that overlooked the small dining room, which was filled with desert kitsch such as a stuffed goose with binoculars and sundry color paper cutouts. One thing a diner immediately notices (or at least I noticed) is the high-priced menu. My order of huevos rancheros, made with green and red chile (Christmas-style, as they call it in New Mexico) rang up $13.75 on the register. I’m sure the eggs were farm-fresh and procured from free range hens. The chile used for the sauce comprised organic specimens, the red version of which I found to have better flavor. Other breakfast dishes easily reached $16-17. While the cooking was generally good and the quality of the product excellent, I didn’t feel that the experience warranted that price tag. At the time I thought the food was still quite good, though my opinion faded as we visited a number of other New Mexican restaurants that offered nearly tantamount cuisine at a fraction of the price.

You can see a plate by plate review of the other dishes we had at FoodGPS.com

Cafe Pasqual's
103 East Water Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505=983-9340