Dining Out Winter/Spring 2022/2023

OPENS AT LA FONDA

stuff — we definitely like the brunch thing. So we definitely want to bring brunch culture.”

The new restaurant gets its namesake from La Fonda Hotel’s former owner, Saki Karavas, whose parents, John and Noula (the namesake of Noula’s Coffee) opened the hotel in 1937. Clayton mentioned stories of Karavas wandering the halls of the hotel — and the streets of the plaza — in his bathrobe; an outlandish character to say the least.

Clayton and Vaughn, who are partners in business and life, had been cooking in the La Fonda Hotel kitchen prior to the opening of Saki’s, renting the space to whip up creations for their other venture — The Godega, which is a separate nod to their city roots.

“We’re still building our kitchen out

layton said that the owner had been looking for someone to fill the restaurant space for some time, and that after the owner read about CHURCH in the newspaper, he reached out to ask them to fill the position. “We were like, ‘Screw it. Let’s do it,’” Clayton said

They said the owner requested fairly simple ingredients and menu items that would have broad appeal, but still be top-level dishes. “The owner wanted simple things, because he knows sometimes we’re a little bit on the creative side,” Clayton joked. “I was like ‘Okay, we can have eggs and bacon but like one, or two-to-three items are gonna

“Even like our biscuits and gravy, we did a little spin on it and it’s jerk gravy,” Vaughn added. “If you’re a fan of ours thus far, you’ll pick up on some of those notes.”

Along with the brunch menu, CHURCH also plans to serve up an array of non-alcoholic elixirs and brunch classics like mimosas. “It’s gonna be a really curated bar. We want to start off just doing elixirs,” Clayton said.

Eventually, Vaughn said they want to serve both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. “We do want to offer your typical brunch mimosa and stuff like that, but we also want to have a curated

dry bar, because there’s not many places where sober people can come and hang out and feel like ‘this is a nice vibe.’”

After running Saki’s by CHURCH every morning, Clayton and Vaughn then turn their attention to their original venture: The Godega. The New York City-inspired space provides a curated, bodega vibe that also features the artistic work of local Black and Indigenous people of color.

n fact, the newest culinary venture is helping fund their other one: “[Saki’s] actually is funding the Godega, because the things that we need are expensive,” Clayton said. “We’re gonna do this and make some money and do our catering so we can have the Godega fully the way we want it.”

“All the answers aren’t apparent, but with me and Lee, it always worked out,” Vaughn said. “We keep the optimism, we keep our goals in mind — which is just to bring the community together, bring people together, to really make people feel warm and happy. And thus far, it’s been going great.”

TAKE OUT

(575) 751 - 0474 www.HunanTaos.com

Lunch Specials

From 11am - 8 pm Served with Soup, Rice, Egg roll BEER & WINE

SOME OF OUR POPULAR DINNER ENTREES: ALL ENTREES SERVED WITH STEAMED OR FRIED RICE SEAFOOD BIRD’S NEST

Lobster, scallops, shrimp, crab and fish filet, sauteed in a delightful white wine sauce. Served in a flour basket.

VOLCANO SHRIMP

HOT! Dipped in a light tempura batter, then combined with ginger, crushed red peppers and scallions. Garnished over a bed of steamed broccoli. IMPERIAL SHRIMP

Crispy Shrimp in a light tempura batter, glazed with sweet ginger sauce. Garnished over a bed of broccoli. Gotta try it! BLACK PEPPER SHRIMP

Succulent tiger shrimp stir-fried with diced sweet onions, peppers, and a touch of black pepper. Garnished with steamed broccoli. SPRING ROLL (2)

Vegetarian egg roll. POT STICKERS (6)

Pan-fried dumplings with ground meat and vegetables. HOT & SOUR SOUP

HOT! Spicy chicken broth with pork, bean curd and bamboo shoots. DRAGON PHOENIX SOUP

Subtle flavors of chicken and crab compliment each other delicately. GENERAL TSO’S TOFU Vegetarian “General Tso’s Chicken” TA CHIEN GAI

Sliced chicken with broccoli, snow peas, carrots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, etc. Sauteed in a spicy brown sauce. PEKING ROAST DUCK

Roast boneless duck. Served with pancakes, scallions and Hoisin sauce.

PEPPER STEAK

Beef tenderloin sauteed with fresh green peppers and onions in a brown sauce. GINGER LAMB

Sliced lamb sauteed with sweet spicy ginger in a brown sauce. Garnished with steamed broccoli. ROYAL SHRIMP

Shrimp with snow pea pods, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, broccoli, carrot and mushrooms in a wine sauce. SESAME SHRIMP

Lightly battered shrimp glazed with a sweet, spicy brown sauce. Sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Bean to Brew

At Taos Roasters, we have a passion for great-tasting coffee. Here amid the soul-stirring vistas of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, we import beans from the world’s finest growing regions and use our high-altitude, custom roasting process to deliver you coffee that’s always rich, smooth, and aromatic—never bitter.

Served at these fine establishments:

Cid’s Food Market

Mabel Dodge Luhan House Inn on La Loma Old Taos Guesthouse Martyrs Steakhouse

Carson Cafe & Grocery Taos Food Coop Taos Cow Elevation Coffee The Taos Inn Lambert’s of Taos Dixon Coop

MEET

Shawnpaul Ortiz

MEET_rha;t;ltf:?aa/Orta

You may have recently noticed the doors to Doc Martin's and the Adobe Bar in the Taos Inn have been shuttered. Thankfully, the closure has nothing to do with the pandemic shutdown or its ripple effects and everything to do with a pre-planned refresh during what has historically been their slow time. In addition to an ongoing renovation, Shawnpaul Ortiz, former Doc Martin's sous chef, has recently taken the reins and assumed the duties of head chef. We caught up with Ortiz during the restaurant's closure, which plans to reopen Sunday, Nov. 27.

Whendidyou startworking

atDocMartin's?

I started working at the Taos Inn in 2017, as a line cook, and worked my way up to sous chef. I became the executive chef in June 2022.

Wheredid youwork priortothat?

I started out at the Taos Applebee's as a cook. After excelling there, I moved to a prep cook at Lambert's and into the position of day lead cook. I learned most of my scratch kitchen techniques

at Lambert's. There was also a period when I worked two jobs as a line cook at the Gorge Bar & Grill and as a prep cook at Five Star Burger, where I continued to learn all aspects of a kitchen.

Tellusabout therefreshat DocMartin's.

We're excited about the long-awaited refresh of Doc Martin's, the Adobe Bar and the Taos Inn lobby. When we reopen, you'll see new flooring, light fixtures, freshly painted walls, reupholstered chairs, new tabletops and many other enhancements

that will brighten and refresh the look and feel of these areas, while respecting the unique historical nature of the inn and its role as a gathering place for locals. We look forward to opening a new chapter.

I foresee building on my culinary knowledge while delivering impressive quality New Mexican food. My goal for this winter menu is to keep our Taos Inn favorites while giving something

that fits the season with a focus on keeping the menu concise and tight, doing the things we have done well while working on consistency. I want to keep the focus on New Mexico flavors, and bring new ways of infusing flavors to dishes.

As for the dining experience, I want our patrons to eat with their eyes first — from the colors of the food on the plate to the tabletop — with contrast and flavors that pop.

Yes, my favorite dish would have to be our fajitas. They’re made with ribeye for optimum flavor, caramelization of the white onion, red and green bell peppers and julienned poblano pepper served on a sizzling skillet. It speaks to all the senses, from the guacamole to the cilantro sprouts, to the house tequila marinade that the ribeye soaks up.

Is there a new menu or new items?

Do you have a favorite dish that you make?

Let’s talk about your new role. What can we look forward to at Doc Martin’s?

Shawnpaul Ortiz MEET

The holiday menu is still in the works for December and New Year’s. Whether it be oven roasted ham, or prime rib for New Year’s or bringing in special cuts like our bison tomahawks steaks or short ribs, it will be something the kitchen can be proud of. We will include traditional items like our house made rellenos and tamales.

What I love about being a chef is my love of food! Creating culinary dishes for family, friends and guests makes me happy and hearing how they enjoyed it makes it all worth it. When I was young, I would watch the Food Network and try and recreate those dishes in my parents’ kitchen. After that, I never looked back.

Who is Shawnpaul?

On my off time — which is scarce these days — I enjoy spending time with my son, Owen Ezra Ortiz, and doing everything a 6-year-old loves. He is my reason for working hard and excelling in the kitchen. I’m originally from San Jose, Calif. and we moved to Taos when I was 10. That’s when I got to know what true green chile is.  •

Any special plans for the December and/ or New Year’s holiday?

Tell us more about what you enjoy about being a chef.

NOT • YOUR • USUAL CORNER OFFICE

Less than a block south of Taos Plaza, and up a set of stairs, lies Taos’ Corner Office, a new restaurant serving up award-winning food and natural wine. With a patio for lounging, counter service and a cozy indoor vibe, Corner Office at El Conejo offers something new to the palates of locals and visitors alike.

wners Jori Emde and Zakary Pelaccio relocated from New York to Taos during the pandemic, though the couple are no strangers to the area. Emde said they first began coming to Taos for the winters in 2014, and Pelaccio has been skiing in Taos since the mid-90s. After years of work in New York City and the Hudson Valley, the couple chose to bring their food and wine expertise to Taos full-time.

The couple ran several establishments in New York over the years, with Pelaccio winning a James Beard Award for food at their restaurant Fish & Game. The restaurant’s wine list was also recognized for five straight years by Wine Spectator Magazine in their compilation of the top 50 wine lists.

Along with their immense knowledge of food and wine, Emde maintains a focus on fermentation, running Lady Jayne’s Alchemy, a fermentation school. She plans to bring her fermentation and extractions to the restaurant in the coming months.

The pandemic made the couple realize they wanted to slow down, and look for a way to bring their passions to Taos. After talking with Aragon, he offered them the space and Corner Office at El Conejo was born.

NATURAL WINE

A main focus of the establishment is Emde and Pelaccio’s handpicked selection of natural wines, which Emde explained, do not contain sulfites or any other unnatural ingredients. “At the end

of the day, and in the most layman’s terms, [natural wine] is a wine that’s still alive,” she said.

“It’s just like food, right? You want to buy welltended-to, localized foods that aren’t sprayed with pesticides and herbicides

to where the flavor is hybridized out,” Pelaccio added. “Food should speak of a place, and wine — as a food product. The only way that it can tell a story of the place where it’s grown is if it’s not really messed with all that much.”

“Literally, we threw this together in just a couple months,” said Emde. But it is unlikely any patron would know, given the cozy, curated atmosphere and fresh color scheme.

“The space has got great bones. We feel lucky.”

he natural wines come from all over the world, and many of the bottles on their shelf are the only wines of that kind available in the entire state.

Working with several different distributors, they have curated a list of over 100 wines. A numbered system organized by Emde makes picking the right wine a little easier.

Emde said wine can be intimidating to some people, and hopes her system will make it more accessible.

“I like breaking that barrier where you have no inhibitions,” she said. “All you have to do is tell me what number you want.” From there, Emde can explain the wine in greater detail. “We’re not here to isolate or make people feel uncomfortable. I love educating people,” she added.

While the focus is the wine, the food menu cannot be overlooked. Prepared by Pelaccio, the menu contains a list of items that you are unlikely to find anywhere else in Taos. Plates like the “elk carpaccio” and “wagyu brisket au jus” are reasonably priced and the ingredients are locally sourced.

Pelaccio said the menu will evolve with the seasonal ingredients. “We’ll see what happens after the frost comes in. Local products are on the wane and we’ll see how we shift our menu,” he said.

“Right now, we have farmers coming on Wednesday and Thursday for drop off, and then we roll over to the market on Saturday.”

Their goal wasn’t necessarily to pair specific wine with specific food. “We’re not designing the menu to go with the wine list, or the wine list to go with the menu. It’s just what we think is tasty. It’s not a formal experience at all,” Pelaccio said.

“You can come and just drink, you can come and just eat, or you can come and do both,” he added.

KOKO

Should I stay or should I go?

When I’m on the South Side of town, my go-to for a great cup of coffee is KOKO. And judging by their brisk business over the years, I’m not in a minority.

In a town not lacking in great coffee (we rival Seattle and NYC in my opinion), I’ve had my share of excellent beans, not least of which, the one’s I brew at home soon after waking.

“We required masks and, for safety, only allowed three customers in the store at a time,” Dianna Sakai, KOKO’s proprietor said. “We also had arrows for a line outside, and did this for quite awhile, probably until people started getting vaxxed.”

She recalls they transformed their deli case into the pastry case. Many of the deli items and entrees moved to the grab-and-go case.

“After the vaccinations and boosters, we still recommended masks and offered them to our guests.”

“Many of our staff still mask up,” she notes. They only took down the recommended mask sign in early September, but these restrictions didn’t stop people coming in for their daily cup of java and lunch to-go.

KOKO’s house blends, including dark roast from Peru — Fair Trade and sustainably grown. KOKO purchases small amounts weekly to keep the coffee fresh and customers happy.

Pre-pandemic, all the outside tables were always filled, no matter the season — and while the pandemic changed so much in the industry — that didn’t change. But unlike before the strange virus took hold, when the tables inside were all occupied with people eating and/or sipping espresso drinks while on their notebooks and laptops – KOKO has Wifi – and classic Cafe Culture was clearly in effect.

They sailed through the pandemic precisely because to-go was their mojo, and they were already ahead of the game. Although tighter restrictions applied.

Despite its unlikely location in Martinez Plaza, just past Wal-Mart, the Storyteller Movie theater and U.S. Banks’s South Side branch, Dianna and Kenji Sakai, the couple behind KOKO, have been able to turn this into a buzzing space in a virtual noman’s land. Along the strip of Paseo between town and Ranchos, on both sides of the highway, however, are large residential and office developments, and clearly KOKO fills a badly-needed niche in the area.

When KOKO opened in April 2013, the couple already had their (commercial) kitchen close by, and had decided it was time to expand and grow their business. They purposefully chose the location, knowing there was a dearth of what they had to offer in the area.

Dianna grew up in New Jersey, but has traveled far and wide since her early years on the East Coast. She first came west because her brother lives in Colorado, and lived in Santa Fe — before coming to Taos, where she met her husband and partner, Kenji Sakai. The couple have two children.

Although the couple first got their start (and became known in Taos) with the incredible Sushi they sold at CID’s Food Market, Dianna’s background is in the culinary arts, while Kenji has a serious foundation in fine art, having studied art in Tokyo and in NYC — at the Art Students League.

“He is the one who has a great sense of aesthetic and design, with his art background,” Dianna said. “I have the food and restaurant background, having worked professionally in both the front and back of the house — that, combined with Kenji’s innate Japanese strive for efficiency, often makes KOKO feel like a well oiled machine.”

Dianna’s background in the Food and Service Industry is impressive; She early-on apprenticed with a renowned chef/restaurateurs at a French restaurant in Princeton before heading west to Santa Fe where she worked for a time at the Coyote Cafe, during chef/owner Mark Miller’s heyday.

She is also a pastry chef, having studied for a time in Paris, and once worked for the Dowager Duchess of Argyll in Scotland.

Once masks were declared optional, KOKO’s inside tables started filling up again, while the lines to order grew longer, but the service was once again brisk and friendly.

KOKO has become a destination spot for visitors and locals alike, who appreciate its proximity to the hospital, and being the perfect spot to grab a coffee and bite to eat to go, if you’re headed south.

The couple, however, take nothing for granted. “Neither of us would have been able to achieve what we have so far without the other person.”

Dianna told me, “and that goes for our staff as well ... I am grateful for the wonderful staff we have — we would never be able to do this without their dedication and hard work.”

For more information about KOKO and the services they provide, other than coffee and in-house food — they cater too — visit kokotaos.com.

What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Who, at some point, hasn’t wondered about the magic chefs seem to have. After all, their talent for preparing foods just so is what distinguishes their meals and keeps customers coming back for more. As we head into the holiday season, our minds (and bellies) are often focused on socializing over food.

Two area chefs stand out for their loyal customers who are willing to wait in line for the scrumptious delectables. Anyone who has walked by Manzanita Market has no doubt noticed the bustling activity and the same level of energy buzzes around Der Garten in the Taos Ski Valley. We decided to pose the question to these two popular chefs: “What’s your secret sauce?”

Asia Golden, executive chef and co-owner of Der Garten at The Brownell Chalet at the Taos Ski Valley, did not hesitate when asked what her secret is. “There are two key ingredients for the sauces I prepare. The first is intention, and the intention I hold is love.”

Golden, who has traveled the world and made meals with Tibetan Monks, learned first-hand how every living thing holds an energy. “I believe your mood can change the food you prepare to one of pure nourishment or something

less satisfying. If love is your key ingredient the people eating the food will derive the benefit of food made with love and the meal will be so much more satisfying.”

After the love, Golden spoke of Ayurveda cooking and the importance that salt brings to balancing a dish. “Every sauce I create includes the right amount of salt. Often, people just shake the salt shaker into the sauce without having an accurate measurement. A simple yet perfect way to find the balance is to have a small bowl with crushed rock salt in it and add a teaspoon at a time to your sauce and keep tasting as you go. When the right amount of salt is added to a dish, it brings the bouquet of ingredients to life.”

bowls / wraps / burritos / smoothies / fresh juice / co ee / tea our menu is 100% vegan and mindfully sourced with the utmost care

conveniently located in the village of Arroyo Seco we’re open 9am-3pm everyday except wednesday online ordering is available at shrublifefoods.com