Last Saturday we took a trip to Santa Fe for a little time off. The main reason was to visit Steve's mother's grave at the Veterans Cemetery.
That's not to say we can't have a food adventure at the same time. There are a couple of places we've been wanting to try--Santacafe and Cafe Pasqual's. We had arrived a little on the early side, leaving right after breakfast. Our only guests had a mid-morning flight to catch, so we were able to take off as soon as they had left and we had everything cleaned up.
We didn't have much breakfast ourselves and were hoping to catch one of these places open for brunch, since we're always trying breakfast at other places. It turns out that Santacafe is only open for lunch and dinner, so we were too early for them. They also kind of a posh place with starched white tablecloths and all that. So we went on to find Cafe Pasqual's at the corner of Don Gaspar Avenue and Water Street in Santa Fe.
Definitely our kind of place! We got lucky and hit the timing just right. They had a table for two open even though the place was packed. It was Saturday morning after a holiday, after all. And they serve breakfast all day!
Steve had the smoked trout hash on a bed of homemade hash browns with poached eggs, Gruyere cheese and house-made tomatillo sauce. I tried the breakfast quesadilla with scrambled eggs, house-made chorizo, Jack cheese and salsa fresca. Both of them were absolutely wonderful (and we bought their cookbook). It was so great to find a place where the food is different from everywhere else and, when you take that first bite, it seems like you've died and gone to heaven.
The place itself is like the restaurants we have always liked--tables crowded together so it's challenging to move between them, cheerful staff who fill up your water or coffee every time they walk by, and a kitchen that rings with the clatter of plates and sends out wonderful aromas. It is lavishly decorated with Mexican flags, pottery and huge impressionist-style murals on the wall. We can hardly wait to go back and try other dishes.
